The Puffing Billy Railway is a 2 ft 6 in (762 mm) narrow gauge heritage railway in the Dandenong Ranges in Melbourne, Australia. The primary starting point, operations and administration centre, main refreshment room (also selling souvenirs) and ticket purchasing are located at Belgrave station. Journeys may also be commenced at out-stations of which some have limited facilities for the purchase of tickets, refreshments and souvenirs. The railway was originally one of five narrow gauge lines of the Victorian Railways opened around the beginning of the 20th century. It runs through the southern foothills of the Dandenong Ranges to Gembrook. Being close to the city of Melbourne and with a post-preservation history spanning over 50 years, the line is one of the most popular steam heritage railways in the world, and attracts tourists from all over Australia and overseas. Puffing Billy Railway was one of four low-cost 2’6″ (762mm) gauge lines constructed in Victoria in the early 1900s to open up remote areas. The present line between Belgrave and Gembrook in the Dandenong Ranges outside Melbourne is the major part of the line which opened on 18 December 1900. It was one of four opened throughout the state in the early 1900’s as a low-cost alternative to a broad-gauge (5’3”, 1600mm) gauge railway. The 18.2 mile (29km) Upper Ferntree Gully to Gembrook narrow gauge line was always a scenic attraction to the people of Melbourne, who began travelling on excursion trains for day trips and weekend holidays in the hills during the railway’s earliest years. The increased use of the railway for this purpose saw the open “NBH” class carriages built to cater for these passengers. The train was the lifeline for people living in the hills. In addition to passengers, the train carried mail, parcels, newspapers, perishables, home supplies, farm requisites, livestock, and general goods away from Melbourne. On the return journey, the train carried timber and farm produce, especially potatoes grown in the Cockatoo-Gembrook area. In 1953, a landslide blocked the track. This, combined with continued economic losses, resulted in the line being closed in 1954. The present-day success of Puffing Billy has evolved from the humble beginnings of its rescue by determined members of the Puffing Billy Preservation Society, which was formed due to the public interest. Volunteers with the blessings of the Victorian State Government and the assistance of the Citizens’ Military Forces, by-passed the landslide and reopened the line from Belgrave to Menzies Creek in 1962, Emerald in 1965, Lakeside in 1975 and finally to Gembrook in October 1998. Here are the locomotives that used to run and still do run on this route: All of the locomotives names and models can be found on this page: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Puffing_Billy_Railway Here are the carriages that are used on the route as well : There were also a decent number of freight trains operating in the 40's and 50's as the information in the link below shows : https://puffingbilly.com.au/about/history-heritage/ Here are some videos of the line in operation: Here are some other links to information that I found on the route: https://puffingbilly.com.au/about/history-heritage/
Would be nice but sadly don’t think Australia is high up on DTG’s to do list. There are also the costs involved doing research and unless a local third party associate can be found to visit the location, AFAIK know all non essential (maybe even essential) overseas travel to Australia is still banned due to Covid. And that isn’t going away any time soon.
One thing the Puffing Billy Railway has going for it is that the line is able to be completely travelled on street view. https://goo.gl/maps/x4hLjihQGkJ6SEYk7 Swiss railways have the same feature and Rivet uses route street view extensively in creating their routes for TS and TSW. Such a feature drastically reduces the demand for DTG or anyone else to extensively scout the line in person with the entire thing already captured in high res from all angles. In addition to that that they could also hire someone local for scouting and talk to Puffing Billy Railways for access to their documentation to fill in the remaining minor gaps in reference. There's even someone here who has already raised their hand, an active volunteer at the railway who knows who to talk to about licensing as well: https://forums.dovetailgames.com/th...an-help-with-video-sound-recording-etc.32943/ I've added this thread to the list of Australian proposals found here: https://forums.dovetailgames.com/threads/australian-proposal-suggestion-master-list.41526/
