Words and images by Nick.
The light morning rain didn’t deter everyone, but a few decided not to join us for the trek up into the hills. Luckily the weather didn’t totally dampen our day!
From the meetup point we headed to the Yarra Valley Chocolaterie & Ice Creamery for morning tea.
Sadly, we didn’t see Willy Wonka, but the food was delicious. And a couple of us made some purchases of confectionary for later enjoyment.
We then headed further up the winding roads to the Kerrisdale Mountain Railway and Museum. Our host, and chief engineer, Andrew was a font of knowledge on all things steam, antique and interesting.
Climbing the mountain in the little train gave us an unimpeded view of the countryside, the light mist perfectly framed the beautiful scenery.
At the summit were a collection of steam artefacts, many from Victoria’s early mining history.
After we returned to the sanctuary of the workshop, we marvelled at the array of traction and stationary steam engines of all shapes, sizes and purposes. All of which were in working order and demonstrated for us.
We were then introduced to Douglas, named for Andrew’s Father.
Andrew has envisaged, designed, and BUILT this little red locomotive right in the workshop where we were standing.
The attention to detail and craftsmanship was amazing.
By now, we were all out of steam…sorry…so we headed across to Tallarook to the pub for lunch, and then all went our way home.
We will plan another adventure here, as Douglas the home-made locomotive, is set to take to the track in the future, and that is something we all agreed we’d love to experience!
