Behind the Bellarine Railway

12/06/2026

June railway update

With the Blues train season now over we have entered our regular winter maintenance period.

Tasmanian Parsons and Gilmour car ABL14 continues to recieve work as part of its lift exam. The bogies have been inspected, cleaned and repaired as required with brake rigging and swing links refurbished. The second bogie is being sandblasted by Elstone Diving Services Pty LTD who have very kindly offered to do this task for us, speeding the process up significantly. Thanks guys! ABL14 has also had its end compartments refurbished which looks incredible

Tasmanian clyde car AAL1 has now been withdrawn for a lift exam. (not pictured) we'll be documenting this cars progress over the next few months.

3620 has returned to traffic for the The Q Train steam season after a huge amount of work and it was fantastic to see it running again last weekend.

Klondyke has been inspected and is now being repaired and reassembled as required for a return to traffic. We'll cover that in greater depth next post.

In preparation for our Seaside Explorer service for Nightide festival on the winter solstice Drysdale platform has been tamped allowing us to add BUV1299 for a bit of extra capacity. This train has now almost sold out so if you're interested book soon!

21/04/2026

April Fleet Update - Steam and Diesel

STEAM
POZIERES returned to service over the Easter weekend, and has run continuously without fault. It was let loose over the weekend to haul the Swan Bay Express, Seaside Explorer, and even The Q Train.

KLONDYKE operated the Swan Bay Express over the holidays, and also appeared at the April Day Out With Thomas event. It has since been stripped for its annual boiler inspection.

T251 remains out of service awaiting the replacement of stays. With Pozieres and Klondyke both now available to support our heritage experiences, work will be focused on T251.

ASG G33 has received its brand new cab floor and drivers seats, continuing the steady reinstallation of the driving components. Connecting rods are also being installed. There will be another Workshop Open weekend on 23-24 May 2026 to show this progress.

DIESEL
1604 remains in service.

X20 has returned to service with X3's traction motor blower installed. We have also swapped out the long-end marker/tail light panel with a Yellow and Black spare from a scrapped X class. The original one from X20 was quite badly rusted and will be used as a template to make a new panel.

X3 is still out of service. Work to disassemble the engine has begun.

VA1 has received a significant amount of attention to the cab interior, with the entire space now ready for paint, after some minor rust repairs to the window sills.

If you'd like to get involved with keeping these heritage rail vehicles operational, get in touch at:
www.bellarinerailway.com.au/volunteer

22/03/2026

Big things happening over the School Holidays👇

We are gearing up for a massive month on The Bellarine!
Here’s What’s Happening 👇

1️⃣ Our ever-popular Seaside Explorer returns for another run on April 19th, for a full day rail experience from Drysdale.

2️⃣ The Swan Bay Express will continues to run out of Queenscliff, providing a short train ride for families.

3️⃣ Family events are also on the calendar, with special experiences over the Easter Long Weekend, and Day Out With Thomas the following week.

4️⃣ Excitingly, our big green steam loco “Pozieres” should return to the tracks - we’ll let you know when!

Rail heritage is alive at The Bellarine Railway these School Holidays!

🎟️ Find out more here 👇
www.bellarinerailway.com.au

12/03/2026

Klondyke to Newport - How we made it happen

What started as a "what if" many years ago, has become reality in 2026, with The Bellarine Railway transporting an operational steam locomotive to the Newport Workshops Open Weekend, held by our friends at Steamrail Victoria.

After committing to delivering this as an attraction of The Steamrail Event, and as a marketing exercise for The Bellarine Railway, it was time to actually make this wild idea happen - heres how we did it:

In late February, Bellarine Railway volunteers attended Newport Workshops to construct a length of 3ft 6in narrow gauge track for Klondyke to operate on. This involved installation of a third rail to create a dual gauge section of track, as Steamrails mainline fleet of locomotives operates on 5ft 3in broad gauge track.

After this was complete, work began at Lakers Siding with the reinstallation of the loading road extending from 2 road at the maintenance shed (the escape ramp!). This is something we have built numerous times before, to accomodate the arrival of various locomotives and rolling stock over the years.

Early on Tuesday morning Klondyke was loaded onto a truck and transported by road to Newport. A massive thank you must go to Eddie White, for offering his truck to transport our locomotive. The professionalism of his operation, and The Bellarine Railway team saw the locomotive leave the driveway about an hour after the truck arrived!

Throughout the weekend, Klondyke's fire was lit utilising compressed air supplied by the nearest R class locomotive.

This adventure was an historic moment for rail heritage in Australia, while also being an extremely rewarding exercise for us to achieve. We have enjoyed working alongside Steamrail Victoria over the years to push the Tourist and Heritage Railway sector forward as a team.

What will the 2028 Newport Workshops Open Day bring?

11/03/2026

March Fleet Update - Steam and Diesel

STEAM
T251 is out of service having some work done to a few flexible stays around the firebox. One of the challenges with operating narrow gauge locomotives is the compact nature of their design - the stay we need to access is located behind the structure of the cab. Therefore we have had to remove the firemans side of the cab. Though this looks like a major rebuild - it really isn't, so don't panic. This is just the nature of working with narrow gauge locomotives.

POZIERES has returned to steam, passing its operational boiler inspection last Friday. We have since operated this loco around the railway, most notably on a ballast train. There are a few jobs to complete, mostly focused on items below the frame (wheels, running gear etc). We intend to run Pozieres on the Swan Bay Express at some stage this month, and have prioritised its completion over the work on T251.

KLONDYKE has been with our friends at Steamrail Victoria for the 2026 Newport Workshops Open Days.

ASG G33 is continuing at a good pace, with work focused on reassembling the operational components of the locomotive, including the smokebox and steam pipes, in preparation for operational tests now that the boiler has passed its hydrostatic test.

DIESEL
1604 is operational, and supports our heritage rail experiences if steam locomotives are not available.

X3 is out of service. It has (what we believe to be) a hole in one of the cylinder liners, which has put the coolant into the sump - not good. Repairing this is something within our capabilities, as we did the same job to X20 a few years ago. We have began disassembling the engine to do the job.

X20 is spending some time restricted to the workshop, as the electric motor for the traction motor blower has failed. This is also something we have experienced and repaired before, though we will be borrowing the blower assembly from X3 to keep X20 running with minimal downtime.

VA1 has proven itself to be an operational locomotive again. We are now working through the completion of its repaint ahead of a return to service.

If you'd like to get involved with keeping these heritage rail vehicles operational, get in touch at:
www.bellarinerailway.com.au/volunteer

08/03/2026

Dropping ballast with Pozieres Steam Locomotive

07/03/2026

06/03/2026

The Bellaraine Railway Crew are all set and ready to go, thanks to all the volunteers on the stand - have a gr8 weekend hope to see you at Steamrails Open Day - Newport Workshops