From Allansford to Warrnambool the highway sidelines were banked up with train spotters eager to catch a glimpse of the historic stream train as it pulled into the city on Saturday.
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There were people sitting on their cars, lined up on the side of the tracks and one creative farmer even sat on top of his tractor loader bucket.
After some technical difficulties with the diesel of the train and plane battery, the plane, piloted by Jordan Koursaris, made an easy win flying in over Allansford a good 20 minutes before the train chugged through.
The event was the brainchild of train enthusiast Eddie White, who was stoked by the turnout.
"The steam rail train has gone well, the diesel's had a couple of dramas but it's been good so far," he said at Allansford.
"The diesel hadn't been giving us as much power as we needed.
"But it all worked out, Steam Rail are happy, I'm happy, and everyone's good."
Mr White's dad Eddie White Snr was proud of his son for coordinating the event.
"It's something that doesn't happen very often," he said.
"It's old and it's been done up, it has had a lot of work put into it restoring it and it's nice to see it going again.
"The new trains are no doubt completely different to this one of course, this takes a lot more organising with water and fuel and whatnot, but it's nice to see somebody put the effort in to get the thing going."
Allansford family Jacob, Ryan and Joel Crispe were excited to get the shuttle back home from Warrnambool station.
"We've come down in support of Eddie and him bringing the steam train to Warrnambool again," Jacob Crispe said.
"It's something that doesn't happen every day so it's a bit of a novelty to come down and go for a ride on the steam train."
Warrnambool City Mayor Tony Herbert was down at Allansford nice and early to see the train come in and ride it into Warrnambool.
"It's just been so exciting, there are people everywhere in Warrnambool all the way along from the Speedway to Warrnambool on the banks taking photos, it's created such a stir and Eddie has bigger and better plans next year," he said.
"I think the appeal is that they are quite spectacular thing to watch, I know there's only a fleeting moment when you see it all, but it's just spectacular.
"It's the whole yesteryear thing, it's a romantic thing, and it's just fantastic."
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