Another instalment in my photos from ten years ago series – this time it is July 2012.
Off to Sydney
We start this month at Melbourne Airport, where the terminal was in disarray on July 18. But staff shortages weren’t to blame this time – but a power outage.
Leaving the split-flap display board in the international terminal stuck mid-message on ‘Ouckau8hko Jcahao’.
Out airside Virgin Australia was midway through it’s rebranding from Virgin Blue.
And Tiger Airways was still flying.
An hour later, my flight was on the final approach to Sydney Airport.
Down on the tarmac, I snapped a since-retired Qantas 747-400ER taking off.
Then made my way to the airport station to catch a train.
I did the cliche stuff like checking out the Sydney Harbour Bridge.
As well as checking out stuff like the decommissioned toll gates.
Headed to the top of the Sydney Tower to photograph the trains down below.
Down to the tangle of tracks that are the Flying Junctions outside Central.
I stumbled upon the “Pre Production Trial Vehicle” for Sydney’s new fleet of Waratah trains.
And stared in wonder at the realtime train data provided to platform staff at Central Station.
Riding the Sydney Monorail
The real reason for my trip was to ride the Sydney Monorail before it’s upcoming closure.
I went past all of the hackspots.
Wandering around Darling Harbour.
Down to the monorail depot hidden away in the back blocks.
Along the way I found forgotten signage from the TNT Harbourlink era.
And a complicated looking joint in the monorail beam across Pyrmont Bridge.
Used to allow the monorail beam to pivot out of the way of tall ships.
Ding ding
In 2012 the Sydney Light Rail was still using the fleet of 1990s Variotrams.
But I also made my way out to the Sydney Tramway Museum to ride their museum fleet.
And I found a Melbourne W class sitting in their display shed.
And back to Melbourne
My welcome back to Melbourne – going for a cruise down the Yarra River towards the West Gate Bridge.
And back up under the Bolte Bridge.
Far less entertaining was getting kicked off my train home thanks to a door fault.
The entire train load of passengers turfed off at Newmarket station.
Left hoping that we’d be able to catch the next train to come along.
The rollout of Myki was still crawling along, with new ticket gates installed at the south end of Parliament station.
But at least the new Swanston Street platform stops were finally finished!
Leading to the closure of the tram stop at Swanston and Lonsdale Streets.
Some passengers oblivious to the ‘tram stop closed’ signs.
Some things that have changed
Before Regional Rail Link opened in 2015 V/Line and Metro trains shared the tracks through Footscray.
It seems hard to believe today, but until 2016 Flagstaff station was closed all day Saturday, Sunday and Public Holidays.
And until 2015 free copies of the mX newspaper were being handed out to evening commuters.
And some that are odd
On a visit to the Port of Melbourne, I found six X’Trapolis carriages sitting on the wharf, fresh off the boat at Appleton Dock.
We also had the strange situation of a ‘Sydenham’ train line that terminated at Watergardens station – a designation that ended following the extension of electric train to Sunbury.
Box Hill is an odd station – still using ancient CRT screens for the next train displays.
A McDonald’s counter facing into the paid area of the station.
And a complete trackless platform – unused since the 1980s.
I also found a trackless platform at Southern Cross – completed as part of the Regional Rail Link project, but yet to have track installed.
But the most harebrained thing I found was some antennas fitted to a Comeng train.
The antennas were part of a $5.5 million three-year project, testing whether wireless communication between trains and road vehicles would reduce the number of level crossing collisions.
Looking back, spending millions to install radio transmitters on each and every train, along with dedicated receivers in each and every road vehicle, just to give idiot motorists another warning to ignore, sounds like a stupid idea – especially since we’ve physically removed 65+ conflict points between road and rail in the past 10 years.
And a NBN footnote
I also ended up at the NBN Co. Discovery Centre in Melbourne.
Showing off fibre in pits.
Curbside fibre distribution hubs.
And junction boxes for multiple unit dwellings (MDUs).
All were part of the Fibre to the Premises (FTTP) network that was planned to cover Australia, but later abandoned for the half-baked “Multi Technology Mix” of Fibre to the Node (FTTN), Fibre to the Curb (FTTC) and legacy Hybrid Fibre Coaxial (HFC) networks.
Footnote
Here you can find the rest of my ‘photos from ten years ago‘ series.
These antennas which used to be at the side of an Alstom Comeng might have been relocated on the top of the roof (if that was correct).
PS. Between photos 26 & 27, there was a typo that says ‘entertainubg’ – that word was supposed to be ‘entertaining’.
Typo fixed, thanks.
As for the antennas, the Dedicated Short Range Communication (DSRC) kit was just a trial – but the Alstom Comeng fleet did gain an extra rooftop antenna a few years ago. I believe it’s part of the upgraded next train information system.
I always found it interesting that Sydenham line trains terminated at Watergardens and never actually made it to Sydenham! Thankfully the line was extended to Sunbury and that oddity was fixed!
Admittedly I never realised it was a thing until somebody else pointed it out to me, after which I realised I had photos showing it.
Didn’t they rename Sydenham station after Watergardens shopping centre?
The station was renamed for the shopping centre in 2002 when the line was electrified and current station opened, replacing the old station beside the Melton Highway level crossing (since grade separated).
D’ya reckon anyone’s regretting scraping those Variotrams now?
There were seven Variotrams replaced by 12 CAF Urbos 3 to run the longer line – so they would’ve been some use, even compared to the fleet of 60 Alstom Citadis 305 LRVs on the L2 and L3 light rail lines.