2019/11 Australia trip - Puffing Billy |
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After lunch the weather dried up; was there anywhere we wanted to visit around Melbourne? I chose Puffing Billy, the tourist train that operates in the Dandenongs; I’d seen the trains while driving but never up close. Despite its frivolous name it was once part of a railway system connecting Melbourne to outlying communities. Today it is a thriving narrow-gauge heritage railway with numerous steam and diesel locomotives and rolling stock.
It was too late in the day to ride in the trains, but we drove to Belgrave, which has stations for both Melbourne’s Metro Trains’ broad gauge electric trains and Puffing Billy. 
Access to the platforms was free so we watched a couple of trains returning from excursions with copious emissions of smoke and steam. Luckily the rain held off until we were walking back to the car.
This skink was comfortably perched in a railway wall.
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Skinks (0.30) |
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Puffing Billy (4.31) |
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John and Edna said their garden had suffered while they were away in Queensland for the winter, but it still looked pretty good to us.
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