Puffing Billy

Puffing Billy runs 24 kilometres from Belgrave, 40 kilometres east of Melbourne on its suburban railway, through the forests and farmland of the Dandenong Ranges to Gembrook. It is a steam railway on track only 762 millimetres wide, opened in 1900 to bring the timber, potatoes and fruit trees of the hills down to Melbourne, and almost from the start it carried day-trippers too.

For them the Victorian Railways built open-sided carriages in 1919, and the same carriages are in use today. Passengers sit on the sill of the open side with their legs hanging over the edge, holding the bar, as the train crosses the timber trestle over Monbulk Creek and climbs through tree ferns and Mountain Ash. The railway still allows it, with rules for children, and not after dark.

The line closed after a landslide in 1953. Volunteers of the Puffing Billy Preservation Society, formed in 1955, reopened it a stage at a time — to Menzies Creek in 1962, Emerald in 1965, Lakeside in 1975 and Gembrook in 1998 — and it now runs every day of the year except Christmas Day.

Belgrave to Menzies Creek

Every train starts at Belgrave, the railway's headquarters, with its running shed and workshop beside the platform. The line sets off along the southern edge of Sherbrooke Forest, cool temperate rainforest under Mountain Ash, and within minutes crosses the Monbulk Creek trestle, 15 timber spans and 12.8 metres high over the creek and the Gembrook road. Just past Selby the old track can still be seen where the landslide of 1953 closed the railway; the line now runs on a deviation built around it. Approaching Menzies Creek, on a clear day, the view to the right reaches Port Phillip Bay and Western Port, with Cardinia Reservoir below. Menzies Creek is where trains in opposite directions usually cross, and it is the home of the railway's museum.

Emerald and Lakeside

After the farmland of Paradise Valley and the wayside station at Clematis, the line reaches Emerald, at 318.5 metres the highest station on the line and the only one with its original station building intact. Beyond it come Nobelius, named for the nursery whose packing shed still stands beside the track, and Lakeside, in Emerald Lake Park, an hour from Belgrave. Most trains turn here; the locomotive takes water, and the visitor centre has a café, the park has walking tracks and paddle boats on Lake Treganowan. Lakeside was the end of the line for 23 years, from 1975 to 1998.

Lakeside to Gembrook

The last stretch runs along the edge of Wright State Forest and over three timber bridges, the largest 61 metres long and 15 metres high, down to Cockatoo Creek, the lowest point of the line. From there the engine climbs at 1 in 30 for 5.2 kilometres, out of the forest into rolling farmland, to Gembrook, 24 kilometres and an hour and fifty minutes from Belgrave.

The trains

The usual engines are the line's own NA class tank locomotives, a 2-6-2T built for the Victorian narrow gauge from 1898: two by Baldwin in Philadelphia and fifteen at the Victorian Railways' Newport Workshops. Six survive and five are in service — 6A, 7A, 8A, 12A and 14A — each painted in a livery it carried in its working life, from two-tone green to Canadian Pacific red and all-over black. The railway also runs G42, a Beyer Peacock Garratt of 1926 from the Moe–Walhalla line, back in steam since 2004; NG/G16 No. 129, a Garratt built in 1951 for South African Railways and regauged for this line, in service since 2019; and Climax 1694, a geared logging engine of 1928, for special trains. On days of total fire ban a diesel may haul the train instead.

Puffing Billy runs every day except Christmas Day. Every train is a return journey: you travel out and back on a set pair of trains, and the outward train you book fixes your return. Trains run as far as Lakeside every day; the through trains to Gembrook, and the short trips to Menzies Creek, run Friday to Sunday only.

Friday to Sunday, 20 July to 21 December 2026

Monday to Thursday, only Belgrave–Lakeside runs, leaving Belgrave at 10:00, 11:00 and 14:15 and returning from Lakeside at 12:25, 14:15 and 16:15. A few days differ — 20 August, 12–13 September and 29 November are special-event days, and 2–3 November, the Melbourne Cup weekend, runs the Friday-to-Sunday timetable. In the winter school holidays (26 June to 19 July in 2026) only two Belgrave–Lakeside trains ran, at 10:00 and 14:15, every day.

On days of total fire ban a diesel may haul the train in place of steam.

Getting there

Belgrave's Puffing Billy station is a two-minute walk from Belgrave station on Melbourne's Metro Belgrave line — follow the blue line painted on the platform. Bus 693 from Oakleigh also stops there. Lakeside can only be reached by car. Check in at the booking office 60 minutes before departure; check-in closes 30 minutes before, and the train does not wait.

Times are from the railway's published timetable for 16 March to 21 December 2026 — as of October 2026. Check the day on Puffing Billy Railway's fares and timetables page (opens in a new tab) before travelling.

Tickets are sold by the railway, online, for a set return journey, and every passenger must book in advance — the railway says trains sell out well ahead. Fares depend on how far you go: an adult pays A$66 to Lakeside and back and A$84.50 for the whole line to Gembrook. Children under four ride on a toddler fare, infants under a year free, and family tickets cover two adults and two children.

Concession fares are for holders of Australian Health Care, Seniors or Pensioner cards and the New Zealand Gold Card only. These fares apply to travel from 1 April 2026 to 31 March 2027.

No rail pass covers Puffing Billy. Interrail and Eurail are European schemes, and Australia is not among the 33 countries in Interrail's list of covered railway companies (opens in a new tab). The railway sells its own tickets, one return journey at a time.

Checked October 2026 against Interrail's list of covered railway companies (opens in a new tab).

Belgrave, Sherbrooke and Olinda are a short drive apart at the Melbourne end of the line; Emerald and Gembrook are on it, and the train stops long enough at Gembrook to see the town.

Most visitors come for the day from Melbourne. To stay in the hills, the places below are one on the line at Menzies Creek and one at Gembrook, the far end.

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