I hear from a friend down under that Puffing Billy has returned 6A to service after a major overhaul. The locomotives on PBR are home-built copies of Baldwin 2-6-2T's. 6A was in fact modernized with Lempor exhaust (not sure of gas producer was retrofitted) and is now the quietest engine on that line. Time will tell if she is also the most economical.

The PBR locomotives are all gutsy little things and work very hard in daily service. I do not believe there is an original boiler in the bunch. This in no way detracts from the quality of the experience on that tourist railway which makes even our best seem anemic in comparison.

Best wishes and congrats to the mechanical geniuses of Oz.

Dave

irondave@bellsouth.net