President Colin McConnell, who has been involved with the miniature railway for about 30 years and president for the past 10 years, said the railway operates on the first Sunday of each month from March to December.
“We run from 10 to three on those days, passenger-carrying trains,” he said.
The railway has been operating at Rotary Park for about 40 to 50 years, having opened in the early 1970s.
“Basically, for the last 100 years, people have been making little models of things, scaled-down models, and they were looking for somewhere to run them,” Mr McConnell said.
“So, these little model miniature railways popped up around the country.”
The trains come in several varieties, including steam-powered ones, petrol-powered models that resemble modern diesel-electric trains and battery-powered models.
“Mostly they are the petrol, diesel-electric ones,” Mr McConnell said.
“They look like diesel-electric trains, but have a little petrol engine inside them.”
Mr McConnell became involved after wanting to build a steam traction engine.
“I needed to be a member of a miniature steam club,” he said.
“The only one in the area was the miniature railway, so that is how I became involved.”
Unfortunately, no miniature steam engines will run this Sunday, only diesel-electric engines due to a shortage of members to operate them.
“It used to be up until probably 10 years ago, it used to be all steam trains, and we would get eight or nine of them at a time,” Mr McConnell said.
“But it is getting more and more difficult to get the steamers out these days.”
The Campaspe Valley Miniature Railway Inc. would welcome and encourage new members.
Children six and under must be accompanied by an adult and tickets can be purchased at the ticket office.
While the Echuca Moama Steam Revival typically runs during the King's Birthday weekend, no public event will proceed in 2026 due to a lack of funds and volunteers.
However, visitors may still find other steam exhibits and historical displays at Rotary Park on the weekend.
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