10/06/2026
Simmering away in the old Victorian Railways workshops at Newport, the half-painted hulk of K160 starts to cool down after a successful day of test runs on the Metro network between Newport and Laverton.
With a few parts still to finish - the unpainted tender and the missing smoke deflectors being the most obvious items to tick off - K160 is nearing the end of an extensive overhaul at Steamrail's Newport workshops which should see it return to Castlemaine within the next few months.
Purchased by the Victorian Goldfields Railway (then Castlemaine & Maldon Railway Preservation Society) in 1979, K160 was returned to service in 1986 and spent the ensuing 26 years in service, seeing the railway extend from Maldon all the way through to Castlemaine. After being retired from service in 2012 for a long-overdue major overhaul an agreement was reached with Steamrail to co-manage its return to service - this time with main line certification - as part of the ongoing loco sharing operations between Steamrail and the VGR.
May 30th, 2026.
