DECADES after Molong Railway Station - which sits on the line to Broken Hill - was closed to trains, Aaron Pearson has a dream.
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And he's not the only one.
Mr Pearson, who has lived in Molong for 16 years, since he was a teenager, is fighting for the railway station at Molong to be reopened.
His new Facebook group, Molong Rail Action, already has more than 100 members.
"A large portion of our population is made up of elderly residents and young families and many of them have to travel by bus to get into [Orange] for doctors' appointments and shopping, but bus services are at the bare minimum.
"In my view a rail service is one of the most essential services."
Mr Pearson said if you miss the 7.30am school bus, the 9am service (returning at 2.30pm) from Molong to Orange, or the pre-booked coach at 10.30am "then you're stuffed. You have to get a lift".
"I catch the bus and I've seen elderly people get [up stairs] on the bus with their groceries at the end of the day, and they struggle. It's a sad sight. A train is a much more comfortable means of travel."
A petition is circulating in Molong, and Mr Pearson plans to lobby state minister for regional transport and member for Bathurst Paul Toole.
He said the reopening of Millthorpe Railway Station in 2019 as a passenger stop on the XPT Sydney to Dubbo service was an example of what could be done in Molong.
Molong Railway Station was opened in 1885 and closed in 1992.
It currently houses Molong Library.
According to the Australian Railways Historical Society (ARHS) the building has been described as "Railway Gothic" due to design elements such as the narrow windows in the general waiting room on each side of the doors, the design of the trusses at the end gables and the medium pitch of the roofs.
"Other architects call the design family Carpenter's Gothic, because of its very basic and minimal Gothic Revival features," said the ARHS.
"The only strong feature the design family has in common with the Gothic Revival style is the use of gabled roofs."
The station was built by Alex Scouller, a Sydney contractor who constructed a large number of railway station and other buildings over the railway system.
"The platform building at Molong was more significant in design and larger in size than the building at Orange," said the ARHS.
"There was one major characteristic of the building at Molong that was perceived to be inferior by the residents of that town and that was the use of timber construction rather than brickwork."
The Broken Hill Outback Explorer train operates weekly to and from Sydney and Broken Hill.
There are daily XPT train services to Dubbo with coach connections to Broken Hill.
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