The back story

I first looked into how many railway stations that I’ve photographed back in 2015:

As of August 2015, I had taken a photograph at 167 of the 209 suburban railway station in Melbourne, leaving 42 which I have no proof of ever visiting – a strike rate of just under 80%.

However, those raw numbers were a little misleading, as my subject of my photos isn’t necessarily a train – as the graph below shows.

Confused?

Some explanation

Before collating the data around which stations I have taken a photo at, I never intentionally set out to photograph every railway station in Melbourne – instead I take photos of trains…

• when I think a particular location looks photogenic,
• when I hear about a steam train running,
• when I want to see V/Line and freight trains,
• when I realise I need a photo to illustrate a specific blog post,
• when I discover something is about to change and I don’t yet have a photo of it,
• when I decide to head out and photograph every ‘X’ item.

But the most common reason – I take photos of trains when I’m out and about doing other things.

The end result of this is a selection of photos across Melbourne that primarily covers the areas that I’ve passed through for work, study and visiting friends; with a particular focus on railway lines that see V/Line and freight services upon them; and leaving vast swathes of the city undocumented by my camera.

This also explains the stations where I have never photographed a suburban train at…

If a location is photogenic, I might take a photo of a train near the station when I’m in the area – but not bother visiting the station itself.

Alstom Comeng emerges from under the Jacana Flyover

Over the years I’ve travelled on a number of special trains around Melbourne – resulting in plenty of photos featuring steam and diesel trains in strange locations, but no photos of the suburban trains that normally run to said stations.

Diesel Electric Rail Motor RM58 at Upwey

When a weekend services run only every half hour, I don’t have time to wait around for the next train to show up – hence the stations where the only photo I have is of the station building.

Island platform at Ruthven station

And finally the ‘only substation’ category – I’ve been playing Pokemon with the substations that power Melbourne’s electric trains, and slowly photographing every example that I can find.

Traction power substation on the Mernda line at Reservoir

And the years since

In the end, the very act of determining how many stations I have photographed changed my attitude to photography, and in the years since 2015 I stepped up my efforts to take a photo at every railway station in Melbourne – and by December 2019 I was getting close.

But visiting the last few stations took until November 2021.

The station that marked the end of my quest – Parkdale, which received a special visit due to the upcoming level crossing removal works.

However I am yet to photograph a train at every Melbourne railway station – the following stations have slipped from my grasp due to their lack of frequent services:

• Moreland on the Upfield line, and
• Ruthven on the Mernda line.

And there are two stations I’ve only visited on a day that trains were being replaced by buses:

• Hampton and Gardenvale, both on the Sandringham line.

So how many years will it take until I find at train those last four stations?

Raw data

The raw data used for the above calculations as a Google spreadsheet.

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I photographed Transdev bus #369 0369AO departing Footscray station on route 216 to the city at 8:39am.

I board a train towards work.

And spot it again at the corner of Lonsdale and William Street at 9:06am.

I head out to inspect the Metro Tunnel works at South Yarra, and photographed Ventura bus #1034 5396AO on an all stations rail replacement service at 1:38pm.

I board the next train towards the city.

And spot the same bus passing beneath Richmond station at 1:47pm.

None of which was planned – that’d be cheating.

So you want to be a bus spotter?

Ready to go down the bus spotting rabbithole – the Australian Bus Fleet Lists details the fleet and registration numbers on virtually every bus in Australia.

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Between Footscray and West Footscray stations a constant flow of passenger services run parallel with less frequent freight trains, so getting a photo of the two running side by side takes a bit of luck, and lots of waiting around.

The scene pictured above no longer exists – footbridge I was standing up as well as the houses beside the tracks were all demolished in 2011 to make room for the third pair tracks for of Regional Rail Link.

But an even luckier shot was this one at Lara, where my planned shot of an Adelaide-bound freight train was photobombed by a departing Geelong-bound V/Line service in the background.

Similar luck gave me this photo of a freight train loaded with steel products at Manor Loop, outside Werribee, overtaken by a much faster V/Line service from Geelong.

Another facet of getting a shot is background knowledge.

Back in 2015 I headed south of Werribee to capture the last few days of Geelong line V/Line services using the ‘old’ route via the suburban tracks, when a test train on the new Regional Rail Link tracks came past at the right moment, passing over the top.

It was during this interim period that V/Line services also continued to use the suburban tracks between Footscray and North Melbourne, resulting in this photo of one V/Line service using the ‘old’ tracks down below, as a second V/Line train used the ‘new’ Regional Rail Link tracks over the top.

Knowing that a special train movement is happening makes ‘lucky’ photos easier to capture.

A few years ago I headed out to the usual freight-only tracks linking Albion to Jacana in Melbourne’s west to capture a timetabled diversion of a Shepparton-bound V/Line service, when I got photobombed by a freight train running on the parallel track.

Another tip off lead me to the back blocks of Deer Park to capture a V/Line empty car movement bound for Bacchus Marsh. Passenger carrying trains take priority, so my choice of location at the end of the double track was quite fortuitous – a timetabled train to Ballarat overtook the train I had came out to see.

But even with knowledge and luck, it takes persistence to get the shot.

Until 2015 on the Geelong line, two V/Line services would depart Geelong each morning a few minute behind each other. The first train would stop all stations, while the second train would run express to Melbourne, overtaking the slower train.

Finding this overtaking point was more art than science – even a 30 second delay to either train could move it a kilometre or so down the line, so all I could do was pick a spot lineside, and hope that I wouldn’t have to come back another day to try again.

Footnote

And sometimes my luck runs out, like the time I went out to capture a Bendigo-bound steam train at Ginifer station, and got photobombed by a suburban train on the track in front.

Actually, I lie

Here is a photo from the same location, taken a fraction of a second earlier.

Luck strikes again?

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The back story

My investigations commenced in July 2015, when I completed work on my post on Prahran station’s additional station entrance. The text was all ready to go, but when it came time to find a relevant photo – my collection came up blank!

By this point, I was now wondering what other stations I had never photographed, so I went into full trainspotter mode, putting the current list of 209 suburban stations into a spreadsheet, and started searching through my collection of photos to see what I had for each station.

The end result

As of August 2015, I had taken a photograph at 167 of the 209 suburban railway station in Melbourne, leaving 42 which I have no proof of ever visiting – a strike rate of just under 80%.

However, the above numbers are a little misleading as my subject of my photos isn’t necessarily a train – as the graph below shows.

Confused?

Some explanation

Before collating the data around which stations I have taken a photo at, I never intentionally set out to photograph every railway station in Melbourne – instead I take photos of trains…

• when I think a particular location looks photogenic,
• when I hear about a steam train running,
• when I want to see V/Line and freight trains,
• when I realise I need a photo to illustrate a specific blog post,
• when I discover something is about to change and I don’t yet have a photo of it,
• when I decide to head out and photograph every ‘X’ item.

But the most common reason – I take photos of trains when I’m out and about doing other things.

The end result of this is a selection of photos across Melbourne that primarily covers the areas that I’ve passed through for work, study and visiting friends; with a particular focus on railway lines that see V/Line and freight services upon them; and leaving vast swathes of the city undocumented by my camera.

This also explains the stations where I have never photographed a suburban train at…

If a location is photogenic, I might take a photo of a train near the station when I’m in the area – but not bother visiting the station itself.

Upfield train passes through Royal Park after departing Flemington Bridge.

Over the years I’ve travelled on a number of special trains around Melbourne – resulting in plenty of photos featuring steam and diesel trains in strange locations, but no photos of the suburban trains that normally run to said stations.

Steamrail Victoria train awaits departure time from Cranbourne station.

When a weekend services run only every half hour, I don’t have time to wait around for the next train to show up – hence the stations where the only photo I have is of the station building.

Station building and footbridge at Murrumbeena.

And finally the ‘only substation’ category – I’ve been playing Pokemon with the substations that power Melbourne’s electric trains, and slowly photographing every example that I can find.

Traction power substation on the Frankston line at Seaford.

In the end, the very act of determining how many stations I have photographed has now changed my attitude to photography, and in the months since August I have stepped up my efforts to take a photo at every railway station in Melbourne.

The only question left is how long it will take me to achieve this goal!

Raw data

The raw data used for the above calculations as a Google spreadsheet.

Off on a tangent

Visiting every railway station in Melbourne in a day is another challenge a number of people have taken on:

• Heath Tully completed the challenge in 2008,
• Lachlan Campbell finally succeeded in July 2011, and
• students from Alexandra Secondary College gave it a go in September 2012.

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