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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Changed scenes

Back then the tram stops along Swanston Street were at ground level.

The platform stops at Collins, Bourke and La Trobe Street weren’t completed until July 2012.

And the Melbourne CBD skyline was much smaller, as seen in this view from the rail yards of West Melbourne.

This entire area is about to be covered in freeway overpasses as part of the West Gate ‘Tunnel’ project.

The railway yards beside North Melbourne station have also changed, when I photographed the ‘Apex’ quarry train parked for the weekend.

And a grain train headed to Kensington.

Both trains still run today, but under new operators – Qube Logistics and Southern Shorthaul Railroad respectively – while the sidings they use have been completely rebuilt as part of the Regional Rail Link project.

Another scene changed thanks to Regional Rail Link is the approach to Sunshine, where V/Line and suburban trains had to share the tracks.

Today a second track pair runs between Sunshine and the city, speeding the journey for V/Line trains on the Geelong, Ballarat and Bendigo lines.

And new trains

The construction of new X’Trapolis trains had just restarted at the Alstom Ballarat workshops.

A decade on we’re still building them, with seven follow on orders signed so far, but no firm commitment has been made as to the future of the facility.

And the older Comeng trains were also in the middle of an air conditioning upgrade program.

Previously known for their propensity to drop dead whenever the temperature hit 36 degrees, the State Government spent $18.7 million retrofitting the units so that they would continue to run at temperatures up to 45 degrees.

The Bombardier plant at Dandenong was also busy, refurbishing Endeavour and Xplorer railcars for New South Wales.

Due to the railways of New South Wales being standard gauge, each railcar needed to be transferred to broad gauge bogies at South Dynon, then dragged to Dandenong behind a diesel locomotive.

Headed out west

Another rail gauge muddle can be found at Maryborough, where the mothballed standard gauge track to Ararat met the broad gauge tracks from Ballarat.

In 2018 the line from Ararat was reopened as part of the Murray Basin Rail Project that converted the Mildura line to standard gauge, but lefts things in worse shape than before: poorly built and slower than the previous route.

On my way back to Ballarat I visited the disused railway station at Creswick, as a grain train passed through.

The newly relaid track was part of the restoration of V/Line services to Maryborough, with Creswick station reopening to passenger on July 2010.

But a station in even worse condition was that at Maldon, on the the Victorian Goldfields Railway.

The 120-year-old building was gutted by fire in October 2009, but has since been rebuilt.

And the unexpected

One afternoon at Kensington I spotted some ‘police’ wandering the tracks at Kensington.

But it was just a television show.

Apparently for the Channel Seven series City Homicide, which screened between 2007 and 2011.

Footnote

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

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