Eureka Express brings vintage steam engines back to Ballarat

Departing from Southern Cross Station, the Eureka Express will arrive in Ballarat at 11.08am and bring with it two engines along with about 250 passengers in the old 'red rattler' carriages built circa 1907 before departing again at 3.44pm.

One engine, R711, arrived in Melbourne from Scotland in 1951 and is returning to Ballarat for the first time since 2004 after it was restored at the Ballarat East depot in the early 2000s by West Coast Railway.

The other, A2 986, entered service in 1915 before being decommissioned in 1963. It sat in storage at Warragul and Newport until restoration began in 2014.

While its passengers are out exploring Ballarat and the two steam engines are being turned around, serviced and topped up with coal and water at the Ballarat East depot, the carriages will be open to the public at Ballarat Station with Steamrail Victoria volunteers around to answer any questions.

Steamrail Victoria volunteer Noah Clancey said it was a great opportunity to come and explore the vintage trains.

"No matter where we go, we get the community rallying around it, coming out for a look, lots of families will come down to the station and have a sticky-beak," he said.

"Pretty much once a year we come up to Ballarat. We do the Heritage Weekend in May, but this is the first time we've come just for a day trip from Melbourne in just over 10 years.

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"People can come down and have a look at the carriages and certainly a lot of people like to show up when the train arrives and see it steam into the station and the same leaving town.

"I think the people love to see the spectacle of the train chugging along."

Steamrail Victoria will also be coming back to Ballarat on the last weekend of May for the Heritage Festival, taking passengers on shuttle trips to Lal Lal and back.

Mr Clancey said one of the engines that will make the trip to Ballarat was built in the city in that 1880s.

"One of them is Y112 which was built in Ballarat in 1889, I believe, so it's 131 years old and it was built in Ballarat at the Phoenix Foundry which was down the main street," he said.

"A lot of older people from Ballarat will remember it was on a plinth down the main street on display for many years and then it got restored at Ballarat East by volunteers and now runs again.

"It's got a lot of connection with Ballarat and I think it's the oldest operating steam engine in Australia at the moment."

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