For those who don’t know, the Landslide has a very historic place in our railway. On the 3rd August 1953, the local Car Goods to come out of Upper Ferntree Gully hauled by locomotive 3A was stopped by a landslide near this site. The Victorian Railways, the original owners of the Puffing Billy Railway, had been looking for a reason to close all uneconomic lines, which included the Upper Ferntree Gully - Gembrook narrow gauge line. An attempt was made to clear the line, but after three days the Commissioners decided to postpone the project and on April 30, 1954 the line was officially closed.

A young reporter with the Sun News pictorial (now part of the Herald Sun) approached the Minister of Transport and the Railways Commissioners for permission to run one last trip from Upper Ferntree to Belgrave, called the “Say Goodbye To Puffing Billy” trip, before all the infrastructure was removed.

About 30,000 people lined the track and 2,500 young Sun News readers, of which I was one, rode the train on 11th December 1954. I received tickets for the 12:20pm from Upper Ferntree Gully and the 01:07pm from Belgrave. This special was so popular that a further excursion was held a few weeks later and over the New Year to Easter of 1955 the Victorian Railways ran several excursion trips of which all were packed to the rafters. During this time the Puffing Billy Preservation Society (PBPS) was formed and from mid-1955 onwards with the help of not only off-duty railway men and women, also other volunteers, and the kind permission of the Railways Commissioners, Puffing Billy operated on weekends and during school vacation until 23rd February 1958, when the Government evoked the Emerald Railways Act, which was to re-build the line and run electric trains to Emerald. However, an amendment to the Act saw the electric trains run only to Belgrave.

On the last day of operation, both 2A and 6A (the spare) operated. So busy was the day that 6 or 7 trips were run and all packed to the doors. “Over 20,000 people lined the route to say one last good bye to this cute little train.

The Minister of Transport kindly allowed the PBPS to operate the railway using railway employees supported by volunteers from Belgrave to wherever. Over the next four years the area at Belgrave where the station now stands was dug out with picks and shovels and carted away in wheelbarrows, and with assistance from the Citizens Military Forces as a training exercise, a new section of track was constructed around the site of the Landslide.

In July 1962, the same days as electric trains began to operate to Belgrave, the Puffing Billy Railway began operating to Menzies Creek. Four years later services through to Emerald and in 1977 Puffing Billy trains made it to Lakeside. Then after a costly High Court Case with the Shire of Sherbrooke who had claimed “Squatters Rites” on the line through the Wright Forest, Puffing Billy began services to Gembrook on the 18th October 1998.