The Valley Rattler.

Like a lot of other places Gympie has a tourist railway, this is known as
The Mary Valley Heritage Railway, so named because Gympie is located
in the Mary Valley which in turn gets its name from the Mary River.



This weekend has included
a holiday on Monday, so
friends Warren and Roz
came up from Brisbane to
visit.
We decided to go for a train
trip on the historic "Valley
Rattler"

The weather was most





co-operative, as the day
turned out to be very nice,
The Rattler is hauled by
the traditional Steam
Engine, which, like all the
carriages has had extensive
restoration work done on it.

"The Three Stooges" on "The Rattler"


The trip takes about two hours each way, with a break at the halfway mark
on both legs of the journey.


The train is staffed entirely by volunteers, all of whom obviously love what
they do, this makes the trip a pure pleasure, as everbody is enjoying the
experience so much.

On the outward trip there is a small craft market set up at a midway station,
then lunch at the small town of Imbil, on the return trip at another small
station there is a wine and cheese tasting of local products.

When we got to Imbil the engine was dis-connected and run up onto a
turntable where it was turned to face the homeward leg, hooked back up to
the waiting carriages, and of we went again.

I will post some more pictures in peters pictures for those who might be
interested.

We had a most enjoyable day out on the, very well named, Rattler, took lots
of photos and got the obligatory coating of soot from the steam engine.