Another instalment in my photos from ten years ago series – this time it is April 2008.
On April 2 a dust storm hit Victoria – here was my view on the train home to Geelong.
The storm also brought down trees, stopping trains passing through Glenferrie station.
Opposite Southern Cross Station, work on the new offices for The Age was starting, with a tower crane being erected to place massive steel beams to span the railway tracks below.
Closer to home work was well underway on the Geelong Ring Road, with the bridges over the Moorabool River at Fyansford almost complete.
The long cutting between Ceres and Fyansford had also been cut through the Barrabool Hills.
Down at the North Geelong rail yards Pacific National was busy clearing out their collection of life expired freight wagons.
Cranes picked up each wagon, allowing the wheelsets to be taken away for reuse.
With the bodies being loaded onto trucks, and taken away to the scrap yard.
Also at North Geelong I found this two car VLocity train, passing the resleeping work mentioned last month.
This collection of hi-rail equipped excavators was fitted with specialised to complete the work.
Such as cleaning out the ballast.
Sleeper insertion.
And ballast tamping.
At Richmond station I saw a train that no longer exists – an A class diesel headed for Frankston, with a single carriage in tow.
Back then the Franskton – Stony Point service was operated by diesel locomotives hauling two to three ‘MTH’ type carriages, with the engine needing to run around the train at rach end of the line. This ended in April 2008, when the current Sprinter railcar service was introduced.
Footnote
Here you can find the rest of my ‘photos from ten years ago‘
Really interesting photos. It’s a wonder that the expired freight wagons couldn’t have been towed by train somewhere for disposal. A two car VLocity train is a real blast from the past. About ten years ago my ex sister in law had a market stall at Frankston Market and I remember seeing from the market a train engine named Sir Harold Clapp taking off with carriages to Stony Point.
A60 bore the ‘Sir Harold Clapp’ name:
In the case of the wagon scrapping the main concern is easy crane access – in 2010 they used a siding at Brookyln in Melbouren’s west for this purpose, cutting up the wagons once off the rails.
By 2014 the scrapmetal was being shipped off overseas, so they started cutting up wagons beside the sidings at North Geelong and loaded into containers.