This has taken ages to write. What an experience! Just the program ran to eight pages. What to include? What to leave out? I had just got a new phone, but my son had a separate camera. Most of these pictures are his.
Steamrail Victoria is ‘a volunteer organization dedicated to the restoration and operation of vintage steam, diesel and electric locomotives and carriages’ (their website). They also run tours around the state every few weeks, and hold an annual open day in the Victorian Railways Newport workshops, which date back to 1884. Regular maintenance was transferred from here about a hundred years later. Various historic railway organizations now share the facilities. My son Ben, who works in loco maintenance, is a great rail fan, so we went along to this year’s open day. I hadn’t been for about ten years, and was keen to attend.