Niels like most boys love anything with a motor; car, planes, motorbikes and trains, so now that I am working in the Ippy (Ipswich) I have more exposure to trains, so I saw a pamphlet for a steam engine ride so I booked.

Now if you can imagine the demographic of who would go on a steam train ride then you are correct; families with young children, older people and then there was us.  We arrived promptly on platform 1 at the Roma Street Station and then waited for the action to begin.  In a cloud of smoke, no it wasn’t on fire, it arrived, they went through some interesting facts and then we boarded.

If my memory serves me correctly, this engine was one of the last to be made in Queensland, if not Australia in the early 1960’s. We were in the oldest carriage, circa 1921, and we could open the windows however we soon learnt that was not a good idea with a train that producers soot and in a tunnel.  The noise it made was incredible and we went at a good speed to see the surroundings and headed for Bulwer Island near the airport.

Because we went off a track that wasn’t used very often, probably only for this trip, they had to manually change the tracks so at first I thought my eyes were deceiving me when the same guy was at each crossing, and then when we were too fast, we had to wait.

It was about a 2 hour trip and I thoroughly recommend it if you get a chance, I great way  to see the sights from a different angle sound.