SRV 'Maldon Weekender' With K153, J549, Y133 & T356 - 2/8/2015

For the second year running Steamrail Victoria ran a weekend-long steam trip to the Victorian Goldfields Railway utilizing their collection of sleeping carriages dating from as early as 1908. Running up on Friday July 31, the return working was run August 2.

This year K153 hauled the train with T356 assisting on the steep grades of the Bendigo line, with the plan to have the K run with sister engine K190, but she was undergoing maintance at Maldon, so the plan was to then use VGR resident J549, however the loco was not ready due to a boiler exam. Thankfully she was certified for the Sunday, so as luck would have it the pair of 2-8-0s ran the train to Castlemaine on the Sunday morning, and from there we cover both the mainline trip and regular VGR services including a freight train transfer with diesel Y133.

This film documents the trains of that day, and shows the hard work and dedication the volunteers of both Steamrail Victoria and the Victorian Goldfields Railway who keep these historic locomotives and rollingstock in fine operable conditions, as well as one of the most iconic VR routes.

Filmed with a Sony VG-30EH 'E-mount and Nikon D5200, stills with a Nikon D5200 18-140mm VR lens and edited in Sony Vegas 12.