STEAMRAIL's D3 639 Arrives

Hooley Dooley! Would you take a look at this? One of the final additions to my Philden Street Yard layout may very well be the jewel in the crown of my small bookshelf layout. It is a Phoenix Reproductions Victorian Railways D3 class steam locomotive complete with DCC sound that had quickly sold out when first released early in 2022. But... after already adding some Steamrail heritage passenger cars to my roster in March, as luck would have it Metro Hobbies in Melbourne just so happened to list 6 for sale on their eBay store on a weekend when there was also a 20% off selected Toys & Hobbies promo happening. I've always stopped short of considering a HO scale Australian steam locomotive on account of the price, but 20% off? This was my chance. After making my purchase, I also shared the link to a Facebook group that I am a member of, and by next morning they were all gone.

I love the working red and white marker lights on the D3, not to mention that big, beaming headlight!

What makes the D3 No. 639 special, is that it's the STEAMRAIL preserved Vintage Train locomotive. It allows me to run a 100 year old steam locomotive on my early 2000's era Melbourne layout with my 3 x STEAMRAIL Victorian Railways E cars, and still be prototypically correct. Well, so long as you ignore the few years that 639 was renumbered back to its original no. 658. It's a long, and often confusing history on what is a popular restored steam locomotive that is still in service today after almost 120 years that you can read all about on Steamrail's website here. For me? Well, as I've said previously I never built this layout for passenger operations, so its pretty cool to be able to incorporate a heritage tour train being stabled overnight in the back sidings of my inner Melbourne layout.

There's not much to simulate in the way of operations other than to have the 639 arrive with a short rake of passenger cars after a tour train has terminated at Melbourne's Spencer Street Station (as it was known in the early 2000's). The loco then runs around the carriages, and shunts its' train into the number 1 road behind the view of the soon to be named Distribution Centre. I can fit all 3 Steamrail cars in the number 1 road, just not the locomotive. The steam locomotive ironically then needs to move to either of the diesel refueling tracks to stable for the night. Next morning the train is reassembled and returns to Steamrail's Newport Workshops for storage until the next Vintage Train Tour.

Strangely I forgot to turn the rear marker lights on when taking this picture... oh well, next time!

As I'm not going to be able to jet off to Melbourne for a weekend steam train tour anytime soon, adding this gorgeous little steam loco to my small roster may be just the ticket I need for an imaginative railfan weekend at home! The detail on the model is phenomenal, and the sound is superb! SDS Models and Phoenix Reproductions together have done a fantastic job in producing this model. For all who missed out, I believe there is a small second run being released soon in some different variations, although admittedly Australian HO scale steam locomotives do happen to sit on the expensive side of the hobby. In my case however, with a likely downsize to a small apartment happening in the very near future, I had just finished selling anything that didn't belong on this layout that would likely end up in storage for who knows how long. Perhaps this was a case of better directing my hobby money towards something I will get a lot of use and enjoyment from? I don't know. I just know I like the D3 very much.

For anyone who follows my YouTube channel, you would have already seen the short video I filmed of D3 639 wandering about my layout in the first week that it arrived. But in case you missed it here it is again...

The addition of the D3 brings my sound equipped locomotive fleet to 4, with 2 x Auscision Indigenous NR Class locos still to come. I'm still wrestling with the merits of converting my Freight Australia P Class to DCC against simply pre-ordering a Freight Australia G Class loco that will already come DCC sound equipped. A pair of Bulldog B Class locos, a pair of NR's and a pair of box cab locos in the form of an ex-NSW 422 Class and a Victorian G Class... and a steam train for good measure. That's a different loco for every day of the week. For a small bookshelf layout it's hard to justify anymore than that.

But for now, the sounds of steam have been a pleasant addition to Philden Street Yard.