Puffing Billy

My last adventure on my own finally come much to my chagrin. This meant that I had less than 48 hours left in the Land Down Under and even now I am still wondering where did all the days and weeks go?  The time had flown by and I had seen sooo many places and met sooo many people just in passing...brief moments in time but each one had left a little memory with me and I found myself getting verklempt over the thought of leaving Australia.  It just didn't seem right that my dream trip went by so fast but it had.

But in the meantime one last adventure...Puffing Billy!  I have to admit I took a bit of ribbing about my insistence that I wanted to ride on Puffing Billy but so be it.  It was off to catch the train up to Belgrave to ride on the world's oldest steam locomotive train up the Dandenong mountainside.

It wasn't hard to find the station once I got off the train at Belgrave...just follow the stream of people and in just a few minutes I was at the station for Puffing Billy.  There were people from all over the world and the red carriage I got on to head up the mountainside and there was a group of young exuberant fellows with me that were from Korea.  It seems they had been rewarded with a trip to Australia for their hard work at their company and were all smiles and chatter.  We talked from time to time but there was a definite language barrier but even so we tried.



Puffing Billy

 It was a pleasant ride up to Menzies Creek and then further on to Lakeside with ever changing scenery as Puffing Billy wound up the tracks through the rain forests past small towns where people waved us along, across wooden trestles and through the rain forests.  People were hanging out of their carriages or sitting on the ledges as we wound up the mountain.  There was an air of joy and happiness wherever you looked...everyone was just having a fun time.

Once we made Lakeside you were at your leisure to walk down by the lake or hang out and watch the engineers switch Puffing Billy around for the trip back down the mountain.  I chose to hang out and watch as the engineers refilled the water tank and then switch the engine to the other set of tracks...lots of photo ops for me.

It really seemed only like only minutes and it was time to head back down the mountain.  This time I got on the second to last carriage as they were going to drop the last carriage off at Menzies Creek.  As we started off I 'snuck' out onto the back platform and just spent time watching the mountains pass by.

At Menzies Creek we stopped and the conductors worked at unhooking the last carriage and didn't mind my being on the platform watching and explained the workings of the portable brakes and lights they were hooking.

Riding on the platform
with one of the
conductors.

As we left Menzies Creek for the last stretch of the trip I thought that I would have to go back inside the carriage as two conductors were riding on the platform but they gladly welcomed me to stay and I had the very best seat I think one could have standing back there with the fellows watching the scenery pass by and listening to stories of their love of the rail. 

I could have kept riding on the back platform all day long.  As a kid you were always a bit jealous seeing people standing outside the caboose as the trains would pass by and here I was all those years later getting to do just that.  It was yet another little dream come true on this amazing trip I was on.

Until next time...wherever you are...have a great day!!

If you would like to see more pictures of Puffing Billy here is a link to that photo album on Picasa:  Play slideshow