Steam Battles a Downpour in the Dandenong Ranges | Steamrail - Ringwood ...

G'day everyone,

Nice to be uploading on a Monday again, time for this weeks video. 

Today we venture up the Dandenong Ranges for Steamrail Victoria's second attempt at operating steam shuttles on the Belgrave Line.

K153 joined the restored Red Rattlers for four shuttles originating from Ringwood.

Definitely was a slight too see a steam train on the broad gauge section of the once narrow gauge line up the Dandenong Ranges.

I've realised that these posts seems to be in leapfrog mode with a post every second video due to some uploads being posted when I have other arrangements.

Anyways, hope everyone enjoys the slightly shorter videos that seems to be coming out while there aren't any exhibitions.

Cheers all, catch everyone next time.

Double Ks Power to the Goulburn Valley | Steamrail - Shepparton Steam We...

Howdy all,

Back for another upload and a shorter turnaround for this one. We have our second video from the Shepparton Steam Weekend, that compiled the two one-way transfer trains for the weekend.

This saw a double header of two K classes powering up to the Goulburn Valley.

After the successful weekend, the train made a speedy trip back to Melbourne.

This part of the tour, was also assisted by two high nosed T class diesels.

Anyways, hope everyone is keeping warm while the weather dips for winter. At least the warmth of steam trains will simmer for a little longer.

Cheers all.

Double Ks Shuttle in the Goulburn Valley | Steamrail - Shepparton Steam ...

Howdy all,

Welcome to this week's video, and this time we have the first of two to cover the events of the Steamrail Shepparton Weekend. In this video we focus on the local steam shuttles that were ran between Shepparton Station and Tallygaroopna. We capture five shuttles over two days of the event and a bit of the ride when aboard the first shuttle on the Monday.

We will be back shortly as part of the changes to our schedule with our second video covering the event, being the transfers to and from Melbourne.

Final Day of Trains at Ringwood East Station - Pre-LXRA

Howdy all,

Well, we're back for another video, and it's definitely been a while since we've seen our own rail network in terms of the Big Build Project. Anyways, today we visit Ringwood East Station, which is located on the Lilydale Line, on the final day before closure. The station is being rebuilt along with Croydon Station which closed a few months ago, as part of the Level Crossing Removal Project.

The shots in this video are captured as the last time the sun sets over the the old station in to it's last afternoon peak. The new station will be opened later this year along with the opening of Croydon.

Cheers all. These videos are still part of the flexible uploading, so we are still currently keeping our four day uploading, which at the moment is planned until mid-next month.

Thirlmere's Festival of Steam 2024 - Transport Heritage NSW

Howdy everyone,

Well, who'd have thought that we'd still be doing a 4 day uploading schedule, but there are still a lot of videos back to back that needs to be uploaded.

Anyways, this video should finish off  the last of the flexible Over the Border specials for now.

In today's video we are in Thirlmere for this year's Festival of Steam. This saw all of the operational fleet of Transport Heritage NSW join forces to celebrate steam traction. We only spend a day at the event, like our first visit to the Transport Heritage Expo, sort of a taster, to prepare for future trips.

Anyways, our video captures the operations around Thirlmere, seeing the steam trains, the parade and a wander around the NSW Rail Museum, the first time I've had a chance to look around in around 10 years.

Anyways, hope everyone enjoys, rather long video once again, but slowly becoming more of a standard for heritage and model railway exhibition videos. Cheers all, going back to Victorian next video.

Great Train Show 2024 - Sydney | Rosehill Model Railway Exhibition, NSW ...

Alrighty, time for our last video of the Great Train Show. To finish us off, we capture another 12 layouts on display. This part is also a little different, as we fall into the same issue as out Sandown video's where the main camera lacked the battery capacity to cover the whole exhibition. We hope to have this issue shorted out by Showgrounds, but only time will tell.

Anyways, it was an absolute joy in capturing this year's Great Train Show, and would love to do this again.

In terms of uploads however, this is not the last Over the Border special, as we are to complete some videos left over from another trip. So which this month turning very NSW, stay tuned.

Great Train Show 2024 - Sydney | Rosehill Model Railway Exhibition, NSW ...

We're back for another video. We continue onward with our coverage of this year's Sydney Great Train Show. We capture another 12 layouts, although one is a demonstration. 

The Great Train Show is the largest model railway exhibition we have gone too, and there is still more to see. We have one last part due out later this week, then we're back to 1:1 trains.

Anyways, this is the longest of the three parts, so sit back and relax.

Cheers all.

The Great Train Show 2024 - Rosehill Model Railway Exhibition, NSW - Par...

Howdy all,

Back for another post, and it's over the border once again. As part of expanding our range of videos, this year we travelled back to NSW for this year's Great Train Show at the Rosehill Gardens. The exhibition is one of the largest in Australia and the largest we have ever covered. For the first time in a number of years, the video has been split into 3 parts due to the size and with this a few layouts were still missed due to filming constraints.

Anyways, hope everyone enjoys the trio of videos as much as I enjoyed capturing them.

It is currently planned for our next few videos to be over the border specials, as we get through the backlog from these last two trips.

Cheers all.

The Hunter Valley Steamfest 2024 - The Great Train Race, The Rally and a...

Here we go again,

Time for part two of our Steamfest 2024 coverage, which based on the title could stay autonomous.

Anyways, like the first part, we focus on a particular part of the event. Taking a look at the Great Train Race, the Steam Rally and finally jumping aboard on of the trains in this part.

This video is definitely the longest of all three videos to cover the event so sit back and relax.

There won't be a blog post for our next upload since we wont have a computer when that goes live, but in 4 days, our Mernda shuttles video will be going live, so stay tuned for that. 

Until next time. We have something a little special coming out next week...

Steam Shuttles Along the Caulfield Through Line | Steamrail - Flinders S...

Well, we're back in Victoria with out latest video. Today we take a look at the recent Flinders Street Suburban Shuttles ran by Steamrail Victoria. Their were 5 shuttles run between Flinders Street and the newly rebuilt station at Glen Huntly, being hauled by top n' tailed K classes, although at times were operating in push-pull formation.

Anyways, we begin our video from shuttle 3 after arriving a little late from a morning venture, which will be seen in another video.

For the next while we will be doing one Vic video then one NSW video (or a pair). So stay tuned for more. Our next video will complete our coverage of the 2024 Hunter Valley Steamfest. due out on Tuesday.

Steam & Railmotor Shuttles in the Hunter | The Hunter Valley Steamfest 2...

Well, we are back!

Time to return to uploads, beginning with the reason of the break. Last weekend we headed up to Maitland for the annual Hunter Valley Steamfest. This years only two steam locomotives made an appearance, being 6029 and 3526. This video has been split into 3 components. This part looks at the steam trains and some of the railmotors on their runs on their shuttles across the two days.

The next part is due in 9 days as we return to something Victorian for our next video.

Well, cheers all. Hope everyone enjoys another Over the Border special, the first of a few this year.

Easter Model Railway Exhibition 2024 - Diamond Creek - Part 1 | Yarra Va...

Howdy all,

Time for this weeks video, which is now just over a week behind it's recording date. Anyways, today we have our coverage of the Yarra Valley Model Railway Club's Easter Model Railway Exhibition at the Diamond Creek Bank Stadium.  This is part one over looking mostly the operations in the main hall. The exhibition is back bigger than ever, being host to 63 stalls and spanning over two rooms.

Hope everyone enjoys. Part two is due later this week, then we have no videos for a week. From tomorrow social media will be on break, so this'll be the last post here for a while.

Cheers all, catch everyone on the other side.

Steam Thunders to an Easter Festival | Steamrail - Bendigo Easter Festiv...

G'day,

Back to another heritage train video in the mist of all our exhibition coverage videos.

Today we start out coverage of the events over the Easter long weekend.

This video we capture Steamrail Victoria's Bendigo Easter Festival special, something that is becoming an annual occurrence by now. Being headed by R711, made this tour the first for the 2024 Victorian steam season. Along for the trip as well, we had new acquisition S301 on a load test.

Anyways, back to model railways for the next two videos, then we can finally take a little break from this rather intensive 4-day uploading schedule.

Cheers.

Sandown's Model Railway Exhibition - Train & Hobby Show 2024 | Part 2

G'day all,

Time for our next video. We complete our model railway coverage of the Sandown Train and Hobby Show for 2024 in this video. The video already being rather long meant that all of the extra hobby stuff has missed out the video, however we are planning to upload an extras video on the Vlogs channel in the near future for anyone that wants to see the other things that were on offer, although it is a short walkaround video.

Next video due this Friday.

Cheers all.

Sandown's Model Railway Exhibition - Sandown Train & Hobby Show 2024 | P...

G'day, Were back for another round of videos.

Today we have our first part covering this year's Sandown Train and Hobby Show. The show is gradually getting better, although it is one of the more expensive shows around. The exhibition is held over three rooms, however railways only populates the main ground floor. The rest are other various hobbies.

This year the exhibition was held back one weekend, so instead of the usual three day show, it was only two days. 

Anyways, hope everyone still enjoys, next part is due out next week on the 1st of April, and so it isn't confused with the timings, will be uploaded around noon.

Cheers all.

Steamrail - Newport Workshops Open Weekend 2024 | Part 2 - Photo Line-up...

Well, back for another video. This video completes our coverage of Steamrail Victoria's Newport Workshops Open Weekend. This part we complete the walkthrough of the rest of the event and see the two photo line-ups that occurred during day two.

Although the two two-parters are done, we still have another video to be uploaded, this being our coverage of this year's Sandown Toy and Hobby Show. Although I would like to keep the 4-day uploads, it's starting to take it's toll, so we're going to hold it back by an extra day, they follow onwards with 4-days between parts.

Until then, stay well. Catch everyone very soon.

Kyneton Model Train Exhibition 2024 (Model Railways, Crafts & Hobbies) -...

Howdy all,

Continuing with our flexible schedule, it's time for this weeks video. Today we have out second video looking at the the Kyneton Model Railway Exhibition. We complete our comprehensive coverage of the exhibition, even including one of the displays.

Anyways, our schedule is getting rather busy over the next bit, as the exhibitions are in shorter successions, so definitely stay tuned. Also a few mainline steam videos will be in the balance.

Cheers all, catch everyone in 4 days time.

Steamrail - Newport Workshops Open Weekend 2024 | Part 1 - Arrival and Y...

Howdy all,

We're back to a minor schedule as we have our second video for the month's quota. Today's video is the first of two to cover the Newport Workshops Open Weekend, that was held over the Labour Day Long Weekend. The bi-annual event once again brought out most all of Steamrail's operational fleet, and the opportunity to take a look behind the scenes to the effort it takes to keep the old giants in operation.

Anyways, we'll be back in four days with part two of the model railway exhibition then following that the second part of this.

Cheers all, stay tuned.

Farewell to the V/Line H Set Intersuburban Carriages | Last Months of Ba...

Howdy all.

Well, final video for the month, so lets end off with something that we formally finished at the beginning of the month. This video is rather long, so use the timestamps in the description or sit back and relax.

In this video we take a look at the last operational months of regularly scheduled services for the V/Line H set carriages. These are a fleet that started life in 1956 as the Harris trains. Converted for locomotive hauled operation from 1982 making them some of the oldest carriages in the fleet. They are designed optimally for short distance travel having an interior that matched the metropolitan trains, but with a regional twist.

Anyways, we capture the trains throughout the last weeks of service on the Melton and Geelong runs, doing both run-bys and onboard shots.

No video is planned next week, so catch everyone on the 11th.

Cheers all.

Red Rattler Down the Bayside | Steamrail/Elecrail - Brighton Beach Tait ...

Howdy all,

Well, we're back, and weirdly, the upload feel like were back to our normal schedule. Some minor delays to the video had pushed this upload back from Saturday, but anyways, today we have out account of Steamrail Victoria's Brighton Beach Tait Shuttles that were run on the 4th of February. A rather hot day, but we got through it. We capture the train at various locations along the Sandringham line, since we were trying to recover from missing out the tour in 2023.

Anyways, unsure on next week's video at this stage, so if there is one, I'll catch everyone then.

Cheers all.

Final Day of Trains at Croydon Station - Pre-LXRA

Welcome!

Well, time for our first video out of the schedule, and for a little while we will be doing Sunday uploads.

Today's video is something from last week, capturing some of the last trains to roll through the now closed Croydon Station. The station is currently being rebuilt as part of the latest LXRA project, to be completed with a rail-over-road design.

The clips were all captured during off-peak as I had plans during the evening.

Well, have another video planned for next week, so cheers all.

High Nose T Classes by the Bay | Steamrail - Diesel Rail and Sail 2024 |...

Well, there we go, final video for the holiday season.

This is also our last video from the Australia Day long weekend.

We head out for Steamrail Victoria's first Rail & Sail, where like last year, was hauled by diesel locomotives.

Nothing too special with the coverage, as most Rail & Sails are rather the same, and these videos are more taken as a break, a day where it's rather simple to make the video, and get a decently relaxed day as well.

Anyways, from here one out, we operate our new quotas system. This month's quota is three videos, of which this video is the first to be counted.

The next video are due between 4-7 days between each other, subject to video and time availability. After meeting the quota, we may still upload new videos if there are any to be uploaded, or a break will be made and time can be put into making videos for the other channels.

Till next time, have a good week.

707's First Standard Gauge Slow-Rail Journey | 707 Operations - The Wine...

Our last "extra" video for the holiday season, and time to knock out the first of two heritage videos from the Australia Day long weekend. On Australia Day, 707 Operations operated their first tour for the year. This also marked the start to standard gauge operations with a day trip to Inverleigh. The slow rail journey used their own T387 and N469 that was borrowed from V/Line. The carriages are a line up of the ex-Albury SG N set, that in appearance wasn't in the best shape, but hopefully and opportunity will arise in the future to have the prepped up properly.

Anyways, we capture the train throughout it's day of operation, starting and ending the video at La Trobe Street.

Anyways, Rail & Sail is next, then we move to our new scheduling. This video is not being counted to the quota however, Monday's should be. At the moment we plan for an upload six-day apart. Then we will return to Monday uploading or a possible break once to quota is fulfilled. 

Till next week, have a good weekend.

Geelong Model Railway Exhibition 2024 | Corio Model Railway Club

Well, back for our final full week of the holiday schedule, and we return with another exhibition video.

We return to the Corio Model Railway Club's annual exhibition, this year being held at the Geelong West Town Hall. The video is a comprehensive coverage video, where we look at all of the operational layouts on display, except the U-Drive. 9 layouts were captured, so this video was uploaded as a single part, like our Ballarat and Sunbury Exhibition coverage last year. Pretty decent layouts on show this year, however we are hitting a point that there are a lot of duplicates from other videos.

Anyways, cheers all. Hope every one enjoys. Our next few videos will be back to 1:1 scale. Next exhibition won't be until March, so till then, stay well.

Final Day of Trains at Keon Park Station - Pre-LXRA

Howdy all,

Time for this weeks video.

This time, we are back to suburban Melbourne for a Metro video, where with the continuing of the LXRA projects, another station has been closed for rebuilding. Keon Park is located on the Mernda line, and will be reopened in September once the new elevated station is completed.

This video takes a look of some of the last trains through the station just before the evening peak.

We have another video due later this week and then the schedule is going to be ruined this weekend, so lets see how that pans out. A post will be made on Facebook speaking about that.

Until then, catch everyone soon.

Warrnambool Model Train Show 2024 - Part 2 | Warrnambool Model Railway Club

Howdy all,

Time for the second video of the week, that finishes our coverage of the Warrnambool Model Railway Exhibition. This part captures 6 more of the operational layouts, and what would be some of the larger layouts on display. These pair of videos will also complete our first exhibition coverage for the year. We are aiming to capture as many of the accessible exhibitions this year, so along with our heritage and Metro trains videos, stay tuned for more!

Warrnambool Model Train Show 2024 - Part 1 | Warrnambool Model Railway Club

Howdy all,

We're back for another week, and time for something more recent. Today's video we have the first of two parts of our comprehensive coverage of this year's Warrnambool Model Railway Exhibition. This is our first exhibition coverage for the year, and we now also show scales, under trial.

Anyways, wasn't a bad exhibition at all, so hope everyone enjoys. On Friday, we will have the second part published, so hope everyone enjoys and stay tuned. 

A Magical Steam Trip | Steamrail Charter - ANA's Wizardry Express | Push...

We're back for another extra. This time we turn back the time to April where there were two days of shuttles to Sunshine for AMA's Wizardry Express Charter. Initially, I was only planning one day being the Saturday, however I was still in recovery mode after being on anesthetic, but was feeling better by the afternoon, so still made it out for at least part of it. After the few shots captured on the Saturday, we time leap into the next day where we complete the full day, capturing the special at various stations along the short section to Sunshine, that we didn't complete the day prior. 

Anyways, next weeks videos will be some recent videos as we resume filming, so until then, cheers all.

Comeng998's 12th Year & Plans for the Future | Channel & Brand Update

G'day all,

as we roll into another year for the channel, it's time to announce some changes for after the holiday season is over. The changes will primarily be for the main channel, but an update is provided for all three channels that are under the Comeng998 brand.

This video will be made unlisted at the end of January, however the link should still work from the shared platforms.

Cheers. Catch you all very soon.

Freight Train Rescue - Pacific National's Late UP Tocumwal Container Ser...

Howdy all,

Time for our first video for 2024. For this, we turn back out clocks to almost two years ago. On the 15th, we had travelled up to Seymour to capture the first of the N sets to be retired. On the way back, we had heard that the UP Tocumwal had failed and stabled in Seymour loop, awaiting rescue. After capturing the rescue engine arrive, we waited out, where fate would have it, a rare daylight run of the service all the way into Melbourne.

Anyways, hope everyone enjoys. On Thursday, we will have our channel update for 2024, however this will not take effect until the end of the holiday season, where there's also a video due on Friday.

Cheers all.