On Easter Sunday 31st March 2024 Steamrail Victoria visited Bendigo to take passengers to the Bendigo Easter Festival. The first mainline steam trip of the year; locomotive R711 led the train to and from Bendigo with diesel locomotives T364 and S301. The tour was notable as it was S301's first mainline run since 2010; having recently been donated to Steamrail by Pacific National last month.
We start the video with the trip to Bendigo, seeing the transfer from Newport and the departure to Bendigo outside Southern Cross Station at the La Trobe Street Bridge (a spot I was able to take advantage of for once as I was surprisingly able to find a nearby car park :D ). It was an usually cool and misty morning in Melbourne and we see this with cloudy skies at Sunbury and complete fog at Riddles Creek. After that the sun came out making for a rather warm day. We see the train pass through the old stations at Elphinstone and Taradale, before seeing the train pass through the Oak Street level crossing in Golden Square.
For the trip back the train was delayed a hour after missing its path out due to a late-running V/Line train from Melbourne. We see the departure from Bendigo at Golden Square and Kangaroo Flat. We see the train outside Castlemaine and crossing the impressive Taradale Viaduct at sunset. With light fading we see the train pass through Macedon, before finishing up at Diggers Rest.
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