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The Puffing Billy Railway is a narrow gauge 2 ft 6 in (762 mm) gauge heritage railway in the Dandenong Ranges near Melbourne, Australia. Narrow-gauge railways are railroads (railways) with track spaced at less than the standard gauge of 4 ft 8 in (1. ...
A scene on a heritage railway. ...
The Dandenong Ranges are a set of mountain ranges, east of Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. ...
Melbournes Yarra River is a popular area for walking, jogging, cycling, rowing and for relaxing on the banks with a picnic Melbourne (pronounced ) is the second most populous city in Australia, with a metropolitan area population of approximately 3. ...
Emblems: Pink heath (floral)Weedy Seadragon (Aquatic) helmeted honeyeater (bird) Leadbeaters possum (faunal) Motto: Peace and Prosperity Slogan or Nickname: Garden State, The Place To Be, On The Move Other Australian states and territories Capital Melbourne Government Const. ...
Tourists at Oahu island, Hawaii Tourism is the act of travel for predominantly recreational or leisure purposes, and also refers to the provision of services in support of this act. ...
The Bellarine Peninsula Railway is a volunteer-operated steam-driven tourist railway located in Victoria, Australia. ...
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The Mornington Railway is a tourist railway near Mornington, a town on the Mornington Peninsula, near Melbourne, Victoria. ...
The South Gippsland Railway is a tourist railway located in south Gippsland, Victoria, Australia. ...
The Victorian Goldfields Railway is a broad gauge tourist railway in Victoria, Australia. ...
Narrow gauge (2ft 6in) tourist railway located in the Thomson River and Stringers Creek valleys in Gippsland, Victoria, Australia, near the former gold-mining town and popular tourist destination of Walhalla. ...
The Yarra Valley Tourist Railway is a tourist railway operating on a section of the former railway between Lilydale and Healesville in the Yarra Valley area northeast of Melbourne, Australia. ...
A ferry operating on the Yarra River // Public transport Melbourne is served with a robust public transportation network. ...
Metlink is the marketing name of the public transport network of Melbourne, Australia. ...
Metcard is the ticket used to access public transport in Melbourne, Australia (under the moniker Metlink). It is a universal ticket which allows commuters to ride on the citys trains, trams, and buses. ...
myki Logo and Plain Card mykiâ„¢ (pronounced my key) is the brand name of the smartcard ticketing system to be introduced in 2007 on public transport in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. ...
Melbourne, capital city of the State of Victoria, Australia, has a long history of railway development. ...
The city of Melbourne, the second-largest city in Australia, is home to the third largest tram network in the world, consisting of 245 kilometres of track, 500 trams, and 1770 tram stops. ...
Melbourne, capital city of the State of Victoria, Australia, features an extensive bus network. ...
This is a list of the 200 currently operating suburban railway stations (216 including greater metropolitan stations) in Melbourne, Australia. ...
This is a list of tram routes operated by Yarra Trams in the city of Melbourne, Australia. ...
This is a list of the numerous bus routes in Melbourne, Australia. ...
V/Line is the name of the regional train and coach service in Victoria, Australia. ...
Connex Melbourne is wholly owned by French company, Veolia Environnement. ...
Yarra Trams is a tram operating company in Melbourne, Australia. ...
General
The railway was originally one of four experimental narrow gauge lines of the Victorian Railways opened around the beginning of the 20th century. It runs through the southern foothills of the Dandenong Ranges to Gembrook. Being close to the city of Melbourne and with a post-preservation history spanning over 50 years, the line is one of the best known preserved railways in the world, and attracts tourists from all over Australia and overseas. The former Victorian Railways, the state railway authority in Victoria, Australia built a number of experimental narrow-gauge railway lines around the beginning of the 20th century. ...
(19th century - 20th century - 21st century - more centuries) Decades: 1900s 1910s 1920s 1930s 1940s 1950s 1960s 1970s 1980s 1990s As a means of recording the passage of time, the 20th century was that century which lasted from 1901–2000 in the sense of the Gregorian calendar (1900–1999...
Melbournes Yarra River is a popular area for walking, jogging, cycling, rowing and for relaxing on the banks with a picnic Melbourne (pronounced ) is the second most populous city in Australia, with a metropolitan area population of approximately 3. ...
The Puffing Billy Railway is kept in operation through the efforts of volunteers of the Puffing Billy Preservation Society, although intensive year-round operations necessitate a small band of paid employees to keep things going behind the scenes.
The railway aims to preserve the line as far as possible as it was in the first three decades of its existence, but with particular emphasis on the early 1920s. The 1920s was a decade sometimes referred to as the Jazz Age or the Roaring Twenties, usually applied to America. ...
Operation Operations are centred on Belgrave, which houses some of the offices of the railway (other offices are located at Emerald) and the locomotive sheds and locomotive workshops. It is also the base for track maintenance operations. Belgrave (Puffing Billy) railway station is situated in Belgrave, a suburb of Melbourne in the Australian state of Victoria. ...
Emerald (Postcode: 3782) is an outer-eastern-suburb of Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. ...
Most trains start from Belgrave and travel to Lakeside or to the terminus at Gembrook, and return. The railway operates every day of the year except Christmas Day, with at least two and up to six advertised services departing Belgrave each day. One service each day has the option of first-class carriages and lunch. Lakeside Station is situated on the Puffing Billy Railway. ...
This is a stub related to the city of Melbourne. ...
The references in this article would be clearer with a different and/or consistent style of citation, footnoting or external linking. ...
A semi-regular service is the Dinner Train, which usually departs Belgrave on a Friday or Saturday evening and travels to Nobelius Siding, where the passengers disembark and have a sit-down dinner in the converted packing shed of the former Nobelius Nursery. After the meal, the passengers rejoin the train for the return journey to Belgrave. Savouries and drinks are served on the train. An amount of formality may be present at a dinner Dinner is the main meal of a day, normally cooked food consisting of animal proteins and starch products like rice, noodles, or potatoes. ...
A popular feature of a ride on Puffing Billy is sitting on the ledge of the open-sided carriages (see picture).
Locomotives and rolling stock See also: Victorian Railways The former Victorian Railways, the state railway authority in Victoria, Australia built a number of experimental narrow-gauge railway lines around the beginning of the 20th century. ...
Locomotives The railway owns every remaining narrow-gauge locomotive of the former Victorian Railways, and has restored to operating condition all except one, although not all are in serviceable condition at any one time. This fleet comprises five restored and one unrestored NA class locomotives and one G class Garratt locomotive and are restored, or being restored, to represent different eras in their development. Image File history File links Download high resolution version (2160x1440, 1356 KB) Please see the file description page for further information. ...
Image File history File links Download high resolution version (2160x1440, 1356 KB) Please see the file description page for further information. ...
Scheme of steam locomotive. ...
The Victorian Railways operated railways in the Australian state of Victoria from 1859 to 1983. ...
The former Victorian Railways, the state railway authority in Victoria, Australia built a number of experimental narrow-gauge railway lines around the beginning of the 20th century. ...
Garratt on the Welsh Higland Railway South African Garratt Diagram of a Garratt locomotive A Garratt is a type of steam locomotive that is articulated, normally in three parts. ...
The railway also has a number of other steam locomotives from various sources, either on static display in its museum or in operating condition. These include a Peckett 0-4-0ST and Decauville 0-4-0T formerly from the West Melbourne Gasworks, and a Climax geared locomotive from the Tyers Valley Tramway. None of these locomotives are powerful or fast enough to operate on regular services, however they can occasionally be seen on special trains and at events such as Thomas the Tank Engine days. Peckett and Sons was a locomotive manufacturer at the Atlas Works in Bristol, England. ...
Name plate of the Decauville company Paul Decauville (1846-1922) was a French pioneer in light railways. ...
West Melbourne may be: West Melbourne, Florida. ...
Gasification is a process that converts carbonaceous materials, such as coal or biomass, into carbon monoxide and hydrogen. ...
Small Class B Climax locomotive owned by the Oregon Lumber Company. ...
A geared steam locomotive is a type of steam locomotive which uses reduction gearing in the drivetrain, as opposed to the common directly-driven design. ...
The Tyers Valley Tramway was a narrow gauge timber tramway built by the Forestry Commission of Victoria to exploit timber resorces on the slopes of Mt Baw Baw, Victoria. ...
Thomas the Tank Engine. ...
The railway also operates two diesel locomotives which are used on days of total fire ban, or when insufficient steam locomotives are available, including in emergencies. The diesel locomotives originally operated on railways in Tasmania and Queensland, and were regauged for use on the Puffing Billy Railway.
Carriages The mainstay of the carriage fleet are the 15 NBH open-sided carriages built specially for tourist traffic on the Gembrook line by the VR between 1918 and 1919, and further vehicles built to similar design in the preservation era. However, there are also a number of enclosed carriages, both saloon and compartment cars. In addition, four carriages were obtained from the Mount Lyell Railway in Tasmania after its closure in 1963, and regauged for Puffing Billy use. These vehicles are now used as first-class carriages and used primarily on the Luncheon train and Dinner train. Mount Lyell No. ...
Several carriages have been temporarily converted to include a guard's compartment. A number of "NQR" wagons have also been converted for passenger use. These wagons are similar to the "NBH" carriages, with one exception where there is no roof & only knee-high walls. This carriage is only ever used during the summer peak periods.
Good vehicles and brake vans Representatives of all classes of good vehicles and brake vans (including combined brake van and passenger carriage) used on the narrow gauge lines of the Victorian Railways are to be found on the Puffing Billy line, and are used for works trains, storage, and occasional heritage trains recreating the look of trains in the 1920s. The Puffing Billy Railway has at least one type of every wagon or carriage originally used on the line, be it in operational service or in storage.
Structure
Puffing Billy Preservation Society When the Puffing Billy Preservation Society was formed in 1955, the line was under the control and ownership of the Victorian Railways (VR). The Society arranged for the VR to run the train on weekends and holidays, with the Society guaranteeing the VR against losses from insufficient ticket sales. Society volunteers took the role of conductors, checking tickets on the train, and fund-raising. This arrangement continued until the Upper Ferntree Gully to Belgrave section was closed in 1958.
When the line reopened in 1962 (between Belgrave and Menzies Creek), Society volunteers took a larger role, manning stations, selling and checking tickets, and doing non-safety-critical maintenance on the train, and track maintenance under the supervision of a VR ganger. Ticket revenue went into an account on which the VR drew to pay for their staff involved in running the line.
Emerald Tourist Railway Board The Victorian Railways were not in the preservation business, and the arrangement was less than ideal, so in 1977 the Victorian Government passed the Emerald Tourist Railway Act 1977 (No. 9020) to set up the Emerald Tourist Railway Board as a statutory authority to take over ownership and operation of the railway from the VR. The Act requires that the Board have between five and ten members, four of which are to be nominated by the Puffing Billy Preservation Society. Successive governments have had sufficient confidence in the Board that they have never appointed their full entitlement, effectively leaving control of the Board in the hands of Society nominees. The form of the Government of Victoria is prescribed in its Constitution, which dates from 1855, although it has been amended many times since then. ...
With the Board, volunteers were now able to take on more responsible roles, including filling the positions of signalmen, guards, and firemen, and later drivers, although the Board does employ staff drivers to provide the core of the driving tasks. All volunteers filling responsible positions are required to undergo training and testing in their responsibilities.
History
 Locomotive 12A on the famous Monbulk creek trestle bridge near Belgrave. Image File history File linksMetadata Download high-resolution version (1000x1500, 369 KB) Puffing Billy in action on the 27th of July, 2003. ...
Image File history File linksMetadata Download high-resolution version (1000x1500, 369 KB) Puffing Billy in action on the 27th of July, 2003. ...
Pre-preservation The line was opened in 1900 to serve the local farming and timber community. It originally ran from Upper Ferntree Gully station, the terminus of the broad gauge line from Melbourne and now part of Melbourne's suburban railway system, but it now begins at Belgrave. 1900 (MCM) was an exceptional common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar, but a leap year starting on Saturday of the Julian calendar. ...
Agriculture (a term which encompasses farming) is the process of producing food, feed, fiber and other goods by the systematic raising of plants and animals. ...
Timber in storage for later processing at a sawmill Timber is a term used to describe wood, either standing or that has been processed for use—from the time trees are felled, to its end product as a material suitable for industrial use—as structural material for construction or wood...
Upper Ferntree Gully is a railway station on the Belgrave railway line. ...
Great Western Railway broad gauge steam locomotives awaiting scrapping in 1892 after the conversion to standard gauge. ...
Melbournes Yarra River is a popular area for walking, jogging, cycling, rowing and for relaxing on the banks with a picnic Melbourne (pronounced ) is the second most populous city in Australia, with a metropolitan area population of approximately 3. ...
Melbourne, capital city of the State of Victoria, Australia, has a long history of railway development. ...
Belgrave is a suburb in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, located 35 kilometers east of Melbourne. ...
The train, known to the locals as "Puffing Billy" amongst other names, stopped running in 1953 after a landslide blocked the line between Selby and Menzies Creek, and it was formally closed in 1954. Today the former line between Upper Ferntree Gully and Belgrave is serviced by Connex suburban electric trains, while the line beyond Belgrave has been reopened by the Puffing Billy Preservation Society. This is a stub related to the city of Melbourne. ...
Menzies Creek Station was opened with the line on the 18th December, 1900. ...
Connex Melbourne is wholly owned by French company, Veolia Environnement. ...
Post-preservation Following closure, a few "farewell specials" operated on the remaining usable section to Belgrave, which proved very popular. On 1 October 1955, the Puffing Billy Preservation Society was formed to keep the train running indefinitely. This continued until 1958 when the line to Belgrave was closed for conversion to a broad-gauge, electrified suburban line. The society then started work on restoring the Belgrave to Lakeside section, and in 1962, restored train operation between Belgrave and Menzies Creek. October 1 is the 274th day of the year (275th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ...
1955 (MCMLV) was a common year starting on Saturday of the Gregorian calendar. ...
Lakeside Station is situated on the Puffing Billy Railway. ...
1962 (MCMLXII) was a common year starting on Monday (the link is to a full 1962 calendar). ...
Menzies Creek Station was opened with the line on the 18th December, 1900. ...
Subsequently operations were gradually extended over the remainder of the original line to Emerald in 1965 and Lakeside in 1975 before reaching Gembrook, which was completed in 1998, and reopened on October 19 of that year. Today the railway operates daily (except for Christmas day) as a popular tourist activity over 15 miles (24km) with original steam engines, and is operated with some of the railway practices from the Victorian Railways 1900 to 1930 era, such as using the "Staff and Ticket" safeworking method and having conductors on board the trains. Gembrook general store circa 1918 // Gembrook Gembrook is a small picturesque town located roughly 54km from Melbournes CBD. Gembrook was settled in 1873 for farming and timber, the surrounding countryside was suitable for both dairy and orchards. ...
1998 (MCMXCVIII) was a common year starting on Thursday of the Gregorian calendar, and was designated the International Year of the Ocean. ...
October 19 is the 292nd day of the year (293rd in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ...
Christmas or Christmas Day is an annual holiday that marks the traditional birthdate of Jesus of Nazareth. ...
Tourists at Oahu island, Hawaii Tourism is the act of travel for predominantly recreational or leisure purposes, and also refers to the provision of services in support of this act. ...
km redirects here. ...
A locomotive (from Latin loco motivus) is a railway vehicle that provides the motive power for a train, and has no payload capacity of its own; its sole purpose is to move the train along the tracks. ...
The Victorian Railways operated railways in the Australian state of Victoria from 1859 to 1983. ...
On railways, a token (also staff or tablet, depending on its shape) is a physical object which a locomotive driver is required to have before entering onto a particular section of single track. ...
Rail terminology is a form of technical terminology. ...
Volunteers Without the input of hundreds of volunteers who put themselves on rosters for a wide range of duties, the line would not be economical. Although there are also paid staff involved in maintaining the train and its line, performing support roles such as accounting and advertising, and providing the backbone of the driving duties, volunteers are involved in almost all aspects of running the train including manning stations, selling tickets, maintaining the track and trains, and driving and safeworking duties. Many of these roles involve being trained for positions of responsibility. It has been suggested that this article or section be merged into railway signalling. ...
List of stations Regular Puffing Billy services stop only at stations shown in bold print below. Belgrave (Puffing Billy) railway station is situated in Belgrave, a suburb of Melbourne in the Australian state of Victoria. ...
Belgrave is the terminus of the Belgrave railway line in Melbourne, Australia. ...
This is a stub related to the city of Melbourne. ...
Menzies Creek Station was opened with the line on the 18th December, 1900. ...
Clematis Station is situated on the Puffing Billy Railway. ...
Emerald Station is situated on the Puffing Billy Railway. ...
Nobelius Station is situated on the Puffing Billy Railway. ...
Lakeside Station is situated on the Puffing Billy Railway. ...
Wright Station is situated on the Puffing Billy Railway. ...
Cockatoo Station is situated on the Puffing Billy Railway. ...
Fielder Station is situated on the Puffing Billy Railway. ...
This is a stub related to the city of Melbourne. ...
External links - Official website
- A visitors impression
- Victorian Government Narrow Gauge Railways
- Emerald Tourist Railway Act 1977 (No. 9020)
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