Newly restored Victorian Railways K Class K160 at the Newport Railway Workshop Open Day 2026. K160 had been under restoration for the past decade and only returned to steam in February. She is seen here in undercoat in front of K190.
Victorian Railways K Class, K190, seen in front of S301 outside of the West Block and Clock Tower at the Newport Workshops Open Day 2026. K190 is in a lined red livery – a tribute to the London, Midland and Scotland Railway (LMS).
K190 has had a few appearances on CannibalRabbit before: running a Mooroolbark-Mitcham shuttle in 2009, again in 2010, and finally when we were on-board for the Tait Shuttle between Flinders Street and Essendon in 2017.
The K Class was a light-weight 2-8-0 Consolidation type steam locomotive, designed for branch line freight working. From an initial batch of 9 there were eventually 53 engines in operation, with 21 still in existence. The J Class was a convertible (5′ 3″ to 4′ 8½” gauge) update to the K Class
V/Line P Class P20 outside of the West Block of the Newport Railway Workshops during the 2026 Open Day. The P Class are a rebuild of the first series T Class, this involved a rebuild from the frames up. P20 started life as T337 in 1956 and emerged from Clyde Engineering as a P20 in 1985. Pacific National donated the loco to Seven-0-Seven Operation in 2023, who repainted her into the original V/Line Orange and Grey livery.
Victorian Railways S Class, S301, basks in the sun outside the West Block at the Newport Railway Workshops Open Day 2026. S301 was donated to Steamrail by Pacific National in 2024. Like it’s steam predecessor S301 is named Sir Thomas Mitchell the Surveyor General of New South Wales. Sir Thomas, or Major Mitchell, was responsible for mapping vast tracts of south-eastern Australia in the early colonial days.
A three-quarters view of the yesterday’s AEC Regal III at the Newport Railway Workshops Open Day 2026. In the background are the workshop’s West Block, and the distinctive silver outline of a MET Hitachi unit.
One of the DERMPAV 1949 Model AEC Regal III (201H26) buses at the Newport Railway Workshops Open Day 2026. This is the sister of the other AEC Regal III that I saw back in 2009 at Healesville.
The makers plate on the Cowley Steam Traction Engine at the Newport Railway Workshops Open Day 2026.
The Cowley Steam Traction Engine outside of the West Block of the Newport Railway Workshops. The traction engine was built at Cowley’s Eureka Boiler Works in Ballarat in 1916. This is the last traction engine made in Australia. The traction engine is one of only two surviving Australian-built traction engines and the only one in working order.
M231 stands in the yard in front of the Newport Railway Workshops West Block. Victorian Railways built two M Class shunters in Newport in 1959 to replace ageing steam locomotives used in the works.
A steam injector mounted just in front of the cab of a Victorian Railways steam locomotive. Davies and Metcalfe were among the original developers of the steam injector back in the 1870s. The injector forces cold water into the boiler using the exhaust gas from the boiler with no moving parts, which seems to be impossible. I was going to tag this as a lost brand – but Davies and Metcalfe are still in business servicing the UK mainline industry and heritage sector.
Victorian Railways R Class, R707 City of Melbourne, shunting a couple of wagons around at the Newport Railway Workshops Open Day 2026. The R Class was the last, and most modern, VR steam locomotives.
The view along the Newport Railway Workshops West Block to the central clock tower, during the 2026 Open Day.