Author and Photographer Jason Reed.
The discovery of steam power just 200 years ago powered the Industrial Revolution but like all one-time technological breakthroughs, the world long ago shunted most steam trains onto the sidelines of history.
Yet despite cleaner, more efficient and cheaper forms of transport having taken over, in a small corner of rural Australia the sights, sounds and smells of the Industrial Revolution are still alive.
Puffing Billy is Australia’s last full time railway employing steam engines at its main source of power.
Set in the picturesque Dandenong Ranges on the eastern outskirts of Melbourne, this narrow gauge experiment was born from dour economic times in the 1890s.
For Puffing Billy driver Steve Holmes, whose life has been immersed in its soot and steel since he was painting carriages as a nine-year-old boy, steam, as much as blood, runs through his veins.
“I grew up at the end of the steam era, I’ve been around the engines all my life,” said Holmes, who became a driver in 2005.
The short railway – just 18 miles long and built in 16 months – boasted Victoria’s tightest railway curve and the maximum allowable speed was a mere 15 mph.
These days, Puffing Biily still attracts thousands of visitors a year.
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What s great icon this is.
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My kids loved it.
Rod
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Mine too.
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people are climbing out the windows?
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Gudday Simon, You are right of course. The Guard is not doing his job here.
Cheers mate.
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