Build it up

Work on the $48.5 million Kororoit Creek Road duplication project in Altona North had just kicked off.

Including the replacement of the Werribee line level crossing with a road overbridge.

Work on the project was completed in December 2011.

Gauge conversion of the Melbourne-Albury railway was still ongoing.

Buses replacing V/Line trains north of Seymour.

V/Line services eventually returned in 2011, but trains are frequently cancelled – the years since filled with attempts to fix the already deteriorating track.

Toot toot!

I headed up to Maryborough on a special train operated by the Seymour Railway Heritage Centre.

Travelling in style.

Sitting in the siding alongside was an equally elderly locomotive hauling an El Zorro grain train.

El Zorro having had the same train derailed at Tottenham Yard a few days earlier.

Thanks to the deteriorating track that passes for the Victorian freight network.

El Zorro went into administration in 2013, but the tracks they used are no better today – the Murray Basin Rail project intended to upgrade them ran out of money.

Storms

In March 2010 a massive storm hit Melbourne, with 10-centimetre hailstones hitting Southern Cross Station.

Photo by PageantUpdater talk • contribs ., via Wikimedia Commons

Tearing the plastic ‘bubbles’ in the roof.

Opening the station to the elements.

Flooding the concourse.

And the escalators.

Repairs were estimated to cost $5 million, with 43 of the 60 air pillows needing replacement, work commencing in April 2010 and lasting 12 to 14 weeks.

Things that are gone

Remember mX, the free newspaper that littered Melbourne trains and stations each afternoon?

The rise of smartphones saw readership drop, with the final edition published on 12 June 2015.

Myki was still new and shiny, with promotions across the rail network to get passengers to make the switch from Metcard.

Myki eventually took over from Metcard in December 2012.

The transition from Connex to Metro Trains as the operator of Melbourne trains was still ongoing, with trains slowly receiving the new branding.

But a decade later, the Metro livery surprisingly survives.

In 2010 bright yellow ‘bumbleebee’ trams were still making their way around Melbourne.

But by 2014 the decals were torn and faded, so the trams were repainted into the standard PTV livery.

The next train displays in the City Loop were also coloured by destination.

There were replaced by plain looking white on black LCD screens in 2011, but the use of colours was brought back in 2018, but only at Flinders Street Station.

V/Line trains to Geelong used to run via the Werribee line.

Since 2015 they have travelled via the new Melbourne suburbs of Wyndham Vale and Tarneit, follow the completion of Regional Rail Link.

Passing through what were once empty paddocks.

This farm west of Werribee is now Alwood Estate and King’s Leigh Estate.

I also ended up down in Gippsland at the Energy Brix briquette factory.

The ageing factory and associated brown coal fired power station closed in 2014, with demolition now underway, despite being heritage listed.

Footnote

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

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Chasing trains

I drove out to Moorabool, west of Geelong to photograph a freight train. As soon as I stepped out of the car and locked the door I realised I’d left my keys inside – but thankfully I still had my camera, so I didn’t miss the shot.

A blast from the past was this train operated by 707 Operations bound for Geelong.

Steam locomotive R707 and diesel T413 hauled the train to Marshall and back, with a spin on the turntable at Geelong putting the steam engine facing the right way before the return leg to Melbourne.

Another unusual train headed through Geelong was a Hitachi suburban set usually used in Melbourne, being hauled by Seymour Rail Heritage Centre’s freshly restored diesel locomotive T378 for refurbishment work at the Ballarat Workshops.

This Hitachi train was back in service by August 2009 but was put into storage a few years later, eventually being retired in 2015, and transferred to Bendigo for scrapping in May 2018.

Back in 2008 small rail freight operator El Zorro was running the container train to Warrnambool. If they left the Port of Melbourne too late they would lose their ‘slot’ on the single track beyond Geelong, and would get dumped in the siding at Lara station until a path was available.

I was commuting from Geelong to Melbourne multiple days a week, so I’d keep my eye out at Lara for it – jumping off the train for a photo, then catching the next service on to Melbourne.

At Flinders Street Station one morning I stumbled upon this odd looking train.

It is track evaluation vehicle ‘EM100’ and traverses the network on a regular basis, with an array of sensors looking for track faults. It is still in service today, just renumbered ‘IEV100’ and with a snazzy looking Metro Trains Melbourne livery on it.

But somewhere way off my usual beat was the Montague Street bridge in South Melbourne.

Unlike today the bridge was quite anonymous, the feature catching my eye being that only two of the four bridges had tracks across them. Originally built to serve the Montague shipping shed, by late 2009 the tram tracks at Southbank Depot had been extended west over the bridge to stable the newly arrived ‘Bumblebee’ trams.

Railway upgrades

Work was continuing on the new concourse at North Melbourne station, as seen in previous posts in this series.

While another structure being built over active railway lines was the ‘Media House’ development for The Age, located on the southern side of Collins Street, opposite Southern Cross Station.

A massive crane was required to place the steel beams and concrete deck over the railway line.

Which permitted more conventional methods of construction to be used for the office building on top.

A short distance away the Dynon Port Rail Link was also well underway, removing a bottleneck that blocked road traffic every time a train entered the Port of Melbourne.

The network of flyovers replaced a single track level crossing on Footscray Road, allowing more trains to access the port.

As well as eliminating a seven track wide crossing inside the port itself.

Another project aimed at improving rail freight was the Corio Independent Goods Line at the Port of Geelong.

Work started in 2008 with the first train running in October the same year, but in the decade since is better described as a white elephant, with no new rail traffic being attracted to the port.

And the other bits

Down in Geelong work on the Geelong Ring Road was progressing, with the Lewis Bandt Bridge over the Moorabool River pretty much complete.

While a short distance south work on the bridge over the Barwon River had started.

Another road project underway was the Monash-CityLink-West Gate Upgrade. No – not the current ‘upgrade’ adding a new lane to the M1 freeway, but the project a decade ago that added a new to the M1 freeway.

For Engineering Week I ended up atop the freeway viaduct through South Melbourne.

Seeing how the new bridge spans were being tied into the existing viaduct.

Allowing an extra road lane to be squeezed in.

Over in Docklands things looked quite different, with Southern Cross Station still clearly visible from the top level of what was then called Telstra Dome.

But plenty of construction was taking place, with heritage listed No. 2 Goods Shed being converted into offices.

Chopped in half in the early 2000s to make way for the extension of Collins Street into the new Docklands development, work was underway to plug up the gaps at either end, then restore the remaining structure.

But the best view of all was from up inside the roof of what was then called Telstra Dome.

My tour went for a walk through the roof trusses.

Looking down on the grow lights on the playing surface.

And the rows of seats down below.

Footnote

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

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