This afternoon I heard steam train whistles, and after some digging, discovered it was R-class R707 headed down to Frankston, and that it would be coming back a little later.
Happy to take a break from the sorting out of paperwork that I’d been doing, I took a punt at the time it would pass back through Bentleigh, and headed down to find a vantage point, settling on a spot near Patterson station.
The train seemed to be coasting through here; it’s probably downhill from the Patterson Road bridge to the Brewer Road underpass.
You’ll note the people on the bridge; they were some of the (other?) trainspotters in attendance nearby.
Steam trains regularly run around Melbourne and Victoria, generally organised by Steamrail and 707 Operations.
7 replies on “A steam train passes”
No turntable out on the Frankston line? ;)
Nor at Craigieburn.
Ran tender-first Newport to Southern Cross, then funnel first to Craigieburn, tender first to Newport via Sunshine and Brooklyn, funnel first to Frankston, tender-first back to Newport.
Incidentally, 95 km/h running with your head out an open window is a GREAT experience.
I think today was the first time in 22 years that an R class has run past Caulfield towards Frankston, and probably also the first time in 22 years that a steam anything has run south of Mordialloc, excepting the 1996-ish Naval Base (Crib Point) to Moorooduc transfers when the MPRS moved.
Argh. The whistle sounds particularly like some jazz I’ve been listening to recently. I THINK it’s Big Bad Voodoo Daddy, but I can’t remember which piece or even which album! This is SO frustrating!
A friend who lives next to line between Caulfield and Glenhuntly heard it go down and was listening for it going up. He took a couple of photos. After it crossed the Glenhuntly Road tram crossing, the driver gunned it, and it was belching steam, smoke and soot as went past, with their place getting a liberal layer of soot. I said to the friend, imagine if all trains that passed by were steam and all that soot.
I recognised you (from pictures) walking past Daniel, if it wasn’t for that tree you could’ve seen me in the video standing on the embankment next to the bridge taking a photo.
It’s not a bad vantage point, just a pity about that illegally parked Hyundai that was kinda in the way of my shot.
@Andrew, is that the flats between Glenhuntly and Neerim Roads? Tram and Train-spotters paradise, I would think!
@Somebody, haha, that was you on the embankment? You should have said hi! Actually I stood in the cover of the tree because I didn’t want to get in your (or anybody else’s) shot!
No, between Neerim Road and Caulfield. There is a siding behind their place.