Steam team breathes life into an old boiler

Backbone of the railways...the volunteers Albert Taylor, left, and Don French with Hunter, the locomotive they helped build from scratch. Photo: Jon Reid

The eerie footage captured by train enthusiasts was soon posted on YouTube, attracting admiring comments from as far away as England.

''There were people standing on platforms at 3am with cameras, just waiting to get a picture,'' says Ross Goodman, the engineer who has supervised the 20-year project to rebuild Locomotive 3265.

But the locomotive, exquisitely painted in maroon and black and rebadged with its original name, Hunter, has finally emerged into the sunlight.

For Mr Goodman, the Powerhouse Museum's transport and engineering conservator, next weekend's official unveiling marks the end of a chapter in the 107-year life of an engine he describes as ''the backbone of the NSW railways''.

Tomorrow Hunter will pull out of Central for its first VIP tour of the Bankstown loop, followed by two trips open to the public (see www.powerhousemuseum.com/bookings/3265).

Built in 1902 in Manchester, Hunter was one of 191 ''English express engines'' used in NSW in the 20th century. One of them pulled the last passenger steam train service, from Newcastle to Singleton in 1974.

Hunter served until 1968, hauling and shunting in country depots from Junee to Cowra. But its glory years were in the mid-'30s when it was one of only four engines painted in the splendid maroon-and-black livery that indicated it pulled the prestige Newcastle Businessman's Express to and from Sydney. The four were named after NSW rivers. Only Hunter survives.

After it was retired, 3265 was set aside for preservation by the Museum of Applied Arts and Sciences (now the Powerhouse), moving to Eveleigh's Large Erecting workshop in 1988.

But the rebuilding program began only 10 years ago when a team of extraordinarily dedicated volunteers - many of them retired railway workers such as the former boiler inspector Don French, 80, and the brake engineer Albert Taylor, 85 - stripped it down to rebuild from scratch. It would have cost $2 million if the renovation had been done commercially.

Jennifer Edmonds was just 19 when she joined them, spurred on by a father ''who has no sons but has always been passionate about railways''. During her 11 years working on 3265, she qualified as a fitter and machinist. (She ''originally wanted to be a welder but Ross convinced me a fitter and machinist was a bit more versatile''.) She may be the only woman in Australia qualified to work as a steam train engineer but says ''it's just nice to be regarded as one of the boys''.

''We need more people to learn traditional skills like boilermaking,'' Mr Goodman says, or future generations will lack the expertise to carry out future restorations. As for 3265, ''it will start earning its keep pretty soon'', he says. The museum plans up to six steam trips a year.

Source: www.smh.com.au/national/steam-team-breathes-life-into-an-old-boiler-20090918-fvct.html