Photo of young brothers on abandoned locomotive recreated more than 50 years later

THEY’RE the same brothers, on the same old locomotive — but pictured half a century apart.

Russell (right), about 4, and Andrew, about 6, pictured about 1963 on the derelict Climax 1694. Picture: Don Wheatland/Puffing Billy Preservation Society

THEY’RE the same brothers, on the same old locomotive — but pictured half a century apart.

Around 1963, Victorian Railways electrical engineer Don Wheatland captured this happy snap of his two young sons mucking about on a derelict engine abandoned in Gippsland.

Wheatland brothers Russell (right) and Andrew pictured about 1963 on the Climax 1694. Picture: Don Wheatland/Puffing Billy Preservation Society

Fast-forward more than 50 years, and amateur photographer and Puffing Billy volunteer Robert Smith recreated the nostalgic moment in a remarkable snap revealing the engine’s startling transformation.

Wheatland brothers Russell (right) and Andrew pictured on the restored Climax 1694. Photo: Robert Smith

Now hailed as Puffing Billy’s “miraculous survivor”, the Climax 1694 endured a tough early life.

Built in 1928 in the US for our Forests Commission, it hauled timber in Gippsland for 21 years before it was abandoned behind a sawmill.

It was rescued by the Puffing Billy Preservation Society in 1965, not long after the first photo was taken, and later underwent a years-long restoration by volunteers before returning to service in 2013.

Russell, 58, pictured standing on the steam pipe, was about four in the original pic, while Andrew, 60, now Puffing Billy’s signal and telegraph manager, was around six.

The brothers often visited the area as kids with their train-mad dad to check out the former Moe to Walhalla 2 ft 6 in narrow gauge railway — a sister railway to the Puffing Billy line.

“Dad was definitely a railway man,” explains Russell, from Hoppers Crossing.

“We were with Dad at Walhalla for the day and on the way home we stopped at Erica, and it was just a happy snap taken by Dad.”

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In the modern-day pic, Russell couldn’t stand on the scorching hot steam pipe — but he got close.

“I was standing right next to the whistle and the pressure release valve, and I said to the driver as I got up, ‘please make sure you don’t blow the whistle or I’ll fall off!’” he says.

“It’s an unbelievable photo — what a thing to be able to go back 50 years and get the same engine with the same two guys 50 years on.”

To see more of Robert’s before and now compositions, go to facebook.com/Past2Present1.

Have you recreated a childhood family photo? Send us the pics and we’ll publish the best.

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