Thomas the Tank Engine Blog

Nearly complete, the new water tank and coal bunker stand in the fabricators workshop last week. Above you can see the front water tank before the outer sheets were fitted,…

More exciting news for the NG/G16 project: The front water tank and the combined hind* tank/coal bunker are currently being manufactured, and should be complete soon. The original items were…

These are the first pictures to be published of the new boiler for NG/G16 129.  Currently under construction at the works of E. R. Curtain in Sydney, these photographs show…

Machining has progressed a long way since we last wrote about the new Na locomotive cylinder castings. The first two (seen here) are currently undergoing final machining, whilst at the…

The inner and outer pony trucks are another task entrusted to our contractor Jack Thompson Engineering. Here one of the outer trucks has been set up for machining rivet holes.…

Work continues apace at Jack Thompson Engineering, with the engine unit frames undergoing final assembly and machining. This involves clamping all the parts in position while the holes are bored…

Puffing Billy recently took delivery of a brand new boiler for the Decauville supplied pannier-tank  number 986, ‘Carbon’. Designed in-house by the Puffing Billy engineering team, the boiler will replace…

At engineering contractors Jack Thompson Engineering, the frames of the 2 engine units are being assembled with fitted bolts. Above, the front engine unit sits on the horizontal axis machine…

  14A, the youngest of Puffing Billy’s fleet of Na class locomotives, nears the end of an overhaul, ready to celebrate it’s 100th birthday later this year. Work includes the…

  Purchased in 1996 from the Alfred County Railway in South Africa, NG/G16 129 was built by Beyer Peacock in England, in 1951. After shipping to Puffing Billy Railway’s headquarters…