On Walkabout On: The Puffing Billy Railway – Part 2

Prior Posting: The Puffing Billy Railway – Part 1

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The Return Trip from Lakeside

After arriving in Lakeside on the Puffy Billy Railway, we found ourselves with a two hour lay over to explore the area with. Lakeside ended up being a nice place to spend some time checking out. When we got off the train I was able to take this picture of another train with a different engine pulling out of the station:

Here is a picture of one the railroad crossing signs:

I also took this picture of the track to give everyone an idea how narrow this narrow gauge track really is:

These track measures 2 feet and 6 inches in lengths. The track is quite small compared to regular standard gauge track, but it gets the job done up here in the Dandenongs. Lakeside as you probably have already figured out gets its name from the fact the small village lies on the side of a lake:

The trees around the lake were changing colors and their were many birds hanging out in the lake:

Here is one of the many of this type of bird we saw foraging in the lake:

I couldn’t find what type of bird this is in my book, but they were pretty cool to watch. After checking out the lake we walked back to the train station and prepared to board the train. We made sure to sit on the opposite side of the train that we came in on. By sitting on the opposite of the train we were able to get a good view of the various vineyards along the train tracks:

We also got to see some of the various narrow gauge train cars parked in train yards along the main track:

We also noticed a turn table track where the trains are able to turn around on:

We also had some more good views of the alpine ash trees that surrounded the train tracks:

Here is an area where a mudslide covered up the tracks years ago:

The return trip actually took less than an hour and at Belgrave Station I was able to take this last picture of a couple more of the narrow gauge engines:

Overall my wife and I had a great time in the Dandenongs and especially on the Puffing Billy Railway. If you have time to burn in the Melbourne area the Dandenongs and the Puffing Billy are a great way to spend a day, especially if you have kids.