Archive for October, 2019

Moving containerised logs by train

Since the first railways were built in Australia, timber has been moved by train – a traffic that still exists today, but somewhat hidden thanks to the rise of containers. In the old days Timber tramways would transport freshly cut logs to sawmills deep in the forest. Museums Victoria image MM 5821 With the sawn […]

Photos from ten years ago: October 2009

Another instalment in my photos from ten years ago series – this time it is October 2009. In with the new Every month seems to involve new rail infrastructure, and this is no different. At Laverton station on the Werribee line, a crane was hard at work lifting the new footbridge spans into place. Cranes […]

Shipping steel on the Frankston line

This is the tale of the 40 wagon long train that heads along the Frankston line, shipping steel to the BlueScope Steel plant at Hastings. Twice a day a train departs the Melbourne Freight Terminal at South Dynon. The train skirts the edge of Southern Cross Station. Then rolls through the river end of Flinders […]

Moving paper by train from Gippsland

Welcome to another instalment in my series on rail freight across Victoria – this time we’re looking at the Australian Paper mill at Maryvale, outside Morwell in Gippsland. Headed down the line Six days a week, a train leaves the paper mill at Maryvale. It heads along a single track siding to the mainline. Where […]

Grain by train to the Kensington flour mill

In the inner Melbourne suburb of Kensington there is a flour mill – this is the tale of how the grain gets there by train. Some history Kensington has a long history of flour milling, as detailed in the ‘Kensington & Flour Milling Heritage Precinct’ section of the Melbourne Planning Scheme: In the 1880s several […]