Another instalment in my photos from ten years ago series – this time it is May 2010.
New construction around Geelong
There was plenty of work happening around Geelong, with construction of the stage 4A of the Geelong Ring Road underway at Waurn Ponds
Passing over the original 1868 stone bridge built by the Barrabool Shire.
And the railway station car park at Geelong station was being rebuilt.
At a cost of $24.5 million.
The heritage listed signal box at the Melbourne end of Geelong station also having been restored.
Progress in Melbourne
Myki was now active on the Melbourne railway network, with a stall at Flinders Street Station was promoting myki to passengers.
While the rollout to trams was continuing, with the installation of ticket machines at CBD tram stops.
New X’Trapolis trains were arriving into Melbourne, and I found one on the wharf at Webb Dock.
But much slower were repairs to storm damage at Southern Cross Station – two months on, and counting.
Scenes that have changed
2010 saw Metro Trains ramp up maintenance across the Melbourne rail network, with one projects being the relaying of track through South Yarra station.
Back then there were gardens beside the railway lines at South Yarra – since cleared to make room for Metro Tunnel works.
While the sidings at ‘E’ gate are now gone – cleared to make room for the West Gate ‘Tunnel’ project.
Ding ding
Malvern tram depot celebrated its centenary this month, with a public open day held to commemorate the opening of the Prahran and Malvern Tramways Trust on 30 May 1910.
Heritage trams #44 and #84 were brought down by road from the Bendigo Tramways for the occasion, with tram #44 running special trips between the depot and Dandenong Road.
Unfortunately in the decade since no heritage trams have operated on the Melbourne tramway network.
In the scrapyard
Rail freight operator Pacific National was busy scrapping redundant rolling stock.
Lifting the wagons off their bogies.
Lining them up beside the tracks.
Ready for a claw equipped excavator.
Ripping them up into a pile of shredded scrap metal.
Crash!
On 4 May a suburban train bound for Craigieburn proceeded past two red signals, and crashed into the rear of a stationary freight train.
They came together at a speed of 47 km/h, pushing the freight train forward 30 metres, before eventually coming to a halt 16 metres after the point of impact.
The driver and 14 passengers on the suburban train were treated by paramedics on site, with the driver and four passengers subsequently being taken to hospital.
The recovery of the train continued throughout the night.
The investigation determined that the driver of the suburban train had passed two signals at stop and travelled at speeds up to 69 km/h, in contravention of the normal rules and operating procedures, but the reason for their actions could not be determined.
However the safety issue that led to the crash was only partially addressed, leading to a similar collision in 2014. The ATSB then became involved, and so in 2018 Metro Trains finally put in place engineering controls to prevent a similar collision occurring again.
Footnote
Here you can find the rest of my ‘photos from ten years ago‘ series.
FYI: images after the first two are broken if the page is loaded with https.
The images in question are all referenced via HTTP from my photo gallery, but the server that hosts them has been redirecting all HTTP requests to HTTPS for some time now.
It works fine for all the browsers I’m using, but there must be some out there that don’t like mixed-mode content, hence your issues.
I reckon I’ll just do a bulk update of my URLs to force them to HTTPS, and fix this issue permanently.
And now the plot thickens – I’m seeing the same image loading issues you are, with “Blocked loading mixed active content” warnings in my browser console.
That is a very busy May. From Myki to train crashes.