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How Does a Steam Train Work?
FIRE • WATER • STEAM • GO
Alaia rides Australia's favourite steam train through the Dandenong Ranges and finds out how fire and water can pull a hundred people up a hill.
📍 Puffing Billy, Dandenong Ranges • Victoria
The journey
- 🎟️Belgrave stationWhere the journey begins.
- 🔥Feed the fireboxCoal heats water in a big boiler.
- 💨Steam pushes pistonsSteam takes up 1,700 times more room than water.
- 🌳Over the trestle bridgeLegs dangling out the window — the Puffing Billy way.
🤯 Amazing facts
- ✨When water turns into steam it expands about 1,700 times.
- ✨Puffing Billy first ran in 1900 and is still running today.
- ✨The whistle is powered by steam too.
🧠 What did you discover?
What heats the water on a steam train?
What pushes the pistons?