Waking up in Geelong

There are over two hundred railway stations across Melbourne, so for someone who has spent 15 years of photographing trains, and with over 100,000 photographs catalogued online, taking a photo at each station should have happened long ago. And I have – with some caveats!

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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