And as the society calls for more volunteers, he would know.
Mr Andrew met his wife, Janet, when she visited the railway as a tourist. They soon realised a shared passion.
"I thought ‘gee, we might as well get together now’. You’re never too old," he said.
They married four years ago.
For Mr Andrew, the society has been a labour of love in his 37 years as the general manager — a huge undertaking as volunteers have restored, run and maintained their steam and diesel locomotives for the trains that saunter down to the harbour.
Mrs Andrew helps organise the volunteers and their marital union helped fill a gap at the society, her husband quipped.
"She does all the rosters, she knows where everyone is, who’s qualified for this and that ... It works pretty good."
But they need new members.
Mr Andrew said they did have some younger volunteers, but a few more mature members would be keenly welcomed to help train young hands.
Their current volunteers, many in their 50s, 60s or 70s, did a valuable job to mentor new volunteers.
"We’ve got quite a few young ones, but I need some more intermediate people around.
"We work on maintaining stuff to keep things going ... but they’ve got to be trained. That’s probably the hardest thing."
A range of skills would be welcomed, Mr Andrew said.
As it was, one of their key engineers, an 18-year veteran of the society, John Paul, was keen to retire. But after eight years of retirement talk he was hard to replace, given his background as a fitter and turner, ship’s engineer and former power station operator.
"He’s 82 this year. So we’ve got to find someone who has the good knowledge that’s required."
Mr Andrew said there were also other jobs behind the scenes and specialised areas to fill.
But importantly for a railway, "I’m running out of steam drivers and steam firemen."
