Dennington's Neil Sanders completes decade-long project to get quarter-size Puffing Billy operational

It was full steam ahead for Dennington's Neil Sanders when he took on a half-finished model which had been sitting in a shed for years.

The mission to get the quarter-size copy of Puffing Billy fully operational was put into motion by Timboon's Gordon Rudolph before it was eventually captained by Mr Sanders.

It took him about four years to get the locomotive working before it made its grand appearance at the Warrnambool Model Railway Club's annual exhibition on Saturday.

Mr Sanders said the majority of the train was built during COVID lockdowns.

"It's definitely a labour of love," he said.

"I always wanted to build a bigger model than what I had been working on. When this came along I had a bit of a think about it for a while and thought I'd take it on and finish it. I did a lot of it during lockdown.

"It runs on a seven-and-a-quarter-inch railway and it'll pull about 30 people. It runs on coal, weighs 500 kilograms and is over two metres long.

"There's always little bits and pieces to finish on it but it's getting really, really close."

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He said feedback had been positive.

"It's been pretty good, a lot of people are showing interest in it," he said.

"It's been quite a successful project. Over the years there's been quite a few people work on it, including lots of members of the club."

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