Excellent planning by Nurton ensured that there could be a sizeable railway content to a Melbourne trip by taking up Tony Howker’s long standing invitation to visit, so what was initially planned as a midweek wedding visit became a week long holiday, starting with a visit to Tony’s house in Rowville, in the SE suburbs.

 

An 04 45 rise on Saturday was rewarded by Nurton driving us across Sydney in his new Mini, and then Tony picking us up from the airport in Melbourne and driving us home for breakfast, prepared by Pauline. What friendship!

 

 

 

Well, we “lucked out” since not only was it a steam day, but the 10 30 was loaded to its maximum 16 cars, hauled by their 1926 built, 2004 restored, Garrett 2-6-0 + 0-6-2.

 

Tony did me proud, because he had hinted at the possibility of a cab ride in advance. I therefore came prepared in hat, dark long sleeved shirt and trousers, and safety footwear. He took us up the front for a chat with the driver, and I persuaded Alan, a paid driver, to give me a cab ride.

 

Everyone on the footplate turned out to be a David Wardale fan (the fireman, Graham, had apparently worked in SA and met Wardale), so it was a fascinating run, with the driver running the whole time in full regulator, using the reverser to control speed. This included leaving the regulator wide open, but running in midgear, round a landslip speed restriction.

 

This was my first trip on a Garrett (over 7 1/4” gauge) and so I was fascinated to note the smoother ride, and the view of the various bits of the engine snaking around curves. Most interesting was the steam chest pressure gauge, which had one dial with two needles, like a Westinghouse brake gauge, showing the front and rear engines. The needles moved completely separately as the driver opened up, with the front engine taking a full minute longer to reach the pressure of the rear one, presumably because the steam pipe run to the front engine is longer. For the same reason, the driver kept the drain cocks open for a long time, citing the long steam pipe as a possible condensate hazard.

 

The timetable was interesting. The railway operates every day, and so has built up a sizeable coach tour traffic, apparently doing well from cruise ships visiting Mebourne. The 10 00 Lakeside service had departed double headed, and when we got to Menzies Creek (30 mins), one of the 2-6-2 tank engines was waiting there. Seven coach loads of passengers got off, and our train was split in half. The Garrett ran round to take eight cars back to Belgrave, and we got the waiting tank engine for the trip to Lakeside (another 30 mins). There, we changed trains, getting our third loco of the day, a green tank engine with Lempor exhaust, for the remaining half of the line (another 45 mins) to Gembrook, opened in 1998. On this train there were only 31 passengers, proving that when enthusiasts extend a railway beyond an established family attraction, or about a 1 hour trip, it can become a very expensive hobby!

 

There we all had lunch in the pub across the road from the station before climbing back onto the train for the 14 40 back to Belgrave, arriving 16 28.

 

Because of the fire risk, every train is followed by a fire truck running five minutes behind it, ranging from 4WD utes with hydraulic rail wheels to an ancient fordson tractor conversion. On our return journey, the husband and wife crew of the truck confirmed that they had indeed tackled a small blaze, making us again aware of how lucky we were to have had steam on such a hot dry day. The fire trucks have to carry the single line token, which makes a complete mess of the timetable when there are crossing moves and shunting to consider!

 

On Sunday Tony took us to the Campbelltown Passenger Railway, which is only about 25 mins drive from his house, where his Black Five from the GCR is housed.

 

The owner and operator of this line is called Colin, and he bought 22 acres of land specifically to open a 7 1/4” gauge miniature railway, in the 1980’s. Supported by his wife, he has landscaped the field, planted 6,000 trees, built an extensive layout with over a mile of track, and lives in a house on site. The railway is open for the public to ride on, and have picnics next too, every Sunday of the year.

 

He has three lovely steam locos, all built with commercial operation in mind, two diesels, and enough carriages for four trains. He said he carries up to 600 people on a good day.

 

Sunday 18th Feb was not one of them for him, as it reached 39 deg C, and this put off anyone from spending the day outdoors, except us and four Indian families! A fire ban was declared, so we knew there would be no steam. Amy and Pauline wisely stayed indoors.

 

Nonetheless, Colin and his friend Max sat under the platform canopy with Tony, Noel ,and me, and yarned about railways until 15 00, when we shut up shop.

 

He said that this was the hottest and driest weather he had experienced, and that it was the length of the dry spell (rather than the extreme temperature) that he blamed for the expanded track we saw in three places. He said that he had never had a problem with expansion before, because he left a good expansion gap, laid staggered rails on curves, and had a top dressing of fine dust, watered solid, on top of the track. He said that the drought had taken its toll on the latter measure, which for the first time ever was cracking up and turning to dust, thus allowing the track to move. The ride was very good, especially considering he has maintained it all himself. There was an artificial lake, some animals (real and imaginary!) and decorative signals to admire as the trained looped through the trees in a very GCR fashion. As Tony said, some more trains and an operating signalling system would make the railway first class!

 

Colin was a real gentleman, and his wife made us very welcome, so a fun day was had despite the sweltering heat and lack of passengers. Unfortunately I did not take any photos of the railway.

 

Noel departed Sunday evening, having been stuffed with food by Pauline “so that his mother would know he was eating all right”, and after an evening of Tony and I looking at old GCR photos, they brought us into Melbourne CBD on Monday morning.

 

Thanks to Tony and Pauline!