British heritage railways are getting help from across the world in their revision of hot weather plans following the recent heatwave.

The Puffing Billy Railway, near Melbourne, Australia, has shared some of their fire risk management documents with Heritage Railway Association members.

Heritage railways across the UK are having to re-evaluate plans to help them to operate during extreme weather.

Due to the strong relationship between the two teams, they have been provided with documents to provide information on how they run trains in dry, hot weather.

Included in these documents were the Puffing Billy Railway’s ‘Bushfire Management Plan’ and their ‘Fire Patrollers Guide’.

The information provides practical solutions that they have used to ensure the safe running of trains in Australian summers.

The documents are available to all Heritage Railway Association members on the members section of the HRA website.

Peter Abbott – Chief Executive Officer from Puffing Billy Railway, said: “Certainly operating a heritage railway in a high fire risk zones has challenges – but ones that Puffing Billy Railway has long history in managing. We have offered any expertise and documented knowledge we have on hand to our colleagues in the UK heritage rail sector. Puffing Billy Railway learns a great deal from the UK heritage rail sector and so we felt offering our expertise in this way could be of assistance.”

Policy and Communications Manager at the Heritage Railway Association, Mark Pearce, said: “We’re really grateful that our colleagues on the other side of the world at Puffing Billy have been so generous in sharing their knowledge and experience. Thankfully, such extreme weather is still relatively rare in the UK, but if such high temperatures do become more common in the years ahead, our members will need to find new ways to ensure that they can continue to operate safely.

“I hope these documents from Puffing Billy will be really useful for HRA members and perhaps give a different perspective to the challenges being faced – and some of the potential solutions.”