The first standard gauge retirements

The trigger for the first tranche of locomotive hauled carriage retirements was the introduction of the new standard gauge VLocity trains to the Albury line.

This left the four standard gauge ‘N’ type carriage sets previously used on the run surplus to V/Line’s needs – a total of 16 sitting carriages, and four power vans. The four accessible carriages were converted to broad gauge, providing accessible toilets and sitting areas to other V/Line trains.

And the rest of the carriages were stripped of the PTV livery decals and sent to the Seymour Railway Heritage Centre yard for storage.

Where they had to be uncoupled one by one, and shunted into their yard via the turntable.

And nine carriages earmarked for other railway preservation groups then transferred to the Ettamogah Rail Hub outside Albury, where they quickly became covered in graffiti.

The first usage of these retired V/Line carriages by a preservation group occurred in April 2023, when the Seymour Railway Heritage Centre ran a tour from Seymour to Laverton to pick up diesel locomotive S307, and return it to their depot.

In June 2023 the Australian Locomotive and Railway Carriage Company sent ‘Murraylander’ liveried diesel locomotive 701 from their base at Tailem Bend to pick up four carriages owned by Steamrail Victoria from Ettamogah, pending future use in South Australia.

And 707 Operations made the trip to Ettamogah in August 2023 to pick up their power van and five sitting carriages.

Making their debut in January 2024, on a tour from Southern Cross to Inverleigh and return.

And the retirements continue

With VLocity trains introduced to the the Bairnsdale and Shepparton line services in August 2018 and October 2022 respectively, the destinations for V/Line fleet of broad gauge carriages was also shrinking.

And so in December 2022 V/Line sent a five car broad gauge ‘N’ type carriage set from Newport Workshops to the Seymour Railway Heritage Centre for storage.

In May 2023 two carriages were transferred to the Victorian Goldfields Railway at Castlemaine.

In July 2023 three carriages were delivered by road to the Daylesford Spa Country Railway.

Video by ‘Driver667’

And the Seymour Railway Heritage Centre received a carriage by rail.

In September 2023 the Mornington Tourist Railway had three carriages delivered by road.

Mornington Tourist Railway photo

And Steamrail Victoria picked up their allocated power van.

The end result – carriages from the 1980s being used by railway preservation groups on weekends to carry tourists, while V/Line still uses a handful of older carriages from the 1950s on their mainline services.

Footnote: the number crunching

The current allocation of V/Line ‘N’ type carriages to railway preservation groups is as follows:

• 707 Operations (standard gauge):
  PCJ493, ACN48, BRN43, BN22, BN5, ACN45
• 707 Operations (broad gauge):
  PCJ492, BCZ257, BTN259
• Daylesford Spa Country Railway (broad gauge):
  ACN54, BRN52, BN1
• Mornington Tourist Railway (broad gauge):
  ACN33, BRN31, BN25
• Seymour Railway Heritage Centre (standard gauge):
  PZ260, ACN3, BRN53, BN19 and BRN46
• Seymour Railway Heritage Centre (broad gauge):
  BTN264
• Steamrail Victoria, leased to The Picnic Train, hired to Australian Locomotive and Railway Carriage Company (standard gauge):
  ACN24, BRN34, BN7, BN10
• Steamrail Victoria (broad gauge):
  PCJ491, BTN254
• Victorian Goldfields Railway (broad gauge):
  BTN263 and BTN268
• Yarra Valley Railway (broad gauge):
  ACN12, BRN44, BN11

Unfortunately the set allocated to the Yarra Valley Railway is a bit of an enigma – nobody has posted photos of it online yet!

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Regional Rail Link

Progress on the Regional Rail Link project has been a theme in recent months, and this is the same – plenty of work at Footscray station, along with a clear view back to the Melbourne CBD.

With a major shutdown of the suburban lines coming up to install new bridges over the railway line between Footscray and Middle Footscray.

Excavators and dump trucks rolling in a few days later to widen the cutting.

And to demolish West Footscray station to make room for extra tracks.

The ‘West Footscray’ station signage being unceremoniously thrown into the bin of scrap metal, rather than sold off to collectors.

Trams

The Colonial Tramcar Restaurant was still running around Melbourne.

The service last ran in October 2018, when Yarra Trams banned the fleet of the network citing safety concerns.

As were the maroon liveried City Circle Trams.

2013 also saw the launch of Melbourne Art Trams – a revival of the Transporting Art project which ran from 1978 to 1993.

The brand new E class trams were finally running around the network, but still on test.

As were the upgraded ‘W8’ class trams for use on the City Circle – I found this one at the route 82 terminus at Footscray.

Clueless drivers

It takes some skill, but some motorist managed to impale their car onto the tram stop safety zone prow at Newmarket station.

But this motorist went one better, taking out the entire tram stop.

At last one service disruption Yarra Trams could not be blamed for was this one on Maribyrnong Road, Ascot Vale – strong winds tore the roof off an apartment block, which then landed on the tramway overhead, stopping trams.

New tram tracks

For a few days route 19, 57 and 59 terminated at a temporary crossover north of La Trobe Street.

So that the tram tracks along Elizabeth Street could be dug up.

And new tracks laid.

Ready for the constructor of long awaited platform tram stops.

And then work stopped – two weeks later, the trams stops were still not ready for use.

With work on the fencing being dragged out.

With the tram stops still unfinished at the end of the month.

Buses

On my lunch break I found a Melbourne Visitor Shuttle bus – a victim of competition from the Free Tram Zone, the City of Melbourne finally killed off the service in August 2017.

Transdev was also making their brand more visible in Melbourne, having taken over the operations of National Bus Company and Melbourne Bus Link the month before.

And the other bits

With the Spring Racing Carnival upon us, it’s time for more gambling advertising – this time it was bookmaker ‘Bet365’.

Out at Melbourne Airport the 1970s water tower was still in place outside the Terminal 4 construction site, but was soon gone, deconstructed piece by piece.

Also gone is Melbourne Bike Share – the service was wound up in November 2019.

On Ballarat Road in Footscray I found this still functioning neon sign at Douglas’s Service Station.

And something new for the time – my first sighting of a 1AA-1AA series registration plate, which had been launched in August 2013 along with the ‘Vic – Stay Alert Stay Alive’ slogan.

The new number sequence is estimated to be provide enough combinations to last for 50 years, but the slogan was dumped for ‘Victoria – The Education State’ in October 2015.

And a steam train

I made the trip out up north to Castlemaine on a Steamrail Victoria special.

The selling point being the side trip along the Victorian Goldfields Railway.

Where the train would stop in the middle of nowhere to let passengers exit.

Then line up in the forest.

To photograph the train passing us by.

Known as a ‘photo line’ it has been a traditional part of steam train excursions in Victoria since the 1960s, when esteemed tour organiser Eldon Hogan would bark directions to waiting photographers with his Hogaphone.

Footnote

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

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Lots of construction

On the Craigieburn line, a new $38 million railway station was taking shape at Coolaroo.

While at Craigieburn the second platform was being prepared for the use of suburban trains.

Both projects were originally intended to be part of the Craigieburn Rail Project completed in 2007, but descoped to a lack of funds.

Down on the Werribee line the $92.6 project to add a third platform to Laverton station was well underway.

The old ramp was ready to be demolished.

To be replaced by a steep set of stairs, and unreliable lifts that are too small to take an ambulance stretcher.

Work was also well underway on the new footbridge at Footscray station, with the site cleared.

And the first bridge span waiting to be lifted into place.

And a short distance away at Sunshine a different rail bridge was under construction.

Costing $15 million, the 8 span 220 metres long ‘Brooklyn Sunshine Triangle Bridge‘ enabled freight services from the north and west of Victoria to pass through Melbourne, removing the need for trains to stop at Tottenham Yard and reverse direction.

Regional Rail Link kicks off

August 27 saw the media circus roll into Southern Cross Station, as state and federal politicians turned the first sod for the Regional Rail Link project.

The crowd of minders having arrived an hour earlier, including a construction worker charged with making sure the pile driver was spotless.

The politicians and media scrum had to make their way through the old Spencer Street subway.

Where they emerged at the future platform 15/16.

Victorian Premier John Brumby, Federal Infrastructure and Transport Minister Anthony Albanese and Victorian Public Transport Minister Lynne Kosky were there.

Where they slowly raised and lowered a pile driver head.

I also headed out to Wyndham Vale, where a long empty strip of land marked the site of the future station.

Dennis Family Homes, developer of the Manor Lakes estate, couldn’t believe their luck – their advertised ‘transport link’ was actually happening.

The new line opened to passengers in June 2015.

Around Melbourne and Geelong

At first glance Southern Cross Station didn’t look that different, with promotional stands blocking the main entrance.

But from up top the view was different – one could enjoy a drink in the bar, as late evening commuters trickle in.

The bar and food count on level 1 of the Collins Street concourse closed in 2011, replaced by a Woolworths supermarket.

Out in the boondocks of Campbellfield I crossed over the Western Ring Road onboard an Upfield line train.

The freeway has gone from six to eight lanes, upgraded by the ‘Tulla Sydney Alliance’ in May 2013 but the railway line is still single track, despite the removal of the nearby Camp Road level crossing in 2018.

While on the western edge of Geelong I drove out to the newly developed ‘Highview Estate’ in Highton, where houses were taking over the Barrabool Hills.

Today the fields are covered with houses, with many of the residents probably driving to Melbourne for work via the recently completed Geelong Ring Road.

And a few trains

August 2009 saw me take a ride around suburban Melbourne with Steamrail Victoria, with our seam train visiting Cranbourne, Upfield, Craigieburn and Williamstown.

I also followed a Connex Melbourne train through the open countryside of the Ballarat line.

The train was bound for the Alstom Ballarat workshops for upgrades to the passenger information and CCTV systems.

Also in Ballarat I found two accident damaged Comeng suburban trains.

Both have since been scrapped – carriage 1109T having been damaged in the 2002 Epping collision while carriage 553M was destroyed by fire in 2002.

And to finish – we see the Maryvale paper train waiting at North Dynon, before another trip east.

And another load of grain headed west from Geelong, with a rainbow overhead.

Footnote

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

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We start over at Flinders Street Station, where Hitachi trains were still in service with then-suburban train operator Connex Melbourne.

Connex was replaced by Metro Trains Melbourne in November 2009, but the Hitachi trains hung on until December 2013.

Nearby signal box Flinders Street ‘A’ was being rebuilt as part of the ‘Signal’ youth arts centre.

But around the corner was the abandoned trackbed of platform 11.

It has since been turned into the ‘Arbory’ bar, opened in 2015

We’ve been watching the construction at North Melbourne station for months now, and in May 2009 the temporary scaffolding was coming down, exposing the new concourse at the city end.

Down near Moonee Ponds Creek I photographed a V/Line train headed out of the station.

Since Regional Rail Link opened in 2014 these tracks are only used by suburban trains, with V/Line now using their own tracks that bypass North Melbourne station entirely.

Once upon a time passenger trains all over Victoria once carried parcels as well as passengers, but in 2009 the ‘Green Star’ parcel service still operated using V/Line trains.

The public parcel service was wound up in 2010, but V/Line still continues transporting blood products for the Australian Red Cross Blood Service as part of a separate agreement.

Another much heavier freight task is the movement of steel products from the BlueScope Steel plant at Hastings, to the Melbourne Steel Terminal next door to Docklands.

A decade on the trains still run, this freight terminal no longer exists – the site was cleared in 2015 to make way for the ‘E’ Gate development, only for Transurban to acquire it in 2016 as part of the West Gate ‘Tunnel’ city access ramps.

Around the corner at the South Dynon depot, I found a 114 tonne diesel locomotive being lifted by a crane.

B64 originally entered service in 1952 and was in service with V/Line for 40 years until retired in 1992. It then went through a succession of owners who intended to restore it to service, but to naught – it’s currently dumped out the back of the railway workshops in Bendigo.

Another similarly aged locomotive is steam engine R761.

It also entered service in 1952, but was withdrawn far earlier in 1974, but retained for use on special trains, such as this run to Ballarat.

The steep climb out of Bacchus Marsh drew quite a crowd.

As did the spin on the turntable on arrival at Ballarat.

Along the way I stopped into the ghost town that was Rockbank station.

The station is currently being upgraded as part of the Regional Rail Revival project, but there is nothing ‘regional’ about Rockbank – the new station is intended to serve sprawling new suburbs of Melbourne.

While I was up in Ballarat, I stumbled upon for the former Joe White Maltings plant in Wendouree.

A complex series of conveyors and elevators once moved grain around the facility.

But by the time I visited the plant had closed, bulk of the site having been demolished in 2006, leaving just the silos.

The site then lay empty, with the silos demolished in late-2010 after plans to convert them into apartments fell through.

We end down in Geelong, where I picked up a “Short Term Ticket”.

They were a cardboard single use smartcard ticket, sold on buses in Ballarat, Bendigo and Geelong following the introduction of Myki in 2009.

The rollout of short term tickets was cancelled by the Baillieu government in June 2011, acting on advice contained in a secret report by consultants Deloitte. Supposedly the continued rollout was cancelled because the cards cost $0.40 cents to manufacture – making up almost half of the $0.90 charged for a concession bus fare in Geelong!

Despite the objections of locals, the sale of two hour and daily short-term tickets ended in Geelong on Friday 19 April 2013.

Footnote

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

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Do you remember the days when paper tickets were the only way to travel on V/Line trains? Every Monday morning passengers would forget their ticket had expired over the weekend, so would need to queue up at staffed stations to by a new one.

At least that is one thing that Myki has fixed!

On the tram front, I snapped a yellow ‘Bumblebee’ trams at the corner of Bourke and Spencer Street.

They now wear the same PTV livery as the rest of the fleet.

Over a Royal Park I photographed a pair of non-air conditioned high floor Z3 class trams running on route 55, passing a recently completed platform stop.

In 2017 it was merged with route 8 to form route 58, with low floor and air conditioned trams now making an occasional appearance. I wonder how many more decades it will take until the Melbourne tram network is fully accessible?

Construction is always a theme, and this month at Footscray station work had started clearing space for the new station footbridge.

Completed in 2010, in 2013 the northern end was demolished as part of the Regional Rail Link project to make room for two additional platforms, which despite the money spent delivered a worse experience for interchange passengers.

Closer to the city at Southern Cross Station ‘Media House’ – the new head office for The Age – was spanning the suburban tracks on the south side of Collins Street.

And the new ‘Yardmasters’ office was emerging from between the sidings at north end.

Down at Flinders Street Station signal box ‘A’ was being rebuilt.

Destroyed by fire in 2002, today it is the ‘Signal’ youth arts centre.

But it wasn’t all new things being built – down at Winchelsea station on the Warrnambool line the crossing loop was being decomissioned.

Originally a location that permitted opposing freight and passengers trains to pass each other, it took until 2013 for a replacement loop to be opened at Warncoort, around 30 kilometres away.

February 2009 saw me take a mystery tour of Melbourne by train with Steamrail Victoria, heading east to Ashburton and north to Broadmeadows.

We passed over the suburban lines at Tottenham, since expanded to four tracks as part of the Regional Rail Link project.

And had a dinner break in the platform at Caulfield.

Before venturing to the end of the line at Stony Point for a nightcap.

At the Newport Workshops in Melbourne’s west I spotted a few interesting trains.

Such as the Harris ‘greaser’ train beside a V/Line liveried L class.

A sleeping carriage once used on The Vinelander beside a bar carriage once hired out by V/Line for special events.

And a 100 year old ‘Swingdoor’ suburban electric train.

All of the above still exists today, except for the ‘Swingdoor’ train that was destroyed by fire after an arson attack in 2015.

February 2009 saw the reintroduction of motorail services on The Overland.

Withdrawn again in 2015, the train itself is now on borrowed time, with funding only confirmed until the end of 2019.

Down at Geelong I found the ‘AK cars’ inspection train parked for the night outside Geelong, after ensuring that the tracks of the Melbourne-Adelaide railway were up to scratch.

But even stranger was CityRail Endeavour railcar LE 2853 – normally seen ferrying commuters on the outskirts of Sydney, I found it in the middle of a freight train at North Melbourne station.

Down in Melbourne to be refurbished by Bombardier in Dandenong, which is only served by broad gauge trains, unlike the standard gauge used by CityRail trains.

As a result the train had to be lifted by cranes at the South Dynon railway workshops, transferred onto temporary broad gauge bogies, and then hauled by diesel locomotives as part of a larger train due to the lack of functioning brakes. Simples!

And we end at Geelong, where I spotted a double rainbow over the tracks.

Footnote

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

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As usual we start down at Geelong, were I paid a visit to the future Geelong Ring Road interchange at Waurn Ponds.

This interchange opened in June 2009 as the terminus of stage 3, with the freeway extended south towards Colac in 2011.

I also headed south-west from Geelong to Warrnambool, on the trail of the final El Zorro operated container service.

The line from Geelong to Warrnambool is single track, with the only place available for opposing trains to pass being Camperdown.

Freight trains still run on the line today, but the loop at Warncoort provides another place for trains to pass.

While at Warrnambool I followed the remains of the Port Fairy railway.

The Port Fairy line closed in 1977, but the section to Dennington remained open until 2002, to permit the delivery of briquettes to the neighbouring Nestle factory.

I also drove west of Geelong, chasing a ballast train at work on the main Melbourne-Adelaide railway.

Another long drive took me north to Wycheproof, where the railway runs down the middle of the main street.

Steamrail Victoria had ran a special train up to Wycheproof for the weekend.

A group of mates came along for the chase.

And every time we got ahead of the train, we’d pull over to take a photo of it.

At North Geelong I was lucky enough to catch track inspection vehicle EM100 head past on another tour of the network.

The aging vehicle is still in service today, but increasingly out of service due to mechanical faults.

Back in 2008 two carriage trains on the Geelong line were a common sight.

But platform extension works were underway – this is Marshall station.

And the city end of North Melbourne platform 5 and 6.

The work was to allow the operation of 7-car VLocity trains in peak times, which commenced in November 2008 and continued operating until June 2015, when the expansion of 2-car VLocity sets to 3-cars made such an arrangement impossible.

Upgrades to North Melbourne station were also continuing.

With the escalators between platform and concourse now in place.

But the concourse made no difference to trains stuck on increasingly congested tracks.

It took until 2015 for V/Line trains to be separated from suburban trains at North Melbourne, with the opening of the first stage of Regional Rail Link.

But passengers on the Hurstbridge line were seeing one of their bottlenecks removed.

With work on a $52 million project to duplicate 750m of single track between Clifton Hill and Westgarth station underway, featuring a new bridge over the Merri Creek.

The second track opened in 2009, paving the way for the Heidelberg-Rosanna duplication completed in 2018.

Another bottleneck since removed is the level crossing at Clayton, visible behind this citybound Connex train.

But some things never change – like vandals riding the coupler of trains, tagging the rear windscreen.

And the abandoned Webb Dock railway.

Running beneath the West Gate Bridge, it once linked the port to the rest of Victoria.

But now lays idle.

The last train used the line in 1992, with the city end dismantled in the 1990s to make way for the Melbourne Docklands development. There have been various proposals to reopen the line to transport freight to Webb Dock, reducing the number of trucks on the road, but they have come to nought.

Footnote

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

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