The Steamtug Blog

I have been experimenting with my little Stuart Turner 5A steam engine. Just using my garage air compressor which has trouble keeping up, but I have made a few runs driving a generator I bought. This is all for the intention of running this little steam engine on my boat Edelweiss, to provide electrical power to the beer fridge! (continue reading…)

So you remember back in June, I posted about big steam locomotives in the USA? Well recently I had a close encounter of the turd kind with the most famous of big locos, the union pacific “Big Boy”!!!

The Union Pacific Railway, was originally called the Onion Pacific and used to haul big train loads of onions along the rabbit proof fence to the pacific ocean at California, hence the name Onion Pacific. (I think I read that somewhere… it was constructed by the US emperor Nasi Goreng, I think.) (continue reading…)

Gidday team… It’s me your long lost bro from the rebel Southern states. Well Louisiana can’t get much further South now, can we? In a work update, they finally moved me and the other supervisor from a cupboard behind the door at the existing facility to the new construction project. They have me stuck in a classroom with 26 of my operations team, all reporting to me, ringing me up every 5 minutes that they have to get off work early today for a doctors appoointment, can’t come in today coz I’m sick, I want to take September off to go alligator shooting with my buddies, or deer shooting in August. Oh, I’m sick of it already, keeping track of so many isn’t easy! (continue reading…)

Imagine designing an irrigation pump, to move water from the Murray River up and out to the surrounding farm land that was of such radical, unusual and interesting design that modern engineers would lock you up as insane!

Well, that is how I see the amazing Humphrey pump at Cobdogla. Of the 7 wonders of the modern world, the Humphrey pump would be listed as the eighth. The fact that this pump was though up, conceived, designed, built and actually ran successfully for many years is what this wonder is all about. (continue reading…)

It’s been so long since I had a weekend at home, that: the lawn is taking over, my hops vine is dead and I’m 2 kegs of beer down on beer production! But making another batch of beer had to take second place when Tom insisted that he needed me as a fireman to drive his steam truck to “The Heyfield Vintage Machinery Rally”. (continue reading…)

I have always wanted a Schatz Royal mariner, ship’s clock. A collegue I worked with years ago, had one in his lounge room, and I always admired it for it’s beauty, and authority of ringing the watches on the ship. And how many people took notice, and paid attention to it’s command on when your watch would start and finish; I loved it! So, after 10 years of searching I found just the right one on eBay and brought it! And it made me think of the old days back in another life, when had the world’s best job, engineer of a real steamship. (continue reading…)

They say “practice makes perfect” and we may have done this 99 times before, but this time we got it right! With crowds thronging from far and wide, including England, Canada, America, Colac and other exotic destinations, and traffic grid locking the whole of central Victoria, we hosted the Lake Goldsmith steam rally for the 100th time! Read on…. for the details! (continue reading…)

I was probably about 8 when I got my first train set, and my mind was made up… I was going to grow up and be a train driver! I was ready to leave school at just 16 years old, and passing all the entrance exams was the easy part, but going into the medical was much harder. At the Victorian Railways head office in the big haunted house in Spencer street, they showed me some tiny colored lights in a mirror that were located a long, long way behind me without a problem. But when they brought out this funny book with pictures of pizzas and asked me what number it was, I couldn’t see past the anchovies and  was deemed to be color blind. When they told me I would never be a train driver, I was bitterly disappointed but after continuing on at school, I have managed to carve out a career much better than just driving trains. (continue reading…)

Having 4 days off in a row is too big an opportunity not to do something interesting with, so I headed north trying to escape the winter chills to the place that advertises more sunny days than the Goldcoast; Mildura Victoria. But it was even colder in the mornings, and not much warmer than Geelong through out the day. With not a breathe of wind, if you could find a sunny spot to stand with the sun on your back it was lovely. Like a lizzard on a rock, eh? I visited 2 steam pumping stations, a paddles steamer, and tried some nice local beers. Read on for more! (continue reading…)

I have barely slept at home over the past month. It’s been a busy time but how could I say “no” when faced with another exciting adventure; this time it’s the 98th Lake Goldsmith steam rally. It will soon be back to normal as I return to work on Friday after such a busy holiday! But as for now, I have sworn myself off beer for at least a week! (Hope I make it…) (continue reading…)