The Best of Puffing Billy Trivia

SOUNDS can make a lasting impression and one unforgettable memory is Puffing Billy’s whistle. As a youngster in the early 1950s this writer would spend the occasional Saturday at the family weekender at Upwey and hear the shrill whistle of the locomotive in mid-afternoon. Although a couple of kilometres north of the railway, the sound was particularly audible and echoed around a valley. The train was probably travelling downgrade from Tecoma towards Upwey with a full head of steam as the driver blew the whistle approaching a level crossing at the main road. It was a full-throated blast from the whistle yet there was something pleasant and appealing about the sound as it filled the valley.