All Aboard

There were so many events taking place in our area over the June Long Weekend.  One was the Bathurst Steam Weekend.

The steam locomotive “Breyer-Garrett 6029” was in town.  We have seen this train a couple of years ago, but this time we were going to go for a ride.

This is the largest operating steam locomotive in Australia.  The engine entered service in 1954 to haul coal, travelling some 1,000,000 kilometres before being removed from service in 1972. It was restored and returned to service in 2014 by a Historical Railway Society.  In May it was purchased by the NSW Government for the State’s heritage transport collection, for use as part of Transport Heritage NSW’s regular program of events and heritage train experiences.

There were several short trips from Bathurst to Wimbledon, halfway to Blayney, and back during Saturday and Sunday. On Monday there was a trip to Orange.  We haven’t travelled to Orange on a train before, despite living here all our lives. It is just 40 minutes in the car, instead of well over an hour by train, so ordinarily why would you bother.

We very quickly purchased tickets, as soon as we saw them on sale, and were glad we did, as they sold out very fast.  Apparently, over 4000 tickets were sold for the weekend’s train rides.

We arrived down at the railway station nice and early so we could have a good look at the old girl.

Sadly, you couldn’t see the front of the engine, as it was parked beyond the start of the station platform.

Nearly all the people working on the train were volunteers.  They did a wonderful job.

Here we are, ready for our day.

The carriages were built between 1919 and 1939.  We had some nice travelling companions, which added to the fun of the day.

It took an hour and forty minutes to travel to Orange, via Blayney.

There were lots of people taking photos along the way.

We were lucky with the weather, being the warmest day we have experienced for a couple of weeks and the sun was actually shining.  What a nice change that was. Mind you, it was still chilly in Orange.

Then we had an hour to grab some lunch before boarding the train for the return journey, arriving home at about half past four.  It was a very relaxing way to spend the day.

I wonder what steam train will be the next to visit?