Something a bit different: Victorian Railways of Australia

[memyselfand1]

Just read on the forum that a couple of Tait cars have been wrecked by fire, there was a time when I used to travel to work on those old rattle traps that I wouldnt have blinked if they set fire to the whole lot, draughty sometimes dirty coaches that used to rock and roll along the tracks, built in the 19th century that were still running in the 1950s and 60s, thankfully VR improved over the years and finally got rid of the old thunderbox toilets with last years telephone directory pages to wipe your backside on, that is what we had at Glen Waverley station for years.

After growing up in the UK where I was a steam train fanatic I was stunned when I saw VRs old clunkers dawdling along the track, it took 35 years and a trip to Williamstown Railway Museum to ignite an interest in Aussie trains, I now enjoy what we had over here also sorry to hear about the Tait cars.

It's always interesting hearing from people who actually had to travel on them. I missed out a little bit - by the time I got to Glen Waverley it was solid X'traps with horrible seats and suspension, and the occasional Comeng. I think somebody shared the same view as you since as soon as the Comengs came in most of them were taken out near Creswick and burned.

Regardless of the status of Murphy, his law is still well and truly in effect. On the Sunday of the triple header I was working in Bendigo, 1.5 hours or so away. It was planned to finish at lunch time and head over to take a look, but due to finishing a little late, a check engine light meaning it was risky to make the journey there, and then missing a train which would have got me to Southern Cross on time, I only saw the back of R707's tender as it went tender-first back to the depot, while we were on a flyover above it. Not to mention that I hadn't put a card in my camera anyway.
Last week was the Maldon sleepover train, which departed from Southern Cross at 9pm on Friday and returned Sunday 5pm. Friday night I was at a dinner and missed it, Sunday I was in the city, but had to wait for something and missed it that way.
I'd also hoped to book tickets for the Snow Train this year, but on the night I went on, booking had closed.

It's almost like something doesn't like me being involved with trains.

[memyselfand1]

Another fire at Newport early yesterday morning saw the destruction of a sleeping car and damage to two further cars from 707 Operations and Steamrail. The fire brigade must be commended on their efforts - the destroyed car was coupled to stored 707 Ops shunter W244 (not 241 as I thought) at the time, which escaped with (relatively) minor damage. This time the fire is regarded as suspicious, and police are actively hunting an arsonist.
Questions are now being raised about the lack of fire protection and security systems within many Victorian preservation groups, as well as the current preservation scene as a whole in Victoria. For example, the Victorian railway museum is outdoors in the sea air, which over the last 50 years has led to severe deterioration of most of the exhibits (News article from 2010 - note that neither of the locos shown are H220, the headline loco, and the museum was closed until late last year). When compared to the British NRM, which is indoors with changing exhibitions, features etc, we are basically still in the Victorian era. Some groups have actually now removed items from the museum and restored them to running condition (the Walker railmotor at Healesville, 22RM, and the only remaining Australian Standard Garratt being moved to Queenscliff for restoration).
Plans to move it have been going on for years (in other words, the government is waiting for the ARHS to produce it's own business plan with no assistance), with the current "planned" location being Mornington, inaccessible without a car and completely out of the way for a vast majority of people who would be interested in visiting. And it's still next to the sea! Ballarat, a station with a large disused goods complex, close to everything and 1.5 hours on train / car from Melbourne, with a rich railway history, where a huge number of VR trains were even built before Newport, is being ignored and redeveloped as a "gateway" station. A gateway to what? The goods shed is decrepit, falling down, and planned to be reused as a 'community venue'. Ballarat has too many unused venues already! Why not an indoor museum?
Castlemaine, on the Bendigo line, which has the only preserved railway with a mainline connection and a lot of free space, is also being ignored for reasons unknown.
The former Melbourne goods sheds, a colossal building near Southern Cross station, proposed site for the railway museum, had a section demolished through the middle to build a road.
Many rare articles set aside for preservation have been scrapped within the last few years due to neglect and ignorance, which has led to the extinction of several classes of rolling stock that should have been safe. Not to mention that due to certain groups, there is now a distrust from the companies running vintage locos in revenue service, who now prefer to scrap them rather than on-sell them to preservation groups.

Apologies for the rant, but myself and a number of other railfans are getting tired of the way history is handled in this state. The sad part is that it's now basically too late to do anything, with historic items being scrapped and already in poor condition. There is little that can be done, since the overseeing body is a government organsiation, with no regard for the items in their care, and were the ones who left them neglected for years before having them scrapped.

[AustralisRico]

Another fire at Newport early yesterday morning saw the destruction of a sleeping car and damage to two further cars from 707 Operations and Steamrail. The fire brigade must be commended on their efforts - the destroyed car was coupled to stored 707 Ops shunter W244 (not 241 as I thought) at the time, which escaped with (relatively) minor damage. This time the fire is regarded as suspicious, and police are actively hunting an arsonist.

That makes me wonder if the first one was a real accident, seriously wtf is wrong with people.

Castlemaine, on the Bendigo line, which has the only preserved railway with a mainline connection and a lot of free space, is also being ignored for reasons unknown.
The former Melbourne goods sheds, a colossal building near Southern Cross station, proposed site for the railway museum, had a section demolished through the middle to build a road.
Many rare articles set aside for preservation have been scrapped within the last few years due to neglect and ignorance, which has led to the extinction of several classes of rolling stock that should have been safe. Not to mention that due to certain groups, there is now a distrust from the companies running vintage locos in revenue service, who now prefer to scrap them rather than on-sell them to preservation groups.

Apologies for the rant, but myself and a number of other railfans are getting tired of the way history is handled in this state. The sad part is that it's now basically too late to do anything, with historic items being scrapped and already in poor condition. There is little that can be done, since the overseeing body is a government organsiation, with no regard for the items in their care, and were the ones who left them neglected for years before having them scrapped.

Ok now NSW's is starting to look good, it may not be perfect but it's atleast been preserving it's historic rolling stock. That's disgraceful! Sounds like I need to come down and check that stuff out before it's literally gone . Bastards!

[memyselfand1]

Another fire at Newport early yesterday morning saw the destruction of a sleeping car and damage to two further cars from 707 Operations and Steamrail. The fire brigade must be commended on their efforts - the destroyed car was coupled to stored 707 Ops shunter W244 (not 241 as I thought) at the time, which escaped with (relatively) minor damage. This time the fire is regarded as suspicious, and police are actively hunting an arsonist.

That makes me wonder if the first one was a real accident, seriously wtf is wrong with people.

Castlemaine, on the Bendigo line, which has the only preserved railway with a mainline connection and a lot of free space, is also being ignored for reasons unknown.
The former Melbourne goods sheds, a colossal building near Southern Cross station, proposed site for the railway museum, had a section demolished through the middle to build a road.
Many rare articles set aside for preservation have been scrapped within the last few years due to neglect and ignorance, which has led to the extinction of several classes of rolling stock that should have been safe. Not to mention that due to certain groups, there is now a distrust from the companies running vintage locos in revenue service, who now prefer to scrap them rather than on-sell them to preservation groups.

Apologies for the rant, but myself and a number of other railfans are getting tired of the way history is handled in this state. The sad part is that it's now basically too late to do anything, with historic items being scrapped and already in poor condition. There is little that can be done, since the overseeing body is a government organsiation, with no regard for the items in their care, and were the ones who left them neglected for years before having them scrapped.

Ok now NSW's is starting to look good, it may not be perfect but it's atleast been preserving it's historic rolling stock. That's disgraceful! Sounds like I need to come down and check that stuff out before it's literally gone . Bastards!

Although NSW does have 3801 and 3830... (for the uninitiated, 3801 has been undergoing a restoration similar in length and success to that of 4472, except that the boiler delivered was the wrong shape and had to be sent back to Germany to be rebuilt. The new boiler apparently arrived in Aus in January this year, but nothing seems to be happening with the loco, and there is little information being released about it's status to the public or shareholders.
3830 underwent a full restoration and was deemed fit for service. Less than a week later, it was found that the firebox plating was down to 4mm thick in places after a mysterious corrosive acid wash.)

As far as I can see, SA is the only state to not have totally screwed the rail preservation, the reason probably being the fact that they standardised the entire state and as such there is only one organisation running steam trains on a 'landlocked' line. The rest of their preserved stock is at the National Railway Museum, and is generally undercover and in reasonable condition.
I had a look through some detail photos of 22RM before it was repatriated from the museum, and upon close inspection noticed around 10 areas on the roof that had been 'repaired' with duct tape. Other exhibits, mainly the (sole existing) wooden bodied carriages, are stored under tarps because of the onset of rot. Wooden headstocks (e.g. the only remaining F class, built in the 1870s) and cab floors are disintegrating.

That'll do for negativity for this week I think. Hopefully soon I'll have some new photos to upload, and we can resume normal operation on this thread.

[memyselfand1]

I haven't posted here in a while - that's not to say there's been nothing happening. Since my last post, I've been steadily decreasing in enthusiasm, particularly after a several hour visit to the railway museum (in 30 degree weather) resulted in over 200 overexposed and blurry photos. A computer issue has led to the loss of a couple of photo sets too, which is kind of sad.

However, I've been working on a new nicer looking gallery, which comes with a host of new photos from Maldon, Healesville Heritage 2016 (not much there), some previously unpublished stuff from the 2014 Steamrail open day, less 'irrelevant' photos, more phone photos of various things / places, and a new organisational system. Photos are now sorted by location, and a location has subalbums for specific events. The number of photos and subalbums in an album is given on the front page.
It's still a work in progress, and there are still things to do on it (e.g. the tag system currently only works with the files tagged on the old system). There are still bugs, photos will come and go, and occasionally there will be nothing on the page when you visit, but that's all part of the fun (: If you do find a major bug, think something should be changed, you would like more photos of something, you want more information or just want a chat, post a comment below because I don't yet have a contact form (because I forgot).

Photos from the 2016 Steamrail open day (held last weekend) will also be available soon (if I can persuade my computer to run Lightroom). This event was one of the most disappointing things I have ever done photographically, and I am very unhappy with my results. There are very few photos of A2 986, running for the first time in full black livery, and a few of K190, repainted over the summer break. "Polly", the first locomotive built at Newport in the mid-1800s, was repatriated and returned to Newport for the event, and sat at the head of the 1800s XY set for most of the event, but was towed around to pose with Y112. Sadly, no photos of the two together.

Any questions, feel free to ask.

[memyselfand1]

Newport photos are now available.
http://jamesbray.com.au/gallery/display?a=1110

[sishades]

I recently had the pleasure of visiting Melbourne and went to Flinders Street, here are some pics




















If you go to Melbourne the Puffing Billy is a must as is the railway museum in Port Adelaide. The highlight of my tour was a trip on the Ghan...an absolute must.

[memyselfand1]

Thanks for posting that. You managed to get the good angles, before the upgrades start this year.
Puffing Billy is always a fun day out - which loco did you get? Haven't done the SA rail museum (side note: one of the locos there is actually a Victorian N Class) or the Ghan yet, hopefully one day (:

[memyselfand1]

I once again have a backlog of photos, but due to unfortunate circumstances it may be a while before they're up. I have the recent Ballarat Heirtage Weekend photos (Y112 and K190), some of K163 and T411 at Mornington, and new photos from the ARHS Victorian Museum. I am now a volunteer at the museum, and it definitely puts a lot into perspective.

[memyselfand1]

Finally clearing the backlog a bit. Photos of 2016 Ballarat heritage weekend and the Steamrail Member's train to Seymour on the 30th of July are now available. The Member's train was a 6 carriage load test for A2 986, it's first passenger service. This was also the first time an A2 has been seen on the Seymour line in 50+ years.
On the return journey we had an unexpected parallel run with N473 City of Warragul. Coincidental, as Warragul was the city A2 986 was 'rescued' from 30 years ago, and will be the destination of it's first revenue run.

I had a description listing all the locos seen on the day, but I lost it and can't be bothered re-writing it at the moment. In summary though, C501, the only C class in preservation and in the VR livery; "The Flying J" 515, with no wheels and suspended in mid-air; 3 first-series flat-top T classes; GM36, allegedly in preservation but after 12 years of hire to freight service it's kind of stuffed; one of the fast disappearing DL class, still in Australian National livery; and AN3 in Pacific National livery.
Direct link http://jamesbray.com.au/gallery/display?a=1414

[memyselfand1]

Photos of my trip to Mornington Railway are now up. There's still a few things to upload, like my second trip to the Victorian Goldfields Railway, and the unique parallel steam loco run to Geelong.
I've set up a Flickr feed for my iPhone shots, which is at the moment being updated fairly often, and has mainly the random photos I take when I don't have my camera. https://www.flickr.com/photos/a2986