About Steam & Engine

At that time Steam & Engine was launched on a public access network called APANA. Although they provided a good starting point for very little money, the link was atrociously slow. After a year or so I moved to our sponsor of the time, WebMania. Then the site existed on its own dedicated server which I ran out of my own pocket (and the link was still too slow). When I worked in the USA from 2000-2002 Steam & Engine ran off a server in California. In 2002 the site moved back home to Australia, but I had a lot of trouble keeping it running on the slow link I had available to me. In 2003 Steam & Engine moved to England! Thanks to the generosity of Paul Evans of www.semidiesel.com. Paul has graciously allowed me to place S&E on one of his commercial servers - thanks mate.

These days there are thousands of engine sites around the world, I still aim to provide one of the best with Steam & Engine. Rather than just provide dry information, I try to include a bit of human interest - I believe that the humans are more important to our hobby than the machines we struggle to bring to life.

I Paul Pavlinovich am a Computer Consultant specializing in System Architecture (Computer System Design). I used to operate my own company, but in 2000 I once again crossed to the dark side and became an employee. I was stationed in the USA four two and a half years working on a smart card system into Public Transit in the San Francisco Greater Bay Area. Today I am back in Australia and work for South East Water Limited in Melbourne (Victoria).

My interests in steam and internal combustion engines started when I was around 6 or so. My father would "drag" me from exhibition to exhibition... back then I did not always want to go, but today I thank him for it. Although I have no formal mechanical or engineering qualifications I have built up enough skill to successfully tear down an engine and rebuild it.

I have two sons, Alexander (11) and Matthew (9) - these guys are both interested in the engines I work on and are approaching the age where I can trust them not to hurt themselves while they help me with a project. Note the rock in Matthew's hand - it is fairly typical of him :). They're both a bit younger in these photos.

Brice Adams
One of the reasons I keep going in this hobby and maintain the enthusiasm required to keep this set of www pages up to date and growing is Mr Brice Adams. Brice started the Stationary Engine Mailing List and has kept his enthusiasm and good grace through out the trying times of running that list. Brice and I have become pretty good friends since we met, to the extent that I impose on him for lodging and transport to the Portland (Jay County) engine show in Indiana USA. On the days when I feel like simply deleting everything, his example keeps me going. Thanks Brice.

A new note of interest... Steam & Engine has been selected to become part of the National Library of Australia Pandora project where it will be periodically archived in preservation accessible by the public. This is quite a cool development and gives my ego a nice boost :).

Guard / Signalman Puffing Billy Railway

In 2005 I qualified as a Guard/Signalman on the Puffing Billy Railway. I had worked on the railway when much younger, mostly in the kiosks, but I did some time on a track gang briefly. When things changed in my life (uni and girls!) I moved to the other side of the city and left the railway behind. In 2002 I returned to the region the railway is in (the Yarra Ranges east of Melbourne) and returned to the railway. I joined the Puffing Billy Museum where I got to play trains and work on the exhibits. This again whet my appetite to be more involved in the train operations. In 2004 I applied to be trained as a Safeworker (Category 2 Rail Safety Worker if you want to be specific!!) and was accepted into course No. 26. After seven months of studying, around 25 written assessments, endless classes and site visits, half a dozen supervised runs as Train Guard and a few supervised goes as Signalman and many many freezing cold dark mornings of shunting at dawn to get the train sets ready for the days running I finally qualified! In the photo at left (which is © Copyright 2005 Puffing Billy Railway) shows our current CEO Ray Leivers, myself in the middle, and our Train Operations Manager Greg Hanslow on the right at my certificate presentation. I'd like to thank the railway for providing a place to have a lot of fun, and I'd like to thank the teachers of the course, the late Peter Walker, Ray Williams, Greg Micheal, Rob Emerson oh and of course shunter extraordinaire and part time torturer Ian Newman. Last but not least, my supervising Guards Cliff Simmons, Matthew Batt, Rob Rossitor, John McDonald and Peter Shallard.

In addition to everything else I do, I devote many hours each week to 1st Emerald Scout Group where I am a leader of the Scouts section. This is a demanding time consuming role in the community but it is worth every second of it. Both my boys are in the movement and the behavioural differences in them are astounding. They're quite independant and able to fend for themselves but still have a strong sense of family and community. Just the other day Alex (12yo) cooked a two course dinner by himself for the family. How many other teens would do that without being made to? I strongly encourage parents and kids to find and join a good Scout group - they're just about everywhere. If you can spare some time, why not help a group and sign up as a Parent Helper or a Leader.