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Published: July 25th 2015
Going Loco !!
Dispensing sand on to the track, for tractionGoing Loco
On Sunday the 12 July, we had been invited to go and have a steam train journey and our day went like this.
Andy and Karen Brian and Nesta and Caroline and myself all met at the Pinjarra Bakery at about 8.15 what an awesome place to start any trip from, even though I am being fairly strict on myself, having lost 20 Kilo’s I still in to believe in not turning it to purgatory, so yippee it was going to be a Jolly swagman pie for my breakfast.
Caroline had a Pasty and grumbled all the way through it suggesting it was not as good as the ones you get in Cornwall, I did make suggestions that if the pasties were so good in Cornwall she could go there, but she soon changed her mind, I am guessing that we should make a visit next time we had back to the UK, even if only for the best Cornish Pasties in the world.
I wonder who does actually make the best pies in Australia, everyone professes to and we have had some absolute crackers and since we have been in W.A (nearly two years
Going Loco !!
Its all in the name now) we consider Pinjarra Bakery as the makers of exceptional pies
Once our Brekkie pie was scoffed we were off to dwelling up, as we were not doing any off road work today, we had left Jack back on the property, and took Jill instead.
Dwelling up, is a pretty little town, located in a timber and fruit growing area in the Darling Range east-south-east of Pinjarra. At the 2011 census, Dwellingup had a population of it was gazetted in 1910 and unfortunately the place where possibly one of the worst Western Australia Bushfire occurred in 1961 where a 132 homes were lost. 800people where homeless but fortunately there was no loss of life
Dwellingup experienced serious bushfires again over the week starting on 3 February 2007. Sixteen houses were destroyed and thousands of hectares of private property and forest were burnt. And again there was no loss of life.
Dwellingup is an Aboriginal name said to mean "place of nearby water" and amazingly it’s the home of the worlds largest Bauxite mine which is at a place called Huntly
So we all parked the cars in the Hotham Valley railway carpark and and got
Going Loco !!
Simple carriage, but fun and comfortable ready for our train journey, the days was pretty warm, still in mid winter the days are about 19 degree’s, mornings and evenings are pretty cool, but we love winter when it is still T Shirt weather.
We paid of our tickets and went and had a sticky beak at the engine(s) the little Steam train, had a big diesel behind it jusr to give it that extra oomph when it was needed as it was hauling 6 carriages that had a tare weight of 38.8 Tonnes each, so that poor little engine had to pull232.8 tonnes before you took in to account all the passengers then the weight of the Big diesel at probably 70 Tonnes and the steam engine at about 60 tonnes
We climbed aboard, the carriages were nothing flash, but you could just sit and watch the world go by, we slowly moved off then I went and got coffee’s in from the buffet car, it was heaving with people, everyone seemed to have the same idea.
Upon departing Dwellingup the pace was leisurely as the train rolled along westward, down to Isandra Siding, 14kms away, we had the windows open and were
Going Loco !!
Waiting to board taking shots of this great little train ride.
The train only goes up to the siding then stops, everyone can get off and have a walk around and a wee behind a tree as I did, they let you virtually climb all over train and take lots of photo’s whilst the train is not moving.
At the sidings the locomotive moves to the opposite end of the train during the 30 minute stopover and makes ready for the return.
On the return journey, The little steamer has to work really hard to get up the gradients, hence the need for the big Diesel to lend it the assistance it needs and its great to hear the sounds and smells associated with a Steam Locomotive hard at work climbing Western Australia's steepest and most spectacular section of railway, through the Darling Range Escarpment as the train returned us to Dwellingup.
The train passed along an amazing portion of steeply graded and tightly curved railway manually carved into the Darling Range, which once so masterfully served the timber industry and the agricultural areas of Dwellingup and beyond, what an awesome ride and for only $35.00 bucks each what
Going Loco !!
Me taking a photo of Caroline taking a photo of me. a bargain.
The journey came to the end and we all alighted the train back in Dwellingup, it was about 1.30 and we were right opposite the pub, how awesome was that, so it being Sunday, and we were hungry and us boys wanted beer and the girls wanted wine what could be better.
As we walked across the road, towards the pub, The MG car club were out for a Sunday run and had parked about 8-10 MG’s in various guises outside, Caroline looked all sad when she saw an MG-F (The type of open top roadster) she had in the UK which some muppet in a BMW 5 series wrote off, she has never been able to get over losing that car.
We all had a great Sunday, and no I didn’t have a pudding, though I was seriously tempted, only because they didn’t have Treacle Tart and Custard.
Back at the Car we all agreed that we had had a great day so much fun and so little cost, we must do more stuff like this again.
Until Next Time
Kj
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ThePass
Australia 2008
Trains and cars
Hi. Lovely trip via steam engine. I didn't realized there was a steam train 'near' Perth or we certainly would have been on it. Loved the Zig Zag railway. I didn't realize that MG made a sedan. I am used to the two seater sports car variety. Until I saw the picture I thought Caroline might have been a bit of a race car driver!!