This has taken ages to write. What an experience! Just the program ran to eight pages. What to include? What to leave out? I had just got a new phone, but my son had a separate camera. Most of these pictures are his.
Steamrail Victoria is ‘a volunteer organization dedicated to the restoration and operation of vintage steam, diesel and electric locomotives and carriages’ (their website). They also run tours around the state every few weeks, and hold an annual open day in the Victorian Railways Newport workshops, which date back to 1884. Regular maintenance was transferred from here about a hundred years later. Various historic railway organizations now share the facilities. My son Ben, who works in loco maintenance, is a great rail fan, so we went along to this year’s open day. I hadn’t been for about ten years, and was keen to attend.
Being summer in Australia, we arrived at opening time when it was still relatively cool, but temps were up to the mid-30s (mid-90s F) by the time we left four hours later. We could easily have spent longer, but I was done in by then. But I was glad I went.
This historic AEC bus, running in the old MMTB colours I remember from my childhood, was giving rides between the workshops and the Railway Museum further down the road. These used to run on the Clifton Hill route 246 past my high school.
We walked everywhere and often backtracked for a closer look at engines, particularly ones in steam. There were always about ten engines in steam and shunting throughout the day, not to mention a traction engine driving back and forth. Electrics and diesels were static exhibits;
To give you a feel for the period, there were a couple of carts of luggage outside the workshop. Brought back memories to me!
Four bays of the workshop building were open, as well as five platforms and the administration building which is being restored by the Hobson’s Bay Men’s Shed to its original 1880s appearance inside and out;
There were guided tours of the workshop available, but aside from watching the operation of the carriage lift, Ben and I followed our own program around the workshops;
Not being up on the different classes of locos, I found it all a bit confusing. Fortunately, I was accompanied by a walking encyclopedia.
For Ben’s 21st birthday, he got to drive J541 on the Castlemaine-Maldon line;
However, that engine is now down for maintenance. They take it very seriously. Here it was as we saw it in the event;
Perhaps the greatest attraction was seeing the old steam locos shunting;
As well as the steam locos there were also early rail motors, some of which started life with Winton engines before getting a diesel transplant. It was amazing to realize how close the driver was to the engine in some of these;
And more modern diesels too. Here Ben sits in A66;
Old electrics and carriages were also there for the viewing;
In the workshop there was an incredible Lego model of the entire workshop complex (not just the section we saw) and detailed models of all the different types of locos on site. There were also a couple of HO scale layouts representing classic Victorian country towns;
It was an amazing day. We could have seen the nearby railway museum, but I’d had enough, We’ll go there another day. Health permitting, I won’t let it go another ten years!
Great article, I wish this place were closer so I could visit it! Looks like you all had a great day. For those interested, there is a similar but smaller State maintained site in North Carolina, it was formerly one of the largest steam engine maintenance depots in the US. You can walk amongst engines, most of the old shops, the turntable still works, etc.:
https://www.nctransportationmuseum.org/
It was a fantastic day. I would have liked to have spent more time having a second look at some things, but the stamina just wasn’t there. It was awesome to see the wide variety of rolling stock they have preserved, and to see the many current projects they’re working on.
If you should happen to be in Australia that time of year, it’d be well worth a look.
The green and tan AEC bus also resembles the old colors of San Francisco’s Municipal Railway (aka Muni). In fact, San Francisco runs one or two old Melbourne streetcars in that color scheme, as part of their historic fleet which is in regular operation. They were donated by the State of Victoria.
I’ve read that we gave you guys some of our old trams. ‘In my day’ the MMTB ran hundreds of the things, and hadn’t added to their rolling stock since the fifties, and those were a sliding-door update on twenties bones. Eventually, in the early eighties, I think they were shamed into getting some new ones. They were great to ride on though, sheer retrotechnology. Although I left Melbourne back in ’90 I’m still interested in the trams. Don’t get me started talking trams…
The colour scheme was introduced in the early thirties both to unify a disparate fleet (MMTB took over from about five separate companies, around the Depression), and to blend in with the colours of St. Kilda Road, the main north-south thoroughfare which used to be bordered by mansions and gardens. I think ‘straw’ and green was a popular colour combination back then; Daniel M would probably know.
..and then they discovered Chronic Depression Grey, such that every new tram looked (and looks) like an unhappy thought. What a foolish thing to do in a city famous for its many, many months of grey skies!
That reminds me I need to visit the Oregon Rail Heritage Center the next time I’m in Portland.
This looks like quite a place and steam locomotive maintenance has to be taken seriously because nobody wants a boiler explosion.
Indeed. There were quite enough boiler explosions in the early days of steam, for us to realize how critical safe working practices are, including regular maintenance. While I think Ben was a bit sad to see ‘his’ engine torn down, he’d be the first one to explain the dangers.
I know absolutely nothing about anything railroad-related, regardless the era, but this is all highly impressive, and on such a huge scale! I can’t think of something similar here or in surrounding countries. In the UK, maybe?
Thanks for the tour (de force)!
Thanks Johannes. You show us so many truck shows, I thought I’d return the favour. In one feature! 🙂
I could well imagine this in the UK, it seems the sort of thing they’d be right into. And they’d probably have been doing it longer too.
I knew the old VR Newport workshops used to have the facilities to make their own locomotives, but still it was awesome wandering through the part that was open to us, and realizing this was less than half of the total facility. What must it have been like when it was at its peak? It really makes you think.
As well as Steamrail, there are several other rural-based historic railway organizations that also share the use of these facilities. Several of them also had displays to publicize what they had to offer, but there was no obvious “this is ours, that is theirs” when it came to the workshop facilities.
Tour de force? Ben took about another two hundred photos I didn’t show…..
Thanks for this Peter.
This would have been a huge industry back in the day, you can get some idea when you look at the old Victorian Railways maps, all those tiny towns that were serviced by a train, compared to today.
I can stare at these old maps for ages, there is one at Ballarat station.
Not surprised by the Maryborough diorama, with it’s oversized for the town station. When I was looking to move here, I looked at a house for sale behind the station, but but for living in, old houses are not really for me.
Steam trains come through here sometimes. I can hear the unmistakable chuffing sound and of course the whistle.
But my favourites are the mighty old GM Diesel electrics like S313 in your post.
I can waste hours watching those train videos that some drivers post on You Tube, particularly ones in Victoria.
I can still remember the sound and smell of those old MMTB buses idling at the kerb, we didn’t live in Melbourne but we used to visit once a year.
Thanks jonco.
We used to live near the saleyards at Kerang, and we’d often take the kids down to the yards on the days the train was in. Yeah, quiet little town, not much to do back then.
Nowadays I live between the Ballarat and Maroona lines, and often hear the steam trains come through when Steamrail has an excursion running. Those old whistles really carry, and the steady beat of the engine across the plains really takes you back. There’s something special about steam power. It’s amazing to think how extensive the rail network was at its peak; nowadays you’d wonder that it was ever worth the effort of laying rails out to some of those places. Still, people could make a living from farming then, and road transport was sometimes impractical.
Maryborough station is amazing; the town never justified building something so palatial. I guess with the gold nearby they thought it would just keep growing, like Ballarat and Bendigo.
Riding the bus was a treat: that slow-revving AEC diesel and preselector transmission made for an unmistakable soundtrack, with all the bodywork creaks and rattles.
I can also waste hours contemplating the railway maps of the peak, round about 1920 or so.
Looks like an interesting place to visit!
For those in the Eastern US – or anyone for that matter – the B&O Museum at Mt Clare Station in Baltimore is considered to have the best collection of locomotives from the 1830s (Tom Thumb!) to modern era in the world. It’s well worth a visit to my hometown’s railroad museum for rail fans of all ages… it’s quite amazing:
https://www.borail.org/explore-learn/collections/
Those tiny engines from the early days can be fascinating, it’s amazing what they can haul. Our railways aren’t as old as that, heck, my whole state was barely getting settled in the 1830s! It’s a real eye-opener to see what some of those small narrow-gauge locos can pull though, really makes you aware of the potential of steam. The VR workshop complex only has regular Victorian broad-gauge rails, though there are working narrow-gauge heritage lines operating in the state.
I’m glad you and importamation have given links to American collections.
Great stuff, Mr W. Lots of connections for me, including that one brother did his apprenticeship in those workshops in the early ’80’s (and to think I went to his 60th just a week ago, help!!)
My dad was and is a train nut, and I’m just old enough to have ridden on or been pulled along by many of these objects, though they were by then in pretty dire straits. One particular loco you picture, K 190, took us on a Steamrail trip from Melb all the way to end of the line at Yarram, an utterly gorgeous line through South Gippsland that has long since been just a walking trail.
Jonco mentions the huge size of the industry: in fact, the Victorian Railways were by far the biggest employer in the State until closures began in earnest from the ’50’s on.
Incredibly, I was actually in Newport that very day – it’s only 10 or less k’s away over the Bridge, but I never have cause to go there and haven’t been there for possibly 30 years – to drop a kid at a new mate’s place. I was literally one or two streets away, and didn’t bloody well know the thing was happening. I’d have gone in a flash, and I might well have run into you – but blessedly, you instead got to enjoy your time free of such a disaster. The chances!
It would’ve been great to meet up! No, really. Ben would’ve been bored out of his brain, but he could go have another look at the engines.
I think you’d have to have connections in train circles to know this extravaganza was on. I can’t imagine they’d have the budget to advertize this widely. My son being in the industry (though his apprenticeship wasn’t through VR) and active in the model train community made sure he knew. I think he wanted company on the day; taking his young family along wasn’t an option.
Walking through as much of the workshops as was open to us made me aware what a huge industry this was. Sure I grew up seeing VR Institutes and VR halls in country towns, but to see the size of their main workshop and the scale of operations was awesome. And the Steamrail guys seem to have all the skills necessary to fully utilize the facilities.