STEAM DOWN UNDER
Nick Hodges reports on the six-day ‘Southern Steam Spectacular’ tour that ran in the Australian state of Victoria in May.
WEDNESDAY, May 19, 2021. It was chilly at 06.00 on platform three of Melbourne’s Southern Cross station, but something big and noisy was approaching through the darkness.
An R Class 4-8-4 was arriving and, wreathed in steam, it stopped next to me, uncoupled from the train, and ran round to join forces with a second R Class – ready to set off at the start of the six-day ‘Australian Southern Steam Spectacular’ around the state of Victoria.
The trip was the brainchild of Richard Boyce in cooperation with touring company Cruise Express and preservation group Steamrail Victoria, and had been two years in the planning.
Coal-fired No. R761 was painted in black and red, reminiscent of German steam loco livery, while oil-fired No. R711 was in blue with yellow lining. Magnificent they looked too, as I watched them from my carriage, roaring around a right-hand bend.
Historic coaches
The train was made up of 11 historic coaches dating from 1908 to the 1950s. The one I was booked in dated from 60 years ago, but was in top condition and I was able to enjoy the well-heated and roomy compartment with my wife and two other travellers. One of the cars, a buffet named Moorabool, entered service in 1939 and was proving popular: here one could sit and drink endless free cups of tea and coffee while meeting passengers who had journeyed from all over Australia for this extra special train.
Eight locos were scheduled to take part in the tour. The double-headed Nos. R761+ R711 were built in the 1950s by the North British Locomotive Company in Scotland.
But these were not standard gauge locos: Victorian Railways (VR) was built to the
Irish broad gauge of 5ft 3in. Some of the VR system has today been changed to standard gauge – indeed, the regular XPT (based on the similar HST) now works from Sydney in New South Wales (always standard gauge) through to Melbourne – but ‘wide’ gauge is still very common, and our journey was to be completely on the 5ft 3in.
Travelling westwards we passed oddly shaped hills – the You Yangs – before reaching Geelong, a coastal resort and one of Victoria’s pleasant towns. We began to climb and smoke began to penetrate the wide open windows (“don’t wear white” had been the instructions issued to all passengers).
On arrival at Ballarat, Victoria’s second largest city, we came to a halt where my compartment window was happily positioned opposite two more steam locos coupled together: these were K Class 2-8-0s
Nos. K190 and K153 that were to take over. Four engines before lunch!
Steamrail Victoria is the premier rail preservation movement in Victoria and had seven steam locos available for traffic, all to be used during our trip. The K Class 2-8-0s were introduced in 1922, and 53 were built over the following 27 years. Designed primarily for freight work, they were also found on passenger trains and over 20 have been preserved.
Freight lines
We travelled on through farming land to Maryborough, which has a beautiful and historic station. Here the two locos took water, which allowed time to admire the hipped roof, platform canopy and ornate clock tower that form part of the station. Maryborough was once an important junction, but road traffic has taken its toll. However, the station with all its grandeur survives to indicate its one-time importance.
Our train then continued over freight-only lines. At one point we passed through the small town of Inglewood, where the school children had been gathered at the closed station to enjoy our progress. Steam, and indeed passenger trains generally, had not been seen here for many years.
We then passed through The Mallee country, where for mile after mile there was nothing but low, stunted eucalypt trees. This was true loneliness.
During the late afternoon we arrived at Wycheproof, where No. K190 was removed
“Don’t wear white” had been the instructions issued to all passengers!
from the train leaving just No. K153 to continue to the day’s destination of Sea
Lake. I had enjoyed the journey immensely; especially exciting was the view from the
‘cage car’, which was originally a guard’s van with wide sliding doors that remained open throughout the six days. A strong wire grid had been fixed from ceiling to floor, and from here I could look out in complete safety at the setting sun (sunsets in Australia are astonishing) while listening to the locos snuffling along up front.
At Sea Lake, almost the end of the line and not far from the New South Wales border, we were met by road coaches to whisk us to the nearby town of Swan Hill and our accommodation for the night.
Street running
The following morning the coaches returned us to Wycheproof. No. K153 had worked the train back tender first from Sea Lake during the night, but now needed to use the turntable that had remained in position since steam days and had recently been overhauled and brought back into service by Steamrail volunteers. No. K190 was also turned. Here on a plinth was No. K167, so there were actually three members of the class in town. When did that last happen?
Wycheproof is an interesting little place, mainly because the railway runs right down the main street – the Calder Highway – on its way to the end of the line just beyond
Sea Lake in the north-west of the state. The journey through town was demonstrated with a loco at each end of the train. On its return, it stopped in the middle of the street, outside the baker’s, where we all boarded before leaving for the return journey to Melbourne. We were not following a roughly circular route; it was really two out-and-back tours with a separate day in the middle.
We paused again at Maryborough, and this time I was able to watch a third loco added to the double-headed Ks. This was No. Y112, a bright green painted 0-6-0 built at Ballarat in 1889. Another 30 class members were built by Kitson and Company in Leeds.
When our triple-headed train arrived back in Ballarat, No. Y112 was home – it had spent many years as a static exhibit here before being restored to use. The commuters of Ballarat must have been astonished when they reached the station that evening: the two R Class engines were waiting to take over our train: when we steamed in, just before dark, two locos became five: what a sight! Nos. R711 and R761 took over and hurried us back to Melbourne; the arrival was late but our hotel was one minute away.
Surprise coaches
Day three was billed as a ‘Metro Mystery Tour’. After a lie-in and a leisurely breakfast, we returned to Southern Cross station knowing that the tour train was to be given a rest for cleaning. But what would replace it?
We soon found out, for 1903- built D3 4-6-0 No. 639 brought in a train of superbly restored wooden-bodied EMU vehicles known as ‘The Taits’, or ‘Red Rattlers’. This was a complete surprise, as I was not aware of its existence. Restoration had been only recently completed; the five red and white
ex-commuter coaches had not seen use for 15 years. On the other end of the train was A2 Class No. 986, a 4-6-0 from the early twentieth century and, like the D3, built in the VR workshops.
Thus ‘top and tailed’ we steamed through the inner suburbs and back again before heading a few miles south-west to Newport, where we were able to look around Steamrail’s Heritage Railway Workshops as well as enjoying lunch provided as part of the tour cost.
In the workshops were four locos being worked on: three K Class and a J Class
2-8-0; the latter built at Vulcan Foundry and introduced in 1954. The J was a high-boilered loco with German style smoke deflectors – a member of a class that would be hauling our train the following day. The two R Class were also on shed as well as our train and its engines – there was therefore much to see and photograph before we returned, ‘top and tailed’ once again, to Melbourne Southern Cross for a free afternoon.
Day four saw the Southern Steam Spectacular heading out double-headed behind Nos. R761 and 986 to Castlemaine, about 70km (43 miles) north of Melbourne. Here we joined a steam-hauled train for a journey along the Victorian Goldfields Railway, a preserved branch off the Melbourne to Bendigo main line.
A failure!
Unfortunately, oil-fired J Class No. J549 ran into trouble on the bank just out of Castlemaine and had to stop for a blow-up. At Muckleford, halfway along the 11-mile line, the loco was declared a failure. No matter; this was Australia where the sun shone and most of the passengers lazed for 40 minutes on a grassy bank until our replacement diesel arrived. We had lost only five steam miles.
After a couple of hours in the historic, mainly Edwardian, town of Maldon at the end of the preserved line, we headed off by road coach as planned to the large town of Bendigo where, after a night’s sleep, we continued our journey north on day five to the Murray River at Echuca behind a solo A2 No. 986. Along the way we passed through small settlements with very English names: Epsom, Bagshot and Rochester. Scotland was represented by Strathallan.
The afternoon was spent lunching while cruising the river. Appropriately enough, the ancient paddle boat was steam powered. As I watched the firebox being stoked with large logs it occurred to me that we had now sampled steam traction fired by coal, oil and wood.
The final day saw the A2 hauling the train from Echuca back to Melbourne. Passing through Bendigo, we paused to take on
No. R761 for even more double-heading.
Arrival at our destination was at 15.30 where I watched No. R761 run around in order to haul the empty train tender first to Newport depot. I was thoroughly satisfied. Eight locos, over 1400km (879 miles), double-heading, triple-heading, ‘top and tailing’; excellent weather, a comfortable train: what more would a steam enthusiast require? Except, maybe, the chance to do it all again next year. ■