New correspondent William Bell has provided some much needed updates,
particularly concerning the State of Victoria. Click
here for the 'Steam in Australia, 2019 Onwards' page.
This short 2025/6 update was uploaded on 2nd February
2026.
Y 112 has finished its overhaul and is now operational again. K 160 is almost finished and should be running by the middle of the year.
Steamrail have K 151, K 184, & D3 677 in storage at Newport Workshops. K 184 last ran in the
1980s as part of the operational fleet but has since been stored awaiting
its turn for overhaul. The other two are stored for spare parts.
K 183 was originally plinthed in a park in a town called Yarragon, east of Melbourne.
Another K Class (162) after its retirement from Ballarat Workshops ran a number of rail enthusiast trips and excursions between 1979 and 1982 but had become worn out by 1982. Steamrail then decided to swap the loco units as K 183 was in much better shape mechanically.
To keep the locals happy, during the swap, K162 was painted and re-numbered as "K183" so the town wouldn't feel like they had lost "their" engine. So, if you visit Yarragon today, you are actually looking at K162 wearing K 183's number.
One last thing I'll add is that 3112 of the 4-6-4T NSWGR C30 Class has recently joined
the Picnic Train fleet and will return to service in the near future.
Steamrail Victoria.
This owns three R class 4-6-4 locomotives which are 700, 711 and
761,
Of these, 700 is stored awaiting future restoration while
the other two are operational. More recently the front of 700 was cosmetically restored for the open day which is an event that Steamrail holds
biennially for the general public.
They also run K class 2-8-0 153 and 190, and more recently they have returned K 183 to service after it unfortunately collided with a truck in October 2002 and
had been stored ever since. It is painted in a dark blue and yellow livery. They also run Y
class 0-6-0
112 which was formerly operated by West Coast before they went out of
business. It is now getting work done to it, alongside the VGR locomotive K 160 which is currently undergoing heavy overhaul and is expected to return to service in the near future. I will lastly add that D3 639 is a 4-6-0 not a
4-8-0 (sorry for this, RD), and the part about a J 2-8-0 owned by the Tarra Valley Railway is wrong as the J Class (541) has been stored since 2013 pending
overhaul and is owned by the Yarra Valley Railway. Steamrail owned J 550 until they swapped it for A2 986.
Ballarat Railway Precinct
This is Steamrail Ballarat and continues as the main page
states, I jjust wanted to mention that four D3 (4-6-0) locomotives are stored in various condition for spare parts for the operational D3 639,
these being D3 608, 638, 641 and 688.
Mornington Railway
This still runs K 2-8-0 163 but has acquired K 177 and K 191 from various parks and are working towards getting K 177
returned to operational condition. K 163 is currently using K 191's boiler.
Newport Railway Museum/ARHS.
The reason the link is broken on your page is due to the fact the ARHS technically
doesn't exist anymore. When Covid hit, like everything else, they had to close the museum which led to them going out of business.
Shortly after, a new group took over operation of the museum which consisted of existing
volunteers and this has been running it ever since. They have over the past few years been building shelter over the locomotives.
I'll also add that the largest non-articulated steam locomotive in the southern hemisphere is located at the museum which is H Class 220 which has the nickname Heavy Harry.
https://newportrailwaymuseum.org.au.
Two further organisations which have not previously been
covered are:
The Locomotive Restoration Group
This is based out of Traralgon in eastern Victoria, with
the goal of converting a K Class 2-8-0 (K 154) into a N Class 2-8-2 (N 441) by extending its frame and adding a rear pony truck.
https://locomotiverestoration.group/n441-project/
The Picnic Train
This runs trips throughout NSW but mainly to Kiama with their fleet being NSWGR D59
5917 and more recent gauge converted Victorian Railways R Class 766 after a decade long conversion and overhaul process from 1600mm to
1435mm. https://www.picnictrain.com.au
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