Disposal and Preservation
After closure both locos were removed to the Newport Workshops, and G41 was quickly scrapped. The same year the Puffing Billy Preservation Society began operating trains on a portion of the Gembrook line. A museum was established at Menzies Creek, and G42 was obtained for this museum in 1968. The museum also acquired one of the Australian Portland Cement Garratts along with an unused spare boiler. In 1978 a decision was made to restore G42, a task that was finally completed in 2004. The spare boiler from APC was used instead of G42's original boiler as this had had its copper inner fire-box and boiler tubes removed by the V.R. before sale to the Puffing Billy Preservation Society. After restoration, G42 became the regular engine on Puffing Billy's "The Luncheon Train" which operates 7 days a week as far as Lakeside, as well as operating special trains on a semi-regular basis until 2009.
G42 was withdrawn from service in early 2009 pending a "D" exam. This is part of the Puffing Billy Railway's regular maintenance scheme which will see the engine stripped down. It is expected this will see G42 out of service for quite some time due to the work involved, as well as having to slot in to the workshops work list. It was rumoured that due to these factors, G42 could return to its plinth in the Menzies Creek Museum for a period of storage.
On Sunday 16 August 2009, G42 returned to service for one day only to celebrate "100 years of the Garratt locomotive design" before returning to storage pending the mentioned "D" exam.
On 12 December 2010, G42 moved under its own steam after the extensive "D" exam which it had been undergoing since its withdrawal in 2009—also receiving its boiler ticket on this day. It was put to a test with a difficult shunt of 20 cars into different roads. It will be in full running order by the peak "Green time table" service which otherwise calls for the double heading of NA class locos on one of the trips, enabling its greater hauling capacity to substitute for the two NAs.
As of 18 May, G42 is still currently operating on a semi-regular basis. It will only operate on weekends, special occasions (Public holidays etc.) or if there is a shortage of NAs on running days not covered by the days stated above. This running schedule was devised in an attempt to prolong G42s service life.
Read more about this topic: Victorian Railways G Class
Famous quotes containing the words disposal and/or preservation:
“A mental disease has swept the planet: banalization.... Presented with the alternative of love or a garbage disposal unit, young people of all countries have chosen the garbage disposal unit.”
—Ivan Chtcheglov (b. 1934)
“The bourgeois treasures nothing more highly than the self.... And so at the cost of intensity he achieves his own preservation and security. His harvest is a quiet mind which he prefers to being possessed by God, as he prefers comfort to pleasure, convenience to liberty, and a pleasant temperature to that deathly inner consuming fire.”
—Hermann Hesse (1877–1962)