By Derek Schlennstedt
Puffing Billy has been the butt of many pranksters’ jokes over the years – literally.
But, in November 1979 it was anything but funny.
As the Ranges Trader turns 40, we look back at how the local Dandenong Ranges icon has weathered the many practical jokes played on him by the questionable hilarious hills locals.
In just its second edition, the Trader reported that old puffer needed assistance after someone poured oil on the tracks.
The editor of the time wrote that workers had to put sand on the line as Puffing Billy’s wheels had trouble trying to grip the track.
Speaking to the Ranges Trader, Puffing Billy driver Ian Campbell said it was anything but a joke and that putting an obstruction, like oil on the track was a serious misdemeanour.
“If there was oil on the track, the train would lose traction if it was going up a hill,” he said.
Such pranks have led to a track patrol being developed, who patrol and inspect the entire length of track every day, from Belgrave to Gembrook.
Although putting oil on the lines was not a danger to passengers Mr Campbell noted that it could put the engine under extra load and that drivers now carry sand to help old puffer along.
“We carry sand on the locomotive and what the sand does is help traction,” Mr Campbell said.
“We’ve got three domes on top of the boiler and two of them are filled with sand. Drizzly weather that can affect your traction as well as the wheels are of course just metal on metal.
“By putting sand on the track it becomes like a paste and it’ll soak up the moisture and at the same time puts a bit of a dry coating on the track where the locomotive can grip the track and retain traction.”
Having spent 53 years at the railway, Mr Campbell can recall a handful of pranks, most of which included the enigmatic gesture that was, and will always be ‘the Brown Eye‘.
“On one particular night train we were going from Belgrave to Menzies Creek, through to Emerald Lake and there was a party at Menzies Creek. It was one of the houses on the lower side and the last house, what happens? There’d have to have been 20 blokes who came out and mooned the train,” he joked.
“When that happens you can’t help but have a laugh.”
Having first joined the railway in 1966 Mr Campbell has seen the train line change and grow, but he said the sense of community and family within the organisation has remained the same.
“Yes, pranks happen. But they’re not done with malice, and that’s because the community here own puffing billy as much as we the volunteers do … it’s an icon to the hills and we all take ownership over it.”
“In 1979, the old platform wasn’t here, we had two drivers, four locomotives and probably about 20 firemen.”
“We weren’t even running every day of the week, just Saturday, Sunday, public holidays and three days during the week, and since then it’s just grown and grown and grown, and become a big operation, but it’s still just like a big family.”
