If you’re visiting Melbourne, consider taking some time out of the city and jumping on board the Puffing Billy Railway. We did that today. It leaves Belgrave for Lakeside. It is frequently described as one of the city’s essential visitor experiences and, on this occasion at least, it lived up to its reputation. We parked near Belgrave Station, joined the queue for tickets and boarded the 11 am train.
Puffing Billy was not originally created as a tourist attraction. The narrow-gauge railway opened in 1900 to connect the isolated communities of the Dandenong Ranges, carrying passengers alongside timber, livestock, potatoes and plants. Today, the train still follows its original mountain route through fern gullies and beneath the towering mountain ash of Sherbrooke Forest.
The journey felt like more than an exercise in nostalgia. There was the smell of steam and smoke, the rhythmic labour of the locomotive and the unusual closeness of the forest through the open sides of the carriages. As the engine pulled us steadily into the hills, it was easy to understand why the railway has remained so popular. Before the pandemic, Puffing Billy was attracting around half a million passengers a year.
We left the train at Lakeside and had lunch in the visitor centre café. The food was perfectly adequate rather than memorable, but it provided what was needed before the return journey.
The 2.15 pm train back to Belgrave was packed, confirming that Puffing Billy is certainly not a hidden attraction. Many passengers sat on the carriage sills with their legs hanging outside—a long-established and rather exhilarating Puffing Billy tradition. People waved as we passed their houses and waited beside crossings; the sight of the steam train still seems to interrupt ordinary life for a moment.
Australia has other impressive operating heritage railways, including the Zig Zag Railway in New South Wales, Victoria’s Bellarine Railway and Queensland’s Mary Valley Rattler. Puffing Billy is therefore not the country’s only working steam railway. What distinguishes it is the combination of a beautifully preserved train, its original narrow-gauge mountain route, open-sided carriages and a location within easy reach of a major city.
The locomotive, carriages and stations were all maintained with remarkable care, much of it through the work of hundreds of volunteers. Nothing felt like a neglected relic brought out occasionally for visitors. This was a living railway, polished and purposeful, carrying another crowded train into the hills.
Puffing Billy is popular for good reason. It may be one of Melbourne’s best-known excursions, but it is also one of the rare occasions when the experience comfortably matches the expectation.