Calling all tiny train enthusiasts - and their parents and grandparents - Canberra Miniature Railway is re-opening and the first train leaves the station this Sunday morning.
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And at just $3 a ride, it's old-fashioned fun at 1980s prices.
Canberra Miniature Railway kept the kids of the capital entertained for more than three decades in its former Kingston location, but development at the foreshore forced the 800m track to close last October and relocate 8km away in Symonston.
Members of the Canberra Society of Model and Experimental Engineers (CSMEE) are working frantically between now and Sunday morning to put the final touches on the brand new rail yard, which includes its own miniature train station.
Kids who pop along this weekend will be able to ride two outline scale locomotives - simply called "81 and AN1" - both built at at a scale of an inch-a-half to the foot.
A mini steam engine called Bunyip, a one third scale model of the Bundaberg Fowler sugar cane locomotive, will also occasionally be rolled out on the new track.
CSMEE president Peter Hateley said the new Symonston track, funded partly by an ACT Government grant and built by hard working volunteers, was the perfect way to "bring to life" a child's fascination with trains. But he admitted some were reluctant to climb aboard at first.
"We have three and four-year-olds who get on the train and they're like, 'Oh, I don't like this' and they start screaming but then about half way around the loop they settle down and you can't get them off," he laughed.
"It's just so good for the kids to be able to ride the train but also to see how they're powered - most of our locos are coal fired, so they get to see the stoking of the coal or briquettes or char.
"We describe it as the perfect day out for people aged two to 102."
CSMEE has 70 members across Canberra the region and according to Mr Hateley, there are scores of locomotives being built in the sheds of suburban Canberra at any given time. But building a miniature locomotive isn't for the impatient, he said, with the average loco taking 3500 hours, or a couple of hours a night, every night, for about four years, to build from scratch.
While a certain British children's train character has inspired a renewed passion for trains in children in recent years, Mr Hateley described miniature trains as a "dying passion".
"We're looking to get younger people involved with the society to ensure it has a future," he said.
"The new track will certainly help with that."
The new Canberra Miniature Railway is located at the end of Jerrabomberra Avenue in Symonston. Open on the second and last Sundays of the month from 10.30am until 2.30pm (not open last Sunday in March). Rides $3. For further information head to www.canberramodelengineers.org.au
