Regional Rail Link

As with previous months, I was following progress on the Regional Rail Link project which was constructing new tracks from Southern Cross through to Wyndham Vale.

At Footscray station the new V/Line platforms were taking shape.

As well as the new tracks through Middle Footscray, passing through compulsorily acquired houses and a piece of parkland.

At Sunshine the junction between the Ballarat/Geelong and Bendigo lines wasn’t quite finished.

And at Anderson Road on the Sunbury line the level crossing was still in place.

Excavation underway to take the road beneath the new bridge spans.

At Deer Park the junction for the new route through Tarneit and Wyndham Vale to Geelong was in place.

But the track beyond was still to be laid.

However the car park and station buildings were complete at Tarneit.

And track laying was underway from the Geelong end.

Farewell to the Hitachi trains

Steamrail Victoria ran a farewell tour for the ‘Hitachi’ trains in April 2014.

Heading around the City Loop a few times, with the windows down of course!

And to newer parts of the suburban network, such as South Morang.

More trains

Steamrail Victoria also took their then-125 year old steam locomotive Y112 out for the trip around the suburbs.

While V/Line was still using diesel locomotives and carriages from the 1950s in frontline service.

Out at Craigieburn I photographed the oddball ‘flipdot’ LED next train displays.

And atop Southern Cross Station work was underway on the 699 Bourke Street development.

While down below, the lighting for platforms 13 and 14 still worked – it failed in early 2015 and is still yet to be repaired.

Ding ding on the trams

A decade ago the maroon liveried City Circle trams were still looking around the CBD – they’ve since been upgraded to ‘W8’ standard.

Route 86 was stuck with the rickety D2 class ‘Combino’ low floor trams.

And on Swanston Street the 1970s-era ‘Z1’ class with no air conditioning and useless windows were still in service.

April 2014 also saw a number of tram stops on La Trobe Street closed to passengers, as they were too short for the new ‘E’ class trams to stop at them.

But upgrades were underway as well – such as a complete rebuild of the tram junction at Victoria and Nicholson Street in Carlton.

Clueless drivers

What’s worse than one idiot driving through the Bourke Street Mall? A gang of idiots following them.

At least this nuffy got pulled over by the cops.

And government propaganda

The State Government’s “Moving Victoria” propaganda campaign was in full swing ready for the 2014 State Election, promoting ‘Major road upgrades’.

‘New trains, trams and buses’.

And ‘East West Link‘.

The latter project being cancelled after the election, only to float back up like a turd every four years.

Footnote

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

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But first, some background

The first High Capacity Metro Train carried passengers back on 27 December 2020, which I covered at the time. But in the case of the Sunbury line, testing of the new trains commenced in September 2020, initially by night, then by day between normal services.

Work on the Sunbury Line Upgrade project also ramped up at this time, the most visible change being platform extensions for the longer trains.

But the overhead wires also needed to be upgraded to handle the additional power drawn.

As well as the traction power substations.

And 2023 the civil works had been done, with the finishing touch being the installation of these yellow beacons between the rails – used to tell the Correct Side Door Enable (CSDE) and Selective Door Operation (SDO) systems fitted to the HCMT fleet which side the platform is on, and how many doors to open.

However this infrastructure was only fitted at Sunbury line stations from the Metro Tunnel portal at South Kensington – nothing in the City Loop, or at North Melbourne station.

A first taste

High Capacity Metro Trains also became a regular sight on the Sunbury line in early 2023, but not carrying passengers – instead headed empty cars to the stabling yard at Calder Park, because the delivery of new trains had outgrown the space available at the Pakenham East train depot.

And then in October 2023 something new happened – a pair of Sunbury line services started being advertised as ‘Pakenham’ services, on what were previously services that ran direct to Flinders Street each morning.

North Melbourne platform 3 gained a ‘HCMT Car Stop’ sign at the city end.

And a yellow selective door operation beacon was fitted between the rails on the approach.

The reason was something I didn’t think would actually happen – the operation of HCMTs on the Sunbury line before the opening of the Metro Tunnel.

And the big day

On the morning of 30 October 2023 I woke up before the sun, and caught a train out to Sunbury.

Where I found HCMT set 37 waiting in the sidings at Sunbury.

And 7:04 ‘Pakenham’ service listed on the upcoming departures.

In between the more usual City Loop, Bendigo and Echuca destinations.

After the Bendigo train had cleared the platform, at 6:58 the High Capacity Metro Train shunted out of the sidings.

Where a small group of railfans was in attendance to capture the moment.

And it was on.

‘Sunbury’ displayed on the screens onboard.

And upcoming stations listed.

Signal cleared, and time to go.

At some stations the screens just said ‘Pakenham: Not stopping at S Kensington’

But others listed every station on the way to Pakenham – at least until they ran out of screen space.

At South Kensington there wasn’t a chance of being misdirected into the Metro Tunnel, as the tracks are still blocked.

So we just went past instead.

At North Melbourne platform 3 the train stopped right where it was supposed to.

But rather than continue through to Pakenham, I headed back to Sunshine to capture the second public HCMT service of the morning.

Passengers seeming to have no trouble with the new trains.

Footnote: the timetable

The current timetable has two Sunbury line services being operated by High Capacity Metro Trains – the 0704 and 0814 from Sunbury towards the city.

Note are no matching HCMT runs in the opposite direction – they return empty to Calder Park after morning peak.

Footnote: platform extensions

The ‘HCMT car stop’ on platform 3 is now the home of two type-specific train stopping mark signs.

The other being a ‘Metro trains stop here’ sign before the end of platform 5.

This sign was added 15 years ago following the platform extension at the south end for 7-car VLocity trains running on the Geelong line.

So that 6-car suburban trains would still stop near the station exits.

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Regional Rail Link

Progress on the Regional Rail Link project has been a theme in recent months, and this is the same – plenty of work at Footscray station, along with a clear view back to the Melbourne CBD.

With a major shutdown of the suburban lines coming up to install new bridges over the railway line between Footscray and Middle Footscray.

Excavators and dump trucks rolling in a few days later to widen the cutting.

And to demolish West Footscray station to make room for extra tracks.

The ‘West Footscray’ station signage being unceremoniously thrown into the bin of scrap metal, rather than sold off to collectors.

Trams

The Colonial Tramcar Restaurant was still running around Melbourne.

The service last ran in October 2018, when Yarra Trams banned the fleet of the network citing safety concerns.

As were the maroon liveried City Circle Trams.

2013 also saw the launch of Melbourne Art Trams – a revival of the Transporting Art project which ran from 1978 to 1993.

The brand new E class trams were finally running around the network, but still on test.

As were the upgraded ‘W8’ class trams for use on the City Circle – I found this one at the route 82 terminus at Footscray.

Clueless drivers

It takes some skill, but some motorist managed to impale their car onto the tram stop safety zone prow at Newmarket station.

But this motorist went one better, taking out the entire tram stop.

At last one service disruption Yarra Trams could not be blamed for was this one on Maribyrnong Road, Ascot Vale – strong winds tore the roof off an apartment block, which then landed on the tramway overhead, stopping trams.

New tram tracks

For a few days route 19, 57 and 59 terminated at a temporary crossover north of La Trobe Street.

So that the tram tracks along Elizabeth Street could be dug up.

And new tracks laid.

Ready for the constructor of long awaited platform tram stops.

And then work stopped – two weeks later, the trams stops were still not ready for use.

With work on the fencing being dragged out.

With the tram stops still unfinished at the end of the month.

Buses

On my lunch break I found a Melbourne Visitor Shuttle bus – a victim of competition from the Free Tram Zone, the City of Melbourne finally killed off the service in August 2017.

Transdev was also making their brand more visible in Melbourne, having taken over the operations of National Bus Company and Melbourne Bus Link the month before.

And the other bits

With the Spring Racing Carnival upon us, it’s time for more gambling advertising – this time it was bookmaker ‘Bet365’.

Out at Melbourne Airport the 1970s water tower was still in place outside the Terminal 4 construction site, but was soon gone, deconstructed piece by piece.

Also gone is Melbourne Bike Share – the service was wound up in November 2019.

On Ballarat Road in Footscray I found this still functioning neon sign at Douglas’s Service Station.

And something new for the time – my first sighting of a 1AA-1AA series registration plate, which had been launched in August 2013 along with the ‘Vic – Stay Alert Stay Alive’ slogan.

The new number sequence is estimated to be provide enough combinations to last for 50 years, but the slogan was dumped for ‘Victoria – The Education State’ in October 2015.

And a steam train

I made the trip out up north to Castlemaine on a Steamrail Victoria special.

The selling point being the side trip along the Victorian Goldfields Railway.

Where the train would stop in the middle of nowhere to let passengers exit.

Then line up in the forest.

To photograph the train passing us by.

Known as a ‘photo line’ it has been a traditional part of steam train excursions in Victoria since the 1960s, when esteemed tour organiser Eldon Hogan would bark directions to waiting photographers with his Hogaphone.

Footnote

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

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With ‘Prices so low, you could almost pay by myki‘ being the tagline, can you imagine a more Melbourne scene than a tram passing Flinders Street Station?

But what about the destination displayed on the front of the tram.

It reads “109 Melbourne”.

Putting on my pedant hat

Railfans love to critique the “wrong” tram being used in a photo, and in the case of this advert, the tram pictured is B2.2011 – a high floor B2 class tram which entered service in 1989.

But route 109 doesn’t use B2 class trams – it’s predominately run by low floor C class trams, alongside a few older A class ring-ins.

And route 109 doesn’t even pass Flinders Street Station – the closest it gets is Collins and Swanston Street.

So that’s the deal?

Taking a closer look

Plenty of tram routes pass along Swanston Street at Flinders Street Station – routes 1, 3, 5, 6, 16, 64, 67 and 72.

Most of them having ‘Melbourne University’ on the front when headed northbound.

But the tram featured in the advertisement appears to be headed southbound, so could have one of eight different suburbs listed on the destination board.

However there is probably a simpler answer – LED destination boards are quite tricky to capture with a camera due to their high refresh rates, often appearing blank or garbled in photographs.

So the graphic design probably just photoshopped in something to the blank display, based on their memories of the Melbourne tram system.

Could be worse though

I spotted a photo of an Adelaide tram at a Melbourne bank a few years ago – with the ‘Adelaide Metro‘ part of the logo photoshopped out.

Someone has realised they’ve got the wrong photo for their project, and decided it’s easier to photoshop out ‘Adelaide’ instead of finding a more appropriate photo.

Footnote: Myki balances

In reality you’d have a hard time buying designer furniture with a Myki card budget – the maximum topup amount is $250, and the maximum balance on a myki card is $999.99.

May I suggest catching the route 109 tram to Ikea Richmond instead?

Footnote: B2 class tram destinations

The LED destination displays on the B2 class trams replaced their original backlit flip-dot displays in 2016.

The flipdot displays on the side destination boards were the source of the ‘twinkling’ noise that could be heard if you sat in the centre of the tram, and there was no other noise.

The feint sound coming from the individual pixels of the display, as the transitioned from ‘on’ to ‘off and back again.

Image sources

• Adriatic Furniture Launches Made For Melbourne Campaign Via The Sphere Agency: B&T
• Adriatic Furniture Facebook post
• The Sphere Agency Facebook post

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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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Always ready for a few hours out lineside with Dad to see what trains are due next.

I wonder how long until he’ll be asking for his own camera – so far he just scrolls through the photos on my camera, making train noises the entire time.

Footnote

Train sets – I’ve lost count of the number that my son as received so far, but our house is overflowing with them: wooden, plastic and Duplo!

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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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Among the row of shops is a Commonwealth Bank branch, who in an attempt to fit in with the locals, have included a picture of a tram on the front window.

It even says ‘Melbourne’ on the front.

The only problem – the photo is actually of an Adelaide H class tram.

But with the ‘Adelaide Metro‘ part of the logo photoshopped out.

The original logo should look like this.

I’ve written about newspapers using the “wrong” train photos before. But in this case its a little different – someone has realised they’ve got the wrong photo for their project, and decided it’s easier to photoshop out ‘Adelaide’ instead of finding a more appropriate photo.

Fleet number side note

Adelaide tram 351 still exists today – it was refurbished to run heritage services on the tram line to Glenelg, after being decommissioned for everyday services in 2006.

Meanwhile in Melbourne we also had a tram with the same number – W2.351 was completed way back in 1932, remaining in service until withdrawn in 1967, the body being disposed of by fire.

And another one

Another Adelaide H class tram sighting in Melbourne, via a mate of mine – at the CBA branch in Boronia.

And now for a Sydney one!

‎Peter Bruce‎ found this photo of Sydney E-class tram 529-530 at Coburg Market, with ‘Coburg’ photoshopped onto the destination board.

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The backstory

Over the years a number of private tram tours have operated on Melbourne’s tram network for the benefit of tramway enthusiasts, with November 14 being the most recent outing. Organised by a group of history minded tram drivers to celebrate the 40th anniversary of the first Z class trams entering service, two trams departed Malvern Depot just after 8.30am in the morning and drew a web over the Melbourne tram network map, eventually returning to the depot ten hours later.

The route

Our tour group met at Malvern Depot, where trams Z1.22 and Z2.101 were waiting.

We then headed for the city via Dandenong Road and St Kilda Road, taking Swanston Street through the CBD, and then Lygon Street north to the tram depot at Brunswick.

We then ran south down Sydney Road and Royal Parade, changing direction on Elizabeth Street, and followed route 57 through North Melbourne.

Where we set a patronage record for the term terminus at West Maribyrnong.

Next on our tour was Moonee Ponds Junction.

And then we headed east, travelling into the city along route 59, then circumnavigating the CBD via William Street, La Trobe Street, Docklands, and Flinders Street.

After our lunch break at the tram museum in Hawthorn, it was time to head back into the city, where we got stuck behind a City Circle tram on Spring Street.

North on route 86 was our destination.

We made our way along High Street until we reached Plenty Road.

Then took a shortcut down Miller Street to reach St Georges Road.

Where we had a photo opportunity outside the Preston Workshops.

A fast run down St Georges Road followed, and we made out way to route 96 via Victoria Parade.

As an express run down to St Kilda via the light rail, we picked up route 3 to head to East Malvern, then returned back to Malvern Depot.

The big question – toilets!

How do you spend ten hours onboard a tram, which doesn’t have any toilets? Our tour made a number of pit stops along the way, so that passengers could use the facilities that Yarra Trams have hidden across the network for the use of their staff.

And the best bit

When travelling on your own private tram, you’ll notice two things:

• when you don’t need to stop for passengers every 30 seconds, you can travel surprisingly far by tram in a short time, and
• the look on the face of intending tram passengers as you fly past without stopping is priceless!

Footnote – previous Melbourne tramway tours

There was a long period where no tramway enthusiast tours operated in Melbourne, but the drought broke in 2012:

• March 2012: tour of the western suburbs to commemorate the closure of the Footscray tramways,
• November 2012: 25th Anniversary of the Light Rail in Melbourne.

This year’s tour had much more input from Yarra Trams than the tours run in 2012, so hopefully this is a good sign for the future.

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Tottenham Yard

Tottenham Yard was opened in the western suburb of Tottenham from the 1920s as part of a project to improve freight movement in Victoria. The majority of freight traffic in the state was from the north or western areas, and was being remarshalled into trains at Melbourne Yard. This caused inefficiencies with the large number of trains needing to enter the Melbourne city, so the yard was opened for the marshalling of trains before they were sent to Melbourne Yard.

Laid with broad gauge trackage, Tottenham is a gravitational yard with a slight slope from the Sunshine end towards the city. The yard consists of four groups of sidings: arrival roads, two groups of classification roads, and departure tracks. Heavy usage of the yard ended with the gauge conversion of the main line to Adelaide in 1995, and with the decline of broad gauge traffic in general, large areas of the yard are now used for wagon storage. Tottenham station is located to the south of the yard.

The part conversion of Tottenham Yard to standard gauge is expected to commence next year which will allow larger Standard Gauge freight trains to terminate at Tottenham with trip working from the yard to Melbourne and return.

What caught my eye was the “expected to commence next year” line in the final paragraph, which lacked any mention of the date when the statement was originally written. So when was this “partial conversion to standard gauge” supposed to have started?

Thankfully Wikipedia makes available the full edit history of each and every article available, which makes tracking down the source of the statement just a few clicks away – 19 July 2011!

Three years on, and nothing has happened on the partial conversion of Tottenham Yard to standard gauge front – yet another railfan rumour that came to nothing!

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