A dedicated group of young and old volunteers have spent seven years painstakingly restoring a 123-year-old steam locomotive in WA's south-west.
Their hard work paid off last weekend when the Leschenault Lady returned to steam in front of a crowd of about 1,700 spectators.
The G-class model was one of the primary means of propulsion for the railways at the turn of the 20th century, but this Lady is one of only three operational steam locos left in the state.
While the Leschenault Lady itself is rare, so are the people who know how to repair and restore steam locomotives.
Ian Studham, secretary of Rail Heritage WA, said those who worked on the project represented a mixture of different generations.
"The old guys have the know-how and the young guys have the enthusiasm and get up and go," he said.
"They are skills that get picked up and passed on by guys who love steam and are prepared to put the hard work in.
"And it's a credit to them that they've made it through because we set a deadline and we had to have it running."
Brayden Hesford is an electrician by trade but has been involved in WA heritage rail since he was 14.
"The past couple of years have been full on trying to get the Leschenault Lady going," the 25-year-old said.
"I can transfer some skills [as a electrician] but there's not much electrical stuff on that old sort of machinery.
"The saying goes … with a steam loco it can take you a whole day just to find the problem, but it will only take you an hour to fix it.
Mr Hesford said the morning of the Lady's unveiling was a bit stressful but later in the day he was able to stop and enjoy the experience.
"We had a couple of little technical issues but then, with some gentle persuasion, they came good.
"And by the afternoon I had a little moment, a little smile and a little sit down by myself when we finally hooked one of the old vintage carriages behind it and started chugging up and down."
Hearing the hiss, smelling the smoke
Philippa Rogers, president of Rail Heritage WA, has fond memories of the Leschenault Lady from her childhood.
"It's absolutely delightful to see it like this," she said.
"It really is very much that century feeling because you can see it moving, it makes its own sound as it hisses out the steam, and you can smell the smoke, whether it's coal or wood that's being burned.
Now that the restoration process is complete, the Leschenault Lady will steam up and down the small length of track at the South West Rail and Heritage Centre in Boyanup, but Ms Rogers hopes longer journeys may soon be possible.
"We actually want to do two more things and one is to be able to carry passengers," she said.
"That's a lot of paperwork and safety management that we need to do, and get approval from the rail regulator to make that happen.
"And then we actually want to have a longer piece of line to run it on.
"The railway that used to go down through Capel and Busselton and that area is not being used so we would like to secure a short section of line that we could take people on a longer ride and relive some of those memories."
A film star along the way
The Lady has always been painted black, apart from a brief stint as a film prop.
"She starred in the mini-series A Fortunate Life and she was painted green to match another locomotive," Ms Rogers said.
"She has travelled around to really special events too, when the very first train came from Sydney to Perth, the Indian Pacific, she was there to welcome her.
"One of the great things about it, at just over 40 tons in weight with coal, it is feasible to move her by truck to special events and special occasions."
The Leschenault Lady returned to steam as part of the 150th anniversary celebrations of railways in Western Australia.
