Another instalment in my photos from ten years ago series – June 2006.
On the La Trobe Street bridge I spotted a green liveried W class tram on a route 30 service.
Today the skyline has been filled out with apartment blocks, and the W class trams are gone – withdrawn from route 30 in December 2014.
Meanwhile on the edge of Docklands I swung past the front gate of the Melbourne Steel Terminal – here large gantry cranes were used for transhipping loads between broad and standard gauge freight trains, on their journey between Hastings and the rest of Australia.
The area is also known as ‘E Gate’ and is proposed for high density development – the freight terminal itself closed in mid 2015.
I also went past the South Dynon locomotive depot, where I found a collection of rusted out Y class diesel locomotives in storage.
There they sat for many years, until they finally got the chop in 2015.
Still on the hunt for freight trains, I made my way out to the ‘Rising Sun’ footbridge at Middle Footscray station.
Said view is no longer possible, with the massive 1 McNab Avenue tower in Footscray dominating the skyline, and the footbridge itself was demolished in 2013 to make way for the additional Regional Rail Link tracks.
I also stopped by at East Richmond station, where a number of Comeng trains passed me by.
2006 also marked the end of widespread usage of ‘half sized’ trains on off-peak suburban services, such as this three car long Werribee line service.
In the past decade order upon order of new X’Trapolis trains have been delivered and deployed onto the Burnley and Clifton Hill groups of lines, resulting in the Comeng fleet being sent elsewhere in Melbourne, and six car long trains being the norm.
Another outing during June 2006 was a trip with the Seymour Railway Heritage Centre from Seymour to Geelong and return.
The lead locomotive was T378 – then last active diesel still wearing the V/Line orange and grey livery from the 1980s.
At Southern Cross I also saw something much shinier – VLocity unit VL31 soon after entering service.
Footnote
Here you can find the rest of my ‘photos from ten years ago‘ series.
Just to be picky 🙂 Surely the ‘rising sun’ footbridge was at West Footscray, not Middle Footscray?
The bright was closer to West Footscray, but the trains I photographed were closer to Middle Footscray. 😛