The Steamtug Blog

Today I checked out the steam day at Sovereign Hill. Do you remember my post at the end of March entitled “A night at the opera”? It was another visit to Sovereign Hill to see the opening of the Victoria Theatre. This time a group of traction engines, mainly from Lake Goldsmith steam rally assembled in the recreated gold mining town, thundering down the roads to the delight of the Chinese tourists.

Ballarat (the coldest place in Victoria) turned on it’s usual liquid sunshine to go with the cold temperatures, but it was so nice to see the streets of Sovereign Hill alive with steam engines. I encouraged my mates to come with me as we had not had a get together for a while. Tom and Philip were there too, driving one of the engines, which “barked” it’s single cylinder engine up the steep encline. It sounded so good to hear them working up the hill from the diggings! We later joked about dropping a fusable plug when going down the steep hill. This plug is made of soft solder and sits on the hottest part of the firebox. If you don’t have enough water in the boiler before you head down, all the water will go forward, leaving the firebox crown exposed where this plug will melt and shutdown the boiler by blowing out the fire with steam when the plug melts.

As well as the visiting steam engines, there was the excellent permanent steam equipment that has always been at Sovereign Hill. A few years ago when I was a government examiner for steam engines, turbines and boilers, I went there to examine the apprentices who worked there, which brought me to fall in love with this boilerhouse. My good mate Rabbit (his Mum calls him Warren) runs the boilers there, so I became a member of the museum and often go for a ride on my bike, call in to Sovereign Hill, buy a pie from the old fashioned wood fired bakery then go up to the boilerhouse and have a cup of tea with Rabbit before heading off again. But today, despite the cold weather, we were still thirsty enough for a few beers 1850’s style at the old bar!

Any visitor coming to stay with me here in Australia automatically gets taken to check out Sovereign Hill. So when will you come to Sovereign Hill with me? Check out their web page. http://www.sovereignhill.com.au/