- "A four star mobile hotel"

- Restoration to be completed about mid October

The world’s most environmentally-friendly steam-powered locomotive may bring tourists from Sydney, through the Hunter Valley, to Mudgee and Gulgong.

The train has been undergoing restoration work at the Hunter Valley Railway Workshop, being upgraded to a sumptuous “mobile hotel,” in the words of workshop head Michael Muter.

“It’s a four star tourist train,” Mr Muter said. “A boutique tourist train.”

He said passengers would be seated in club cars, with access to dining cars for a luxurious travel experience.

The train’s 50-year-old coal-powered engine has also been converted to run on bio-diesel, the cleanest fuel available for a steam locomotive.

Mr Muter said the line between Mudgee and Gulgong was shorter and in better condition than the line between Mudgee and Lithgow, and he suggested a campaign for reopening railway lines should focus on that section of track.

Representatives of the Hunter Valley Railway Workshop have visited Mudgee, speaking to wineries such as Paspaley about the possibility of running a food and wine rail tour through the region.

Mr Muter said he saw the route beginning with 40 trips in a year, bringing 10,000 tourists to the region, and possibly raising that number to about 100,000 as the economy improved.

He expects restoration work on the train to be completed by mid-October.

The Hunter Valley Railway Workshop is working with Lithgow State Mine Railway to base the train in Lithgow.

“The west really is an awakening giant as far as rail tourism is concerned,” said Lithgow State Mine Railway chair Michael Wilson.

He said rail tourism had been overdone in southern NSW, while coal trains created too much competition for rail space in the Hunter.

In the Mid-Western Region, however, Mr Wilson said the closed line was the biggest impediment, but felt confident that lobbying and planned meetings with the transport minister could have it reopened.

“I don’t think it’s going to be as daunting as you might think,” he said.

Mr Wilson said Mike Sweeney and the Mudgee Railway Action Group had been very helpful in organising the project.