Steam Powered trip

Ages ago, Neil started looking for a steam engine to buy. It was a bit of an up hill battle. They seemed to be a lot more expensive then he thought they would be and also a fair bit crappier for the lot more money. He passed up one or two early on, then started getting a bit depressed he was never going to get one and played 'what if' about the ones he hadn't bought. He was getting really quite down about the whole thing. Many many people from the steam club were looking out for one for him and most of them were really supportive about him getting one. Which was nice.
Anyway, early this month a Burrell Single Crank Compound engine came up in Queensland. Apparently only 37 engines were produced with the specifications of this one, and although as you can see it doesn't look all that flash, it has had a lot of the really expensive boiler work already done.





In the end, it might end up looking like this:
But not for a while, because this is what the wheels look like

Anyway, the point of this post is to tell you Neil has left me for the week/weekend, to go to Queensland to visit the engine. It might be a while before it makes it to Melbourne, as the cheepest way to ship it is to wait for a back load. He is very happy about the whole thing (not the back load, the engine.). He has taken the nice shiney new car. He left this morning at very dark o'clock (about 5.30am) and tonight he is staying in Dubbo, which is further north than Sydney. He is mad. Apparently the owners/ex-owners have organised a BBQ for him on Saturday night and he will be staying with them. They sound nice.
P.S. it's 8 horse power. This is very important....