Category Archives: Railways

Silo art 1: Colbinabbin

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As previously mentioned, only eleven weeks ago one of our politicians (to spare his blushes I’ll call him ‘Jason Wood’) was telling us that “if NSW could manage with around twenty cases per day, then why does the Victorian Labor Party and our stubborn Premier want to reach this ridiculously unrealistic target of a 5 case average over 14 days?!” Thanks to Daniel Andrews’ ‘stubbornness’, today is our 59th consecutive day without a community-contracted case of Coronavirus. On November 9th he promised us a COVID-normal Christmas as a reward for our long hard winter of coronavirus restrictions and that’s what we’ve had. Sadly most of the world hasn’t been so fortunate.

R-class loco and grain train

R-class loco and grain train

As part of that long winter lockdown, from the start of August we weren’t allowed to travel more than 5km (3 miles from home). Then from November 8th we were free to travel anywhere in Victoria, so I decided to take a break visiting the silo art in NE Victoria. Much as I love Melbourne, it was so good to be able to go away.

For my base I chose to stay at the Addison Motor Inn in Shepparton which I can thoroughly recommend. On day one I visited the silos at Colbinabbin and Rochester – it was seeing an R-class loco pictured on one of the Colbinabbin silos that first gave me the idea for this trip.

Colbinabbin silo art

Colbinabbin silo art

Pictures do not though begin to convey the scale of these artworks. Look at the size of the person standing in front of the silo and you’ll get an idea of the size of these silos.

Originally only the concrete silos were to be painted, then it was decided to paint all six. The artwork, by Tim Bowtell, was started in April 2020 and took just 50 days to complete. This was his second silo art project after St James.

Colbinabbin - Farmers picnic (close-up)

Farmers picnic (close-up)

The overall theme is the story of the railway and its significance to the Colbinabbin district. How wonderful to see a vision come to fruition and congratulations to everyone involved.

History notes

Colbinabbin was the terminus of the Rushworth railway line, opened 1913, closed 1987. The concrete silos are of the Williamstown type – 57 were built in Victoria between 1935 and 1950. The steel silos are  of the Ascom design. From the 1930s until privatised in 1999 all grain passed through a government body known as the Australian Wheat Board which built these silos.

Australian Silo Art home page

About the art

Colbinabbin Silo Art Trail Facebook page

 

Adelaide 2020

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As outlined in my last post, my 2020 cruise’s first port of call was Adelaide. I’d been there four times before so with no pressure to do anything in particular. I decided to revisit the National Rail Museum (NRM) and make a first-time visit to the South Australian Aviation Museum. Both these, along with the South Australian Maritime Museum, which I’d visited before, are at Port Adelaide, an 11-stop 10.2km train ride from Outer Harbour, where we were docked (the train station is conveniently next to the cruise terminal).

As a volunteer at the Melbourne Newport Railway Museum, railway museums now have a special interest to me, and on this second visit to the NRM I was able to see a number of exhibits with fresh eyes.

National Rail Museum Loco 504

National Rail Museum Loco 504

A great find last year was the book, ‘Kings of the Iron Horse’, the story of two of Australia’s greatest railway engineers, Alf Smith and Fred Shea. Shea was Chief Mechanical Engineer (1923-39) of the South Australian Railways (SAR). Working with William Webb, Chief Commissioner, he oversaw a massive re-equipping of the SAR during the 1920s. The 500 class, built by Armstrong Whitworth UK, was over twice the size of the biggest pre-Webb engine, and was the most powerful locomotive in Australia. 504, seen here was in service from 1926-1962.

National Rail Museum Clyde GM2 loco

National Rail Museum Clyde GM2 loco

One of Australia’s big mistakes was not building its railways to one gauge – South Australia has all three: 3’6” narrow gauge, 4’8½” standard gauge and 5’3” Irish or broad gauge.

Over time standard gauge interstate lines were constructed. Finally on 23 February 1970, just 50 years ago, the first Indian Pacific service left Sydney for Perth, becoming the first direct train to cross the Australian continent. GM2, here, built 1951, hauled the train from Port Pirie to Kalgoorlie, a distance of nearly 1800km.

Fokker F27, South Australian Aviation Museum

South Australian Aviation Museum

These are but two highlights of the NRM and by the time I’d dragged myself away I only had an hour for the Aviation Museum. Lots of to see and all very well arranged and signed. This Fokker Friendship was used for scientific research.

Then back to the Queen Elizabeth and on to Hobart.

2019 – Good memories

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Another year ends and the 20s are about to begin. I can look back on 2019 with almost unalloyed satisfaction. High spots of the year:

  • A two-night mini break by rail to Warrnambool.
  • Seeing our church continue to grow, with the opening of a new service in Docklands.
  • Being headhunted to help with our church ‘mums and bubs’ midweek meeting creche. For some reason this old single guy seems to be quite good at looking after little people!
  • A four-night cruise, Melbourne-Sydney-Brisbane, on Cunard’s Queen Elizabeth, made even more special by being upgraded to a suite. No upgrade for my 2020 cruise though!
  • Visiting Brisbane for the first time.
  • Through the year working as a volunteer with Habitat for Humanity, building homes in Yea.
  • Visiting friends and family in the UK – when I emigrated I promised to go back and visit them each year, a promise I had to break in 2018 following surgery, and taking a first-time stopover in Singapore on the way home, something I will do again
  • Through the year working as a volunteer guide at the Newport Railway Museum, also joining the works team.
  • Taking a winter holiday in Port Hedland – seeing big boys toys close up.
  • I only got to see one musical but it was a superb one, ‘Come from away’, the remarkable true story of thousands passengers and the small town in Newfoundland that welcomed them in the aftermath of 9/11
  • And continuing to run my software business, which celebrated its 30th birthday in April and once again reached my annual sales target (just).

Warrnambool mini break

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Warrnambool, ocean in background

Warrnambool, ocean in background

Christmas here marks the start of the summer holiday so not too much happens in January. With the forecast for Friday Jan 4th correctly predicting 42C in Melbourne, I hit on the idea of a mini-break to Warrnambool, a small city on the Southern Ocean, 265km/165mi SW of Melbourne, not somewhere I’d previously visited.

Why Warrnambool? The decider was that it’s at the end of one of our few surviving regional rail lines so I could sit back and let V/Line drive.This section of the coastline is known as the ‘shipwreck coast’ for good reason and as you look south the next landfall is Antartica – just the place to go if you’re escaping heat!

V/Line carriage reversible seats

V/Line carriage reversible seats

The comfortable trip took 3½ hours from Melbourne. I opted for first class, A$94 (about £50), v. $77.20 for economy, a no-brainer really. First class carriages have 52 seats v. 88 in economy – why V/Line set their pricing so as to make much less per carriage off their premium passengers I don’t know?

The first class seats are on swivel mounts and are rotated to face the direction of travel at each end.

Warrnambool station

Warrnambool station

The railway line from Melbourne reached Geelong in 1856 and was progressively extended, reaching Warrnambool in 1890. A fine station building survives.

With two nights and one full day there, I couldn’t see everything but I had a good time. I certainly escaped the heat: the forecast 30C for Friday was reached about 10.30 and then the temperature dropped sharply, making me wish I’d taken my cardigan.

Thursday evening was spent walking down to the beach and back through to city centre in search of a good dinner. Friday morning started off with a walk in the sun by Lake Pertobe – between 1974 and 1980 what was a swampy area was turned into a recreational lake surrounded by parkland.

Flagstaff Hill Maritime Village

Flagstaff Hill Maritime Village

Then off to one of Warrnambool’s main attractions, Flagstaff Hill Maritime Village. The museum is laid out like an 1870s period village and incorporates the original lighthouses and Warrnambool Garrison. A period-costumed guide gave us a really interesting and informative tour. Friday evening was spent at the huge summer market next to the lake, then on Saturday it was time to come home.

There’s much more to Warrnambool – in the winter, whale watching is a big tourist draw, and the city has also been brought to prominence by the film ‘Oddball’, in which trained Maremma dogs protect the fairy penguins from marauding foxes. It’s well worth watching.

Will I go back? Definitely as there’s lots more to see. I’ll either hire a car once down there or drive so I can go further afield. But I’ve got a few other Victorian train lines to check out first.

 

The final journey – by rail

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hearse car

Restored hearse car

Today I went on our Railway History Society‘s June 2018 outing, taking in the Craigieburn and Upfield lines. After a good lunch we finished up at Fawkner Cemetery where a restored hearse car is on display.

From the early 1890s new cemeteries were needed in Melbourne. A Northern Suburbs Cemetery Conference, held in 1902, suggested a 284 acre site which included Fawkner Railway Station, and this was adopted. The first funeral, that of four year old Dorothy Knapp, was held on 10th December 1906.

Hearse car information

Hearse car information

From the outset the new cemetery was linked to the city by a dedicated rail service. One service per day ran from Flinders Street Station platform 10 east, the mortuary platform, and this ran as an ordinary passenger service with additional hearse cars attached. Each hearse car could take twenty coffins.

The regular funeral train service was discontinued in 1939 though occasional trains would be run until 1952. The hearse cars were sold for scrap and assumed to be lost,  before three were found on a farm in 1990. After restoration this one is now on display next to Fawkner station.

FAWKNER MEMORIAL PARK Conservation Management Plan

 

A bus trip to Yea

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Habitat Yea 31 May 2018

Habitat for Humanity Yea 31 May 2018

As many of you know, I’ve been a volunteer with Habitat for Humanity for eight years and have spent the last six years working on our Yea (125km/75mi NE of Melbourne) project, putting in a day or two most weeks.

Following surgery last month I’m temporarily not allowed to drive or build. I did though take the chance today to ride the V/Line bus from Southern Cross to Yea and back, which gave me a couple of hours to see what’s happened in my absence (lots) and catch up with my building friends.

The bus ride: About 2:15 each way (driving takes 90 minutes). Until its closure in 1978 Yea was a key stop on the Tallarook – Mansfield branch line. Lance Adams’ history of the line is well worth a read.

Riding the Overland

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History

Overland crest

Overland crest

From the beginning both South Australia and Victoria used broad (Irish) gauge (1600mm) for their main lines, so providing an inter-capital connecting service was just a question of joining the lines. The Melbourne-Adelaide train has operated since 1887 when South Australia’s Adelaide-Wolseley line was extended to meet Victoria’s broad gauge line at Serviceton. The service was given its current name, The Overland, in 1926. Diesel locos took over in 1953.

In 1995 the line was converted to standard gauge, finally enabling through running between all the mainland state capitals.

Today

The Overland ready to leave Adelaide

The Overland ready to leave Adelaide

The Overland now operates a twice weekly daytime in each direction, the journey taking about eleven and a half hours.

The train departs at 0745 with passengers asked to check in from 0645. Checking in is more like airline checking in, though thankfully without security scanning. Checked baggage travels in a baggage van and is collected at the journey’s end.

Enjoying the Overland experience

Enjoying the Overland experience

Most  passengers travel in standard class carriages, 15 rows of seats with 2+2 seats per row. I paid the $100 extra for a Red Premium seat – these seats are in a separate carriage, arranged as 12 rows of 2+1 seating, each seat having a retractable tray table. The additional fare also includes meal service at your seat – breakfast, morning coffee, lunch and afternoon tea. For lunch I opted for camel curry and it was very acceptable.

Look below the seat armrest and you’ll see a small foot pedal. This lets the seat be turned round to face the direction of travel, or you can set two rows to face each other as you can see behind me.

The first part of the journey leaving Adelaide includes some demanding climbs, the rationale for Shea’s ‘big engines’ but after this it’s through open country, with grain stores giving way to sheep country. The last section of the journey is arguably the most interesting to rail enthusiasts, the standard gauge line following the broad gauge line from North Geelong to Newport, then diverting round the Sunshine freight line and back through the Footscray Bunbury Street tunnel to arrive at Southern Cross station’s platform 2.

All in all a very pleasant trip and one I hope to do again.

Update June 2020

The Overland had been threatened with closure in 2020 following a proposed withdrawal of government funding. The Victorian government has now come up with funding to secure the service for the next three years. Hopefully once the current virus restrictions are no more, lots of those who campaigned for the service’s retention will be patronising it.

Two days in Adelaide

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Work in progress

This visit to Adelaide, my third, held a special interest. Since 2014 I’ve been a volunteer at our Newport Railway Museum in Melbourne which had given me a special interest in visiting the National Railway Museum in Port Adelaide.

Saturday

Off the Golden Princess at 0700, train to the city to dump my stuff, then train back to Port Adelaide to visit the Railway Museum, then the Maritime Museum – the Aviation Museum will have to wait for my next visit.

NRL Class 500 loco

NRL Class 500 loco

As I’d anticipated, the NRL is a much larger operation than Newport. It’s open seven days a week, has a small paid staff and most of the exhibits are contained in three large buildings. Our Newport locos and carriages have stood outside for fifty five years (a few getting roofed over last year) and show it. The undercover NRL exhibits are in showroom condition.

Just before my visit I read Kings of the Iron Horse, the biographies of Alf Smith (1868-1951), Chief Mechanical Engineer of Victorian Railways, and his protege Fred Shea (1891-1970). By the early 1920s SAR was on the point of collapse and a Canadian, W.A.Webb, was brought in to turn them round and Fred Shea was recommended to him by VR for the post of CME. Shea’s principal achievement was the acquisition of a fleet of ‘big engines’, some of the most powerful ever seen in Australia.

Sunday

Art Gallery of South Australia

Art Gallery of South Australia

I started the day at Flinders Street Baptist Church, one of Adelaide’s oldest, then spent most of the afternoon exploring city centre attractions, principally the Adelaide Museum and the Art Gallery of South Australia.

As it was a fine afternoon, I took the tram (Adelaide currently has just one tram route) to Glenelg, a seaside suburb about 30 minutes away.

Finally, back to the city for an early night as I needed to be at the Overland terminal by 0645.