Re: West Side Ex-Swayne Steel Moving Car #4

Hi John,

pity you were not able to visit The Bellarine Railway at Queenscliff - we have the largest collection of 3'6"gauge steam and diesel locomotives and rolling stock in Australia, collected from all of our State systems.

Heritage railways in our state are not running at present - although the future looks a bit better with no new COVID cases across the entire country for the last couple of days (and most cases outside of Victoria have generally been returned travelers in quarantine).

Glad to hear the plow is under restoration - I saw it back in 2018 when my daughter and I visited Yosemite Mountain & Sugar Pine RR and did a run on the #10. Spent a day in the yard there looking at the ex West Side stock and other machinery.

I had earlier filled a long term desire at Roaring Camp and Big Tree - driving the Dixiana a couple of times as "engineer for a day" - whilst I have regularly fired and driven a number of different types of rod engines since the early 1980s I've never had a go at a geared engine (Climax 1694 at Puffing Billy is on the 2'6" and is only driven by their crews). Spent three days in total at Roaring Camp - the crews were most hospitable and I did a run with the crew on the third day into Santa Cruz.

If you do come back to Australia and to my state please let me know you are coming!

Regards,

David Price
Former President & Chairman - The Bellarine Railway (11 mile 3'6" gauge line)
bellarinerailway.com.au/our-trains/

+61 3 9568 2859
+61 417 223 130

The Bellarine Railway (ABN 72 004 819 130) is operated by the Geelong Steam Preservation Society (ACN 004 819 130)