Trains

We start the month at Footscray station, back when there were only four tracks – not six.

The reason for my visit – DERMPAV were due to pass through with their 1920s railcar RM58.

I also made a trip out to Eltham to capture Steamrail Victoria running steam trains for the Hurstbridge Wattle Festival.

In what was the last final days of the 100 year old manual signalling system in place between Greensborough and Hurstbridge.

Something old but not quite as old was the 1990s ‘Concession travel is only for concession card holders’ billboard at Melbourne Central station.

But something new for 2012 but seems incredibly dated today is this massive billboard covered in late-2000s internet memes, promoting the then-new free Wi-Fi service at Flinders Street Station.

With mobile data so cheap, does anyone even use free wi-fi connection today?

And something gone completely is mX staff having out their free newspaper.

The last issues was mX was published in 2015.

Meanwhile at Southern Cross the advertising that covered the station was a little different – a travel agency placing infrared heat lamps above their sign promoting summer holidays.

And the Red Rooster advertising screen beside the next train displays was also displaying a live countdown of the next trains to depart.

This was a time before live departure information available to the public, with even the official PTV app relying on timetable data, so seeing realtime information on an advertising screen was quite incredulous.

Finally, I paid a visit to the construction site of the future Williams Landing station.

And the extension of Palmers Road north from the Princes Freeway towards Truganina.

Palmers Road opened first, followed by Williams Landing station in 2013, but the road has already – upgraded from two to six lanes as part of the Western Roads Upgrade project in early 2021.

Trams

I was passing through Moonee Ponds Junction, a decade ago just some bus shelters sitting in the middle of a sea of asphalt.

The route 82 terminus located across multiple lanes of traffic and three pedestrian crossings from the bus interchange and route 59 tram stop.

The tram stop was eventually rebuilt in 2016, with route 59 and 82 trams sharing a new accessible platform stop, next to the bus interchange.

Around the Melbourne CBD

Who remembers the Melbourne Bike Share service – a source of free helmets for cyclists all over Melbourne.

Their bikes were blue, but they had a handful of one-off coloured bikes in the fleet.

The service was eventually shut down in November 2019, overtaken by a wave of venture capital-backed ‘dockless’ bike share services, and now e-scooters and e-bikes.

Something else on the way out back in 2012 was the original 1960s Royal Children’s Hospital building.

Demolished following completion of the new hospital next door.

The land returned to Royal Park, as compensation for the land used to build the new hospital.

But something I didn’t expect to see disappear was the cupcake fad.

Somehow the internet hasn’t killed seedy adult cinemas, but you’d be hard pressed to find a specialist cupcake store these days – burgers are now the big food fad.

And finally, something that you’d think would be gone but keeps sticking around is Telstra payphones.

Back in 2012 Telstra was moving them for maximum advertising exposure, but in recent years they’ve gone even further, turning them into massive digital advertising screens.

And a trip out east

For something different, I went on a road trip out to Gippsland, making a pit stop at the Longford Gas Plant, receiving point for oil and gas output from Bass Strait.

And home of the helicopters used to resupply the 23 offshore platforms drilling for oil and gas.

I also stumbled upon the Bairnsdale Power Station as I drove further west – one of a number of gas fired power stations in Victoria.

So what was my destination? Australia’s highest airport, Mount Hotham Airport!

I waited around for hours in the snow.

Until it finally arrived.

One of a handful of QantasLink flights that served the skifield.

Footnote

Here you can find the rest of my ‘photos from ten years ago‘ series.

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Paperwork ahoy

The morning starting when I pulled into the airport car park at 6.30am.

Then off to the terminal, where I and the other lucky winners met the staff from Melbourne Airport, and filled in the paperwork required to be issued with visitors passes so we could enter the airside security restricted area.

Almost an hour later the paper shuffling was finally done and passes issued, so time to go – upstairs, downstairs, around the bend and then through a staff only door, leading to the security checkpoint leading airside. Time to bring out our ID and visitors passes, have them cross-referenced against the Aviation Security Identification Card of our Melbourne Airport sponsor, photo taken, bags x-rayed and put through the explosive detection swab, and we were in.

Or not – we were greeted by the baggage handing room.

Kane Constructions photo

Down another corridor, out a door, along the apron, and there it was – the bus that would take us out beside the runway.

And the Melbourne Airport airside safety car that would escort us there.

But a piece of bad news – the Qantas A380 arrival we had came here to photograph had been cancelled, the plane stuck in Sydney due to technical issues.

None the less, there was still a busy morning of both international and domestic arrivals and departures to see, so all aboard!

Headed airside

Off we went driving along the taxiways.

Having to give way to taxiing planes.

But we made it – the bus pulled up beside the arrival end of runway 34.

A taxiway on the other.

And aircraft lighting beneath our feet.

Our instructions from our airfield safety escort were quite simple – “don’t go past the gable markers in the grass over there or the runway gets shut down, but you can go behind the bus, just not onto the taxiway”.

Time for some planespotting

The first arrival was a Singapore Airlines Boeing 747-400 freighter.

Touching down a short distance away from us.

Rolling past with full reverse thrust.

Next up was a far smaller QantasLink DHC Dash 8 Q300.

A Virgin Australia Boeing 737-800.

And a Xiamen Air Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner.

Who were amused by our group of photographers standing out beside the runway.

The stream of inbound flights led to a queue of planes waiting to take off.

First to take off was an Air India Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner.

Soaring off into the grey skies.

From out in the middle of the airfield, this landing Jetstar Airways Airbus A320 looked quite tall and lanky.

But the noisiest plane was this relatively small 125-seater QantasLink Boeing 717.

I swear the pilot had wound the two rear-mounted engines up as far as they could go, and launched the plane right off the runway in no time at all.

“Change places!”

With the international arrivals finished for the morning, we climbed back onboard the bus and drove a little further down runway 34 to where departing pilots call “rotate” and take off.

The first take off to greet us – another run of the mill domestic Boeing 737.

A Jetstar A320 that rotated much earlier along the runway.

Another yet another 737, but with far more photogenic lighting.

But it was cameras out for the next departure.

A United Airlines Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner.

Off to the USA.

Next up, a Thai Airways International Airbus A350.

And the last international departure.

A Bamboo Airways Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner off to Vietnam.

And with that, time to go back to the bus.

Our final stop, taxiway Sierra.

To inspect the Cathay Pacific Boeing 777-300ER parked for the weekend.

And with that, our morning airside was over – back onto the bus for the trip back to the terminal.

Footnote: car parking at Melbourne Airport

My usual trick at Melbourne Airport is to head to the cheaper long term car park, rather than park at the terminal. It’s currently branded the ‘Value Car Park‘ and costs $12 a day.

But try and find a space at the northern end, where you can walk direct to the terminals, instead of waiting for the shuttle bus.

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Trains

Work on Regional Rail Link was kicking off at Middle Footscray.

Excavators having rolled in.

To demolish the compulsorily acquired houses along Buckley Street.

Work on the extension of suburban trains to South Morang was almost complete, with track laid up to the future terminus.

As was duplication of the single track section between Keon Park and Epping.

The Metcard ticketing system was still hanging on, but new LCD next train displays were being rolled out.

Southern Cross Station was in the middle of a revamp – adding more shops.

While South Yarra station still had it’s little kiosk sticking out into the concourse opposite the ticket gates.

Things that go bump

On 26 November 2011 a V/Line train bound for Albury derailed at West Footscray.

The train split between two tracks.

The incident investigation report finding:

Shortly after its exit from the Bunbury Street tunnel the locomotive encountered a track defect at a location beneath the Nicholson Street road overbridge in Footscray that caused the derailment of one wheelset.

The train continued for about 1200 metres with the locomotive in this partially-derailed state until it encountered a turnout, resulting in the complete derailment of the locomotive and the first passenger car, and the derailment of the leading bogie of the second passenger car.

There were no injuries to passengers or V/Line personnel; however the track sustained significant damage.

Trams

Back in May 2011 work started on platform stops along Swanston Street – months later, the stop outside Melbourne Central was still incomplete.

Yarra Trams marking November with fuzzy Movember moustaches on the front of their trams.

They’ve missed a few Movembers in the years that have followed, and switched to a simpler stick on decal.

And some other bits

A $300 million expansion of Highpoint Shopping Centre was underway, with tower cranes at work on the 30,000 sqm extension, taking the centre to a total of 156,000 sqm.

Mobil petrol stations on the way out, having been taken over by 7-Eleven.

Down at the west end of the Melbourne CBD things were much emptier.

Emporium Melbourne was just a big hole between Little Bourke and Lonsdale Streets.

A day of planespotting

I made a trip out to Melbourne Airport to photograph the procession of planes.

Finding Virgin Blue’s only ‘blue’ plane.

Air New Zealand 747 – since retired.

United Airlines 747 – also retired.

V Australia 777 – subsumed into Virgin Australia.

Skytraders A319 – famous for another reason.

Tiger Airways A320 – merged into Virgin Australia and since retired as a brand.

Singapore Airlines A380 – on hiatus thanks to Covid.

And a Strategic Airlines A330 – liquidated in 2012.

And a trip to Adelaide

I ended November 2011 with a trip to Adelaide.

Where I rode some trams.

Their ‘Jumbo’ railcars.

And the diesel version of Melbourne’s Comeng railcars.

Footnote

Here you can find the rest of my ‘photos from ten years ago‘ series.

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I only flew a handful of times when I was young, and never with Ansett – my main experience of Melbourne Airport being the hour long drive from Geelong to pick up relatives visiting from Hong Kong. It was on one of these trips that I got bored with waiting for their plane to arrive, so to waste time I ended up wandering over to the Ansett Australia terminal, presumably so I could peer out the windows towards the planes.

Unfortunately back then I didn’t take photos of anything and everything, so I have nothing to show for what I saw, but the magazine details what aircraft Ansett had in the fleet just before their demise.

It was Ansett’s Boeing 767 jets that helps contributed to their demise – the grounding of those aircraft in Easter 2001 led to the general public losing faith in the airline’s safety standards.

Ansett’s response in May 2001 was a $30m advertising campaign, featuring the Vanessa Amorosi song Shine:

The advertisement was filmed at Sydney Airport terminal 2.

The end came on 12 September 2001 when the airline was placed into voluntary administration. Multiple attempts were made to bring back the airliner as a going concern, but to no avail.

In May 2002 the former Ansett domestic terminal was sold back to Melbourne Airport for $25 million, with upstart airline Virgin Blue taking out a agreement to operate from the terminal.

A decade on, what is now called Terminal 3 still has the same Ansett patterned carpet on the ground.

Ansett fonts on the toilet doors.

And on the roof of the building is a forgotten ‘Ansett Air Show’ satellite dish.

Footnote

‘Ansett Air Show’ was the name of the airline’s in-flight news presentation – some further detail is here:

The SatLink digital distribution system was launched in 1994 and enables the delivery of twice daily news bulletins to all Ansett aircraft. Developed and built by AAV, SatLink was produced for the introduction of Ansett Air Show News. The system is activated from AAV’s Control Centre in South Melbourne and uses satellite facilities to uplink information, however SatLink also accommodates fibre optic or MDS technologies.

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Did this pilot land at the wrong airport? Qantas doesn’t serve Avalon Airport, only Jetstar.

This train belongs to Metro Trains, who operate the suburban railways of Melbourne. So what is it doing out in Ballarat where V/Line runs the show?

Car ferry ‘MV Queenscliff’ plys the waters between Queenscliff and Sorrento all day. So what is it doing berthed at Melbourne’s Docklands, a few hours away from her normal home?

In reality, none of the above planes, trains or ferries are lost, they are just away from their usual stomping grounds:

• Qantas uses Avalon Airport as a training base for their pilots, a location suited to the task because of the full length runway and the small number of commercial flights using it. Pilots usually spend a few hours at a time flying circuits and performing touch-and-go landings at the airport: my photo is back from 2010 and shows Boeing 737-400 rego VH-TJR.
• Melbourne’s new XTrapolis trains are being assembled in the railway workshops at Ballarat, where a new 6-car set rolls out of the factory about once every 4 weeks: my photo shows one of these delivery runs. The body shells for each train are built in Europe and shipped to the Port of Melbourne, then transported to Ballarat by road on the back of a low loader. Because the railways of Ballarat has no overhead wires, each completed unit has to be towed back to Melbourne behind a diesel locomotive before they can be tested under their own power, and if all the tests pass the train can then be placed into revenue service.
• Car ferry ‘MV Queenscliff’ was berthed at Melbourne Docklands for an open day held on September 25, 2011 to launch the new corporate image of Searoad Ferries, the operator of the Queenscliff-Sorrento car ferry. She was refitted at a dry dock in Tasmania over the past few months, and sailed back to Melbourne the day before the open day.

As for finding someone looking a bit lost, it appears I’ll have to try a lot harder to embarrass the professionals.

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The first aircraft hangars at Laverton were constructed in 1926-1928 for the No. 1 Aircraft Depot (No.1 AD) of the Royal Australian Air Force, with further expansion carried out when the No. 21 Squadron moved to the base in 1936. The depot went on to play an important part of supporting Australia’s involvement in World War II, with thousands of aircraft had been assembled and tested at Laverton, while many others had been repaired or modified following mechanical failure or damage sustained in battle.

After the war the airfield continued to be a testing ground for new aircraft, remaining in this role until Avalon Airport began to take over in the early 1960s. Flight operations officially ceased at Laverton in September 1996, with the last aircraft departing in February 1998: a de Havilland Vampire jet from the RAAF museum fleet. On closure RAAF Williams was divided into two: the eastern side remained a military base, while the empty airfield was sold to a private developer for housing.

As for the aircraft hangars, they were retained by the RAAF, and added to the Commonwealth Heritage List as a Listed Place in 2009. Two precincts are detailed on the listing, as seen on the map below.

View Larger Map

The area enclosed in yellow is “Precinct 3 – Eastern Hangar Precinct” and consists of three pairs of aircraft hangars built in the 1930s, along with their associated workshops and offices.

Enclosed is red is “Precinct 6 – No 1 AD (West Workshops)”, which includes a large collection of buildings once used by the No.1 Aircraft Depot. Most noticeable in this block is a pair of large brick hangars, but three prefabricated metal hangars also occupy the precinct, along with a half-dozen brick warehouses and smaller office blocks.

Once beyond the boundary fence of RAAF Williams, the remains of the airfield have been harder to find since work started on the new suburb of Williams Landing, which is taking over the site. Out in the middle of the airfield is this lonesome little radio mast…

Down at the south end of the runway the approach lighting can still be seen, as can the special arrangements made to the overhead wires on the Werribee railway line just a short distance past the threshold. As well as being a lower than normal height to give extra clearance, the stanchions supporting the wires were painted in red and white strips for greater visibility.

The big concrete wall behind the railway was only built in the past few years, and forms part of the Palmers Road interchange on the Princes Freeway, with the road soon to be extended across the tracks into the new suburb.

As for the runways themselves a little over half remains: the southern portion of runway 35, the eastern leg of runway 23, and the northern stub of runway 17. No long stretches of pavement remain – the runways having used a dumping grounds for spoil or dug up during the laying of pipes – so no testing your car on the 1/4 mile.

By comparison the taxiway towards the hangars is in better nick, and they look to be popular among local lads wanting to cut some off-street laps.

Work stared on the suburb of Williams Landing in early 2009, with the houses now covering around a sixth of the site. With the sun setting on the runways, it will only a be a few more years until the airfield is gone forever.

Further reading:

• Commonwealth Heritage List: place 106002: Statement of significance for RAAF Williams Laverton

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Located beside the Princes Freeway at Laverton, these aircraft hangars and control tower are all that remains of the airfield that once operated at the RAAF Williams base. Two runways once existed: closest to the freeway was runway 17/35, facing roughly north-south and 1056 metres long, and at a right angle was runway 05/23 which was 1526 metres in length.

The airfield dates back to 1920 when the 160 acre site was acquired by the RAAF, with aircraft manufacturing commencing on the site in 1926. By end of the Second World War flight operations at Laverton had intensified, with various jet fighters and bombers stationed at the airfield, including Vampires, Sabres, Meteors and Canberras.

As for the control tower itself, it has an interesting history as one of the former air force technicians describes:

This tower was originally the jet engine testing facility for the Rolls Royce Avon jet engines used in the RAAF Sabre aircraft in the 1950’s. The Building was subsequently converted into a ATC control tower in 1980 by RAAF No. 1 Aircraft Depot technicians, I was a member of the installation team.

The CA-27 Sabre jet fighter designed and built by the Commonwealth Aircraft Corporation (CAC) at Fishermans Bend, Melbourne. Based upon the North American Aviation F-86F Sabre, the Australian variant was built around the Rolls-Royce Avon engine, instead of the General Electric J47 that powered the original jet. Today one Australian built aircraft is still in flying condition: serial number A94-983 has been restored by the Temora Aviation Museum and is see at airshows and flying displays around Australia.

The Avon RA-7 jet engine was another instance of Australian companies building foreign equipment under licence, with a total of 218 Avon engines being built by CAC. The Mk. 26 was used on the Sabre, while the Mk. 109 Avon was used on the Australian-built Canberra jet bomber. The Temora Aviation Museum also has an example of the latter engine, being serial number 3285.

Back at the test site, the main building contained a large set of baffles, since removed.

Located on the second storey, the baffle room opens out to the exterior via the roller door.

Back at ground level was the main testing room.

Unfortunate the conversion to control tower stripped out anything of interest, such as engine mounts or exhaust ducting.

The other side of the wall appears to be where the exhaust led.

A secondary building was located a short distance away, and contained I assume were fuel tanks for the jet engines under test.

The conversion of the test building to a control tower was relatively simple: a steel and glass structure was just placed onto the roof of the building, with lightweight wall cladding, and lots of glass.
By the time the tower was complete in 1980, the RAAF mission had changed to protecting northern Australia, with Laverton falling into a support role, as the RAAFs modern jets such as the Mirage III, F-111, and F/A-18 Hornet were based at airfields elsewhere in the country.

One role the airfield retained was hosting the RAAF Laverton Air Show, which continued until flight operations officially ceased in September 1996. The last aircraft at Laverton departed in February 1998, being a de Havilland Vampire jet from the RAAF museum fleet.

Since the closure of the airfield, suburban development has filled the paddocks to the south of the freeway, now unhindered by aircraft noise. The tower itself has been heavily vandalised, with the glass windows shattered and much of the wall panels and floor scattered around the nearby area.

The airfield land itself was sold in 1998 to property developer Cedar Woods for $10 million, and in 2007 the area was given a new suburb name – “Williams Landing”. Removal of the north end of the runway commenced in 2010, with the control tower finally demolished in March 2011. Today houses continue to creep south towards the freeway.

More links to read

• Runway details
• Wikipedia on the CAC Sabre jet fighter
• More about the Avon Mk. 26 jet engine
• Photos of aircraft at the airfield (Airliners.net and JetPhotos.net)

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It is a Sikorsky S-64 Skycrane helicopter fitted out for aerial fire fighting, owned by Erickson Air-Crane. Nicknamed “Marty”, the registration is N243AC.

The first Skycrane fire fighting helicopter was brought to Australia in 1997, but it was the success of the helicopter named “Elvis” (registration N179AC) during the 2001-2002 fire season which brought Australian attention to their capabilities. Since then, a number of other Skycranes have visited Australia during the summer to assist in the fight against bushfire.

For transport by sea, the helicopters have their rotor blades removed to save space, then have a protective shrinkwrap applied to prevent corrosion at sea.

The other bits and pieces of the helicopter are packed into standard ISO shipping containers: the label on this box saw it has the parts of helicopter N189AC (nicknamed “Gypsy Lady”).

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Planespotting around Melbourne Airport is dead easy: I was looking out my window in the western suburbs the other day, and snapped a Qantas A380 going past.

If you are hoping for photos a bit more close up, then just jump in your car and drive to one of the spots on the airport perimeter listed at the RWY34.com website. (Protip: runway 34 is the main north facing runway at Melbourne Airport)

However, there are some days when I can’t be bothered driving all the way out to Tullamarine to see planes, or there is an interesting train running that I want to photograph.

Thankfully, there are some locations that combine both: McIntyre Loop is one of them, located in the backblocks of Sunshine.

At ground level, you can see trains on main line between Melbourne and Sydney, being located on the Albion-Jacana goods line.

Meanwhile, the sights up in the sky depend on which way the wind is blowing. When runway 34 at Melbourne Airport is in use, you can catch jets coming in on their final approach.

When the wind is blowing the other way, runway 16 gets used instead, and from McIntyre Loop you can see planes after take off.

McIntyre Loop is about 8 km from the end of the runway, so the planes are still high up in the sky, and with a 200mm lens you can’t fill your entire camera frame with plane.

Unfortunately, you can’t get something for nothing!

So how do you combine your hobbies? Post in the comments!

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