The Sydney Live Steam Locomotive Society Co-op Ltd. (SLSLS) was formed in 1948 and built a miniature railway along a drainage channel behind houses on Anthony Road, West Ryde, Sydney, Australia. The site has been transformed by the addition of fill from excavation work during widening of the local railway line and the Society has grown and now operates a miniature railway on the site with a 400m long elevated track of 21⁄2 inch, 31⁄2 inch and 5 inch gauge, and two 300m long ground level 5 inch railways. The Society presents a monthly public exhibition with train rides each month.
The Society operates miniature steam locomotives which represent prototype engines of NSW and other states. One can also see a variety of other prototype locomotives. The locomotives work hard hauling 6 car trains with up to 30 persons. A 10 lever mechanical ex-New South Wales Railways ground frame operates elevated swing stub points and lower quadrant signals on the elevated railway and a 48 miniature (Westinghouse style) lever frame operates the ground level railway's motor points and colour light signals. Members practice their model engineering in the creation of miniature steam locomotives, truly representative of the prototype.
A history of the Society was produced to celebrate the 50 years of their operation
The club owns the second oldest miniature steam locomotive in New South Wales, known as The Old Girl.
The grounds are a local favourite for birthday parties on running days.
The operation is in accordance with the Codes of Practice for Operation, Training and Standards of the Australian Association of Live Steamers (AALS). This code is available on their web site at http://www.aals.asn.au. The boilers in the miniature locomotives are built, tested and operated in accordance with the Australian Miniature Boiler Safety Committee (AMBSC) codes.
The closest railway station is West Ryde.
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“Turn up the lights; I don’t want to go home in the dark.”
—O. Henry [William Sydney Porter] (1862–1910)
“Immortality is what nature possesses without effort and without anybody’s assistance, and immortality is what the mortals must therefore try to achieve if they want to live up to the world into which they were born, to live up to the things which surround them and to whose company they are admitted for a short while.”
—Hannah Arendt (1906–1975)
“Time has an undertaking establishment on every block and drives his coffin nails faster than the steam riveters rivet or the stenographers type or the tickers tick out fours and eights and dollar signs and ciphers.”
—John Dos Passos (1896–1970)
“The American people have done much for the locomotive, and the locomotive has done much for them.”
—James A. Garfield (1831–1881)
“Our society is not a community, but merely a collection of isolated family units.”
—Valerie Solanas (b. 1940)