Last Saturday morning. The excitement was getting a little too much at times. Not only for the team at Victorian Goldfields Railway (VGR) but also for locomotive J549 (J). After all, it had been almost 500 days since J was taken out of service for some much-needed love and attention. And last Saturday at 12.30pm, an excited driver Paul McDonald brought J home to Maldon, with around 90 passengers equally excited to be part of the ‘chuff-chuff, woo-wooo’ journey.
Early last Saturday morning both J and the VGR team, including family and friends and ‘friends of’ were straining at the leash to get going. Happy to pose for a photo (above), Maldon resident and VGR driver Paul McDonald is excited to be back with J again. And we suspect J feels the same. VGR Mechanical Manager Tony Llewelyn said, “She wanted to go!” There were some challenges during the load test on Friday. However, they were able to be fixed with a little more love and attention. “The day went very, very, very well. All the crews had a good time, and there were lots of positive passenger comments and smiles on faces.”
Tony said the Colonial Express train on Saturday was full, whereas the previous week, with the diesel locomotive, it was only half full. And it all happened again on Sunday with J bringing more than 150 passengers into Maldon.
See all the pictures in the issue.
This article appeared in the Tarrangower Times, 17 May 2024.
