MORNINGTON Tourist Railway has painted one of its locomotives pink to raise funds for breast cancer research.
On 17 October, the community gathered at the railway for a fundraiser, with all proceeds going to Breast Cancer Network Australia.
The pink colour is historically accurate to what the locomotive T334 was painted for a short period 40 years ago.
It was used for a mock V/Line training video which created an anonymised operator, “OzRide”, to depict the importance of taking responsibility for customer service.
The video featured Vince Colosimo and has since been lost, but recently, the OzRide pink has gained a cult following among the rail enthusiast community.
President Joe Skinner said Mornington Tourist Railway wanted to combine rail fan pop culture with a worthy community cause.
“The locomotive’s original paint job was showing its age and time for a re-paint was approaching,” said Skinner.
“One of our members, Keith Holmes, saw this as a chance to promote an event with Breast Cancer Network Australia by painting the locomotive in OzRide pink, as a tribute to its infamous 1986 livery.”
Around 100 litres of paint was needed to cover the locomotive, donated by Haymes Mornington, with volunteers then preparing and painting the final coats.
“We looked at it as a great opportunity to partner with a breast cancer awareness organisation to try and bring some attention to it and try and give something back to the community along with trying to raise some funds and draw attention to both us and breast cancer,” said Skinner.
Skinner said he doesn’t think there is a person in Australia who hasn’t been touched directly or indirectly by breast cancer.
“It’s a really important cause to support and try and get behind raising money towards in the hope that one day there’s a cure,” said Skinner.
“For me personally, my grandmother had breast cancer, and I watched her battle it, and I believe it’s an incredibly important cause to get behind.”
Mornington Railway Preservation Society formed in the early 80s and had a goal of restoring and running trains on the Mornington line.
“We are 100% volunteer-led, so if you look at where we started 40 years ago to where we are now, everything has been done by volunteers,” said Skinner.
“The goal is to maintain and continue to share that steam locomotive and diesel locomotive experience and the train experience from a bygone era, with a whole generation of people who have never seen a steam train.”
Skinner said the event was a chance for the community to get dressed up in pink, come and enjoy a glass of wine and some canapes, and enjoy a train ride in hopes of raising funds for Breast Cancer Network Australia.
He thanked everyone who contributed to the event and who continues to support the railway.
“Thank you for your contributions and thank you for being with us,” said Skinner.
“For all of us at the organisation, the opportunity to give something back to a community that gives us so much support is really important.”
First published in the Mornington News – 20 October 2026
