Another instalment in my photos from ten years ago series – this time it is November 2007.
We start at South Kensington station, looking back to a much sparser Melbourne CBD skyline. The main difference – a lack of apartment towers along the northern stretch of Elizabeth Street.
Down on the Werribee line I spotted a single 2-car VLocity train bound for Geelong.
As well as a short 3-car train at a much smaller Laverton station.
2-car VLocity trains no longer exist, having been extended to 3-cars in length, the majority of suburban services are 6-cars long, and Laverton station was been drastically rebuilt, with a new overhead concourse and third platform added in 2010.
I also went Hitachi train spotting, where I found a set freshly repainted into Connex livery in the yards at Macaulay.
Down at Geelong I paid a visit to the railway out the back of Grovedale.
There was nothing out there back then, but today the field is the location of Waurn Ponds station.
November 2007 was also the 70th anniversary of the first ‘Spirit of Progress‘ train running between Melbourne and Albury, with the Seymour Railway Heritage Centre running a special diesel hauled train to celebrate the occasion.
Carriages had to be cleaned.
And locomotives prepared.
With work going on late into the night before the train was due to run.
The train arrived into Southern Cross Station.
With the observation saloon of original 1937 carriage ‘Parlor Car’ facing the end of the train.
And a pair of restored 1950s diesel locomotives up front.
A few hours later we arrived at Albury.
The carriages standing in the ‘break of gauge’ platform, where passengers once had to change trains in the middle of the night on the Melbourne to Sydney journey.
Footnote
‘Parlor Car’ only has an observation saloon at one end of the carriage, so it had to be spun around on the turntable before the journey back to Melbourne.
Which required a trip to Wodonga to shuffle the train around.
The original 1873 railway station at Wodonga closed in 2008 with the broad gauge line, with a replacement station opening in 2011 on the new Wodonga Rail Bypass.
Footnote
Here you can find the rest of my ‘photos from ten years ago‘
I used to love gazing out onto those stacks of shipping containers at South Kensington as a curious kid going past on the train. Do you know why there are no longer such huge stacks of containers there? Has the traffic dried up/gone elsewhere, or does it just use another part of the Dynon facility?
(I also remember wondering what the sign that said “Runaround loco stop here” meant. I remember deciding it must have something to do with runaway trains… clearly I didn’t consider that a runaway locomotive would be unlikely to obey a sign telling it to stop. Sadly the sign is no more, having been removed when the South Kensington runaround loop was rebuilt in 2013.)
These would be the containers in question?
The ‘FastTrack’ service carried less than wagonload freight and was discontinued in the mid-2000s.
Today the sheds have been demolished, with a container park used by Qube Logistics and Aurizon occupying the site.
I used South Kensington from 2007 through to 2012. A great little station. Sometimes the trains wouldn’t even stop as they were so full. Or they’d stop and there’d be a sprint down the platform to find some space to squeeze into. Very occasionally the Willie train would stop (by mistake?) and it was like stepping into train heaven – seats!!!
The trip home was always good – fifteen minutes or so from the city, nice walk past the park. Those were the days!
There were some maintenance (?) facilities there and one of the people had a nice HQ monaro or something. Across in the yards I’d occasionally see what I called the “future train”, which I think is the EL class. My walk home would often coincide with the same P class (I think) which would open up the taps through South Kensington to get up the grade to Footscray – the loudest and stinkiest train I’ve ever come across.
I remember the push-pull services well.
V/Line finally retired them in August 2017.