RICHMOND Vale Rail Museum has re-opened for the first time in the smoking aftermath of bushfires that caused more than $1 million in damage in September.  Generators fed power to some areas yet to reconnect to the grid and the full-size trains remained silent, but museum chairman Peter Meddows said volunteers had immediately locked in the annual Santa Special Day as their return date in the wake of the severe damage.  “We were determined just to do it,” he said.  He said the hundreds visiting on Sunday meant more than they knew to the people devoted to the site.  “It gives the board and the membership heart to keep going,” Mr Meddows said. “We are determined, we are not going to let it fold ever.” RELATED: ‘It’s all bloody ash’: Fire’s toll hard to bear Mr Meddows said work would continue to add sleepers donated by the Australian Rail Track Corporation over the next few months, with the Mulbring track potentially open by early January.  The Pelaw Main trains would take longer, with another three months of work required.  The Leggetts Drive museum bore the brunt of fires that swept through the Coalfields in early spring, scorching 800 hectares in tinderbox conditions.  An online fundraising appeal for the rebuilding has raised $5726. 
