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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The story starts at Flagstaff station where I was checking out progress on the Melbourne Underground Rail Loop Upgrade Project, when a voice came over the PA system – “photography is prohibited in City Loop stations”.

I’d gotten the photos I needed, so I headed back up to the surface and stepped into the middle of La Trobe Street to photograph a diverted route 12a tram, when a police car pulled up beside me, and the officer inside said “you can’t stand in the middle of the tram tracks”.

At that point I tweeted:

So far this afternoon I’ve copped a “no taking photos in the station” over the PA, and a “you can’t stand on the tram tracks taking photos” from a passing cop car – so how long until I complete the trifecta?

And 40 minutes later, I won! I’d climbed on top of a crash barrier to photograph the demolition of 600 Collins Street, when the traffic controller down the street said I’d have to climb down.

And that made three.

Footnote

Of course that didn’t stop me – I headed around the corner to Collins Street and climbed onto the top of an electrical box.

So I could photograph progress on the rebuilding of the tram tracks at Spencer and Collins Street.

No rest for the wicked.

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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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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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I was flicking through a copy of “Engineering Marvels of Australia – Australia’s Railways” by Alison Hidek when I had a case of deja vu.

With the photo of a Melbourne train in the bottom left corner looking awfully familiar.

Was it a photo of mine that I’d uploaded to Wikipedia way back in November 2007?

Photo by Marcus Wong Wongm, via Wikimedia Commons

After a check of the title page:

Yes!

p21b – Caulfield Group City Loop portal by Marcus Wong via Wikimedia

Content uploaded to Wikimedia Commons is free to reuse, provided you follow the terms specified by the author.

Unlike traditional media repositories, Wikimedia Commons is free. Everyone is allowed to copy, use and modify any files here freely as long as they follow the terms specified by the author; this often means crediting the source and author(s) appropriately and releasing copies/improvements under the same freedom to others. The license conditions of each individual media file can be found on their description page

In my case – Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike license.

This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International, 3.0 Unported, 2.5 Generic, 2.0 Generic and 1.0 Generic license.
You are free:
– to share – to copy, distribute and transmit the work
– to remix – to adapt the work
Under the following conditions:
– attribution – You must give appropriate credit, provide a link to the license, and indicate if changes were made. You may do so in any reasonable manner, but not in any way that suggests the licensor endorses you or your use.
– share alike – If you remix, transform, or build upon the material, you must distribute your contributions under the same or compatible license as the original.

So everything was above board.

Footnote

I’ve written about finding Wikipedia uploads in real life before, in Keeping track of V/Line ‘borrowed’ photos.

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It looked like a milk bar in the back streets of the Geelong suburb of St Albans Park, and for good reason – it was.

But where did the original photo come from? That bit is a lot easier than it used to be – thanks to the ‘search Google for image‘ feature in Chrome.

It didn’t find the exact photo I uploaded, but it did find the original unmodified image.

Which then sent me into the swamp of stolen content that is Pinterest.

Once I swatted away the plague of Pinterest popups and overlay text, I could see the full image.

And a link to the original source.

An Instagram post that has since been deleted.

Great.

And a sad ending

From the March 22, 2017 edition of the Geelong Advertiser.

Another Geelong milk bar closes its doors as world moves on

Another beacon of the past will be lost next Friday when the St Albans Park general store ceases trade.

Owner Mick Robertson has cited lost trade in the wake of job losses at Ford and Alcoa as one of the reasons he has decided to shut his doors for good.

“In 2008 we had about 300 people through the door each day with an average spend of $9 each now we have about the same amount of people through the door but average spend has dropped to $3,” Mr Robertson said.

Mr Robertson said his Westmoreland St milk bar and post office has been in business 23 years and at its peak employed the equivalent of four full time staff.

“At one stage we were extremely busy because supermarkets had restricted trade. Supermarkets closed at 6pm on weekdays, 1pm on Saturday and were closed Sunday,” he said.

Mr Robertson said his business took a hit when supermarket opening hours were extended in 1995.

“We took a hit but it was not fatal, because St Albans Park was a growing suburb,” he said.

Mr Robertson said he and his wife, Karyn, have had to dip into their superannuation to pay staff for the past eight months.

“Our margins have been going down and down, and we can’t compete against the supermarkets.”

Mr Robertson said he would look to redevelop the site in coming years.

Property development – the only “industry” Australia has left?

Footnote

The original Facebook post

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An example of this occurred in early January, when someone spotted this temporary travel changes poster at Flinders Street Station and shared on a bus enthusiast group with the following comment – “I wonder who’s photo V/Line has knocked off”.

Turns the photo that V/Line had knocked off was one of mine – taken back in 2013.

Another case of deja vu occurred back in June 2009, when I spotted this locally produced poster at promoting extended opening hours at Geelong line railways stations.

The train at the bottom was the familiar part – a photo of mine that I shared to Wikipedia back in 2007.

In this case reusing photos on Wikipedia is fair game, provided attribution is given – though in reality, people don’t know and don’t care when taking photos from the internet.

Nitpickers corner

If you look closely, you might have noticed that the bus in the first photo doesn’t even say V/Line anywhere on it – it’s an ex-V/Line road coach purchased by private operator GLV Coaches, who stripped off the V/Line logos but kept the red stripe down the side.

How did it end up as the first choice for someone creating a ‘V/Line replacement coaches’ poster – I have no idea!

And an update

In April I was walking past Flinders Street Station and saw the rail replacement bus sign with my own eyes – only now someone had drawn the V/Line logos drawn back in using a black texta.

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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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Turns out that hillside was just around the corner from where I grew up, with the street in question being Rossack Drive in the southern Geelong suburb of Waurn Ponds.

The photo in question was taken from where stage 3 of the Geelong Ring Road once terminated at the Princes Highway, in the days before it was extended up the Anglesea Road hill towards Winchelsea.

As for the view back from Rossack Drive towards the Geelong Ring Road, the hill on the other side of the valley is also covered with newly built houses.

Footnote

The article in question was titled NSW rush lifts housing loan figures and the photo was taken by editorial and commercial photographer Paul Rovere. Just don’t start complaining about the photo is of houses in the ‘wrong‘ state.

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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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