Premiums surged 50 per cent in February 2022, despite no record of serious injuries or damage at the attraction in its nearly-four decades of operation.

Ticket prices were bumped from $2 to $3 to cover the shortfall, however organisers say any further hikes may prove prohibitive.

"Unfortunately, with society the way it is ... they've been hammered with claims - It's seen as a good way to make a few dollars," club member Shane Austin said.

"Now the insurance companies don't necessarily want to cover us - it really knocked us around."

While events in Orange have always been run safely and without complaint, Mr Austin explained the club pools its insurance with 96 others across Australia.

This means liability claims in different cities and states can - and recently have - significantly increased costs: "It's not so much us, as some of the bigger ones."

Built by the Orange Society of Model Engineers (OSME) in 1984, the railway now includes a miniature station, ticket booth, signal box, track switches, control lights, and two bridges.

Ride-on events for kids have been run by the group on the second Saturday of every month since at least 1989, usually attracting crowds of between 600 and 1000 over several hours.

Volunteers sell tickets, man the gate, control routes, and drive up to 20 children around the 691 metre loop on replica locomotives powered by petrol, electricity, or genuine steam boilers.

"It was great ... fun," Riley, age four, said after disembarking the platform last Saturday. "[I saw] water and bridges."

If these family-friendly events become uninsurable, it's not clear if the track would be torn up or left accessible for private closed-club use.

More information about future plans for the park are unlikely to be confirmed before the end of this year, according to the OSME.

When the Orange community was canvased by this masthead, support for the scale railway in Matthews Park was ubiquitous.

Tony Simmonds, who took his now-grown up children to the track when they were young, said: "It's part of the park and part of the community - I'd hate to see it go."

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