Great Duck Race Train trip

 There is an interesting yearly tradition in the country town of Strathlbyn, a short drive from Adelaide. It is called the Great Duck Race. I haven't never seen it before now, despite living in Adelaide since 1994! 

I decided this year would be the year, especially since Steamranger has a special train from Mount Barker to Strathalbyn on December 1st to allow people to go to the race and return without having to drive there! 

I pre-booked the tickets and turned up at Mt Barker station in the morning, ready to experience this event with my wife.

Given we are well into bushfire season, Steamranger doesn't use the steam locomotives for this journey. Instead we have the classic Red Hen train and consist, as used on the Adelaide Metro train network until the 1980's.

These carriages were infamous as they don't have air conditioning in them, which meant that when they were in active service, the doors used to be kept open to allow fresh air into the train while it was in motion!

Of course that would never be allowed today, and so we all open the windows in the carriages so we get some cool air!

As we set off, we are given a programme showing the Great duck race schedule and location in Strathalbyn.

They also give us all a numbered rubber duck. More on why shortly!

There is also a Christmas market running alongside the race itself, so it promises to be a great day.

As always, the train travels through beautiful countryside on the way to Strathlbyn. 

Steamranger also runs a service that continues all the way to the coastal town of Victor Harbor, which I have been on several times before and it is very enjoyable.

Along the route we also spotted a few kangaroos:

We arrived in Strathlbyn on what is just such a beautiful day. 

I love the train head board on the front of the train. Sets the mood nicely!

As we walk into Strathlbyn town centre from the railway station, I note these duck containers in the restaurants to hold the salt, pepper and sugar - very cool!

As we arrived at the event, we can see they have installed piping along the river banks that runs through the centre of Strathlbyn. This is the contain the racing ducks.

We arrived before the races started, so we took a look around at the Christmas market nearby, with lots of stalls and a local band playing Christmas music.

So, let's talk about the duck race.

The great duck race is a large pile of rubber ducks placed into the river, and they travel from the start line to the finish line within the river. Each duck has a number, and you can buy raffle tickets with one or more numbers allocated to you. The train trip included a number for each passenger, but you can buy additional numbers up to the maximum number of ducks in the race!

Since there is normally more people than ducks, they run several heats for lower prize money, to give everyone a chance to enter one of the races during the day.

As you can see, there are a lot of ducks! However, if we had to wait for the ducks to move down the river, under the bridge to the finish line beyond, we would only have one race in the day! So, behind the ducks is a man in a boat and a leaf blower, pushing the ducks along!

I had to laugh at this point, as the ducks on the edges blow around all over the place!

The piping on the river finishes at a narrow point, with a small finishing line at the end. The top three ducks are removed from the water and the numbers read out. If the number matches one you bought in the raffle, you win a cash prize!

The 1st place prize in the main race is $1000, so it is worth giving it a go! All money raised is for local charity work in Strathlbyn, so it is for a good cause also.

In between races, some interesting boats float along the river, made by the locals.

WE went to a local cafe for lunch and looked around the many very large antique shops, which is one of the things Strathlbyn is well known for. It is always fun to look through them.

Time for the Great Duck Race, the main event of the day.

There is a large number of ducks in the main race, and with $1000 on the line, plenty of attention!

Sadly we didn't win the race, or finish in the top three in any heats, but we had a great day out and it was really fun! 

I highly recommend going to the Great Duck race in Strathlbyn if you get the chance to!

Steamranger Steamfest 2013 in Adelaide Hills

Back in May 2013 Steamranger ran it's annual SteamFest event at Mt Barker Station, in the Adelaide Hills.  The highlight was the running of Steam Locomotive 621 from Mt Barker to Bugle Ranges!

Steamranger runs a number of heritage steam trains (and some heritage diesel locomotives) from it's base at Mt Barker Station, all the way down the old Victor Harbor railway line to Victor Harbor. They regularly run Cockle train services from Goolwa to/from Victor Harbor.

So why are they at Mt Barker instead of Adelaide? Well, at one stage they were based in Adelaide (Dry creek Station) running steam train services to Belair, Victor Harbor and stops in between. I never had the chance to do this from Adelaide unfortunately.

However back in 1995 the government of the day converted the dual broad gauge railway lines on the Belair line (which continues on to Melbourne) to a standard gauge line for freight traffic going to Melbourne (and the Overland passenger train to Melbourne) to use the same standard gauge line used elsewhere beyond Adelaide.

One of the two broad gauge lines was retained as broad gauge for the Belair Adelaide Metro line, which now finishes at Belair station. Originally though, the line continued to the Adelaide Hills town of Bridgewater (and Melbourne beyond that), and a branch line split off at Mt Barker Junction to Victor Harbor.

Unfortunately beyond Belair both lines were converted to Standard Gauge, so the split off point was on the line that was converted to standard gauge, which meant that when the conversion work was completed, the Victor Harbor broad gauge branch line was disconnected permanently and isolated from the rest of the broad gauge network in Adelaide.

This meant that Steamranger had to relocate all it's facilities and trains from Dry Creek to Mt Barker, which is where it is based now. You can read all about Steamrangers operations at their website at http://www.steamranger.org.au

So as part of Steamfest 2013, Steamranger open up their workshops (normally closed to the public), so the public can take a look at what they are working to restore. Naturally I took a peek, starting with the train carriages and locos pulled out for public display:

The restored carriages on display looking wonderful:

Inside the workshop you can see (in the distance) an ex Limestone Coast Railway train (used to run from Mount Gambier in South East South Australia for tourist runs) - unfortunately the Limestone Coast service stopped service before I got a chance to ride it. A Steam loco boiler is also being worked on:

Inside one of the restored carriages, used in Steamranger train services:

I then went back to the station to buy my Steamfest ticket to travel on the 621 Steam train ride to Bugle Ranges. Here is the ticket:

It is a short trip, but long enough to get the feeling of traveling in Steam trains of that era.  I grabbed some photos of the train prior to departure:

As an aside I bought a number of the many souvenirs that were on sale at Mt Barker Station for Steamfest, including buying a new mug, train books, DVD's and a wonderful framed photo of the 621 locomotive in action near Victor Harbor!

My seat was a window seat in one of the restored carriages, looking great:

And then we set off. The scenery along the way from the train was great, so I include some photos of that too:

Working our way through Mt Barker:

Winding our way through to Philcox Hill:

Arrived at the site of the former Philcox Hill Station:

Continuing on towards Bugle Ranges. The feeling and sound of a steam train is wonderful, and fills me with excitement!

We arrive at the final destination, the former Bugle Ranges railway station (photo a bit blurry sorry). The railway line continues all the way to Goolwa and Victor Harbor on a trip called the Southern Encounter. I have been on this trip also and I will cover it in a future blog entry!
 

Because there is nowhere at Bugles Ranges to turn around, the train had a heritage diesel engine at the back, which now become the front as we headed back to Mt Barker. Some beautiful scenery could be seen from the train too:

On arrival back at Mt Barker station I quickly ran to the end of the platform to get a photo of the heritage diesel loco before heading home for the day:

Steamfest was a fun day out, and thanks to the Steamranger volunteers for making a great day for all to enjoy. It is recommended for anyone who can to go to Steamfest in 2014 - perhaps I will see you there!