Flashback Friday Number 27: 20 Years since the closure of the Leongatha line and removal of the track to Yarram. Two days from now on December 14, will mark the 20th anniversary since the line from Nyora to Leongatha was closed to regular traffic. On December the 14th, 1994, the last Leongatha to Yarram and Barry Beach Junction to Esso Barry Beach Marine Terminal V/Line Rail Recovery Train hauled by P21 and P11 departed from Leongatha at 3:00pm. For over 102 years, trains had been regularly traversing along the mainline and thankfully, it is still open today in minimal sections. The day after V/Line ceased operation beyond the Australian Glass Manufacturing (Koala Sand Mine) Siding between Lang Lang and Nyora, the section from Nyora to Leongatha was handed over to the South Gippsland Tourist Railway, who will be celebrating 20 years of operations on Saturday the 26th of December (Boxing Day), 2014. Read on for more information about the Leongatha-Yarram ‘Rail Recovery Trains’. Despite the speculation as to why the railway line beyond Leongatha was mothballed in June 1992 and its future was left unknown until a change of the Victorian government in October 1992, several sections of the track were recovered and utilised once again for the conversion of the Melbourne to Adelaide mainline via Cressy. The original decision by the Joan Kirner led Victorian government was to leave the line intact if required for future purposes given the continued development of the Esso Barry Beach Marine Terminal and if superphosphate was needed to be transported by rail from the communities along the line. However, once the Leongatha passenger train was withdrawn on July 24, 1993, the Jeff Kennett led Victorian government planned to dismantle the whole line except for the section from Dandenong to Cranbourne. This plan was stopped due to the fact within 12 months the Great Southern Railway Society and South Gippsland Railway Steering Committee managed to amalgamate shortly after the withdrawal of the passenger train, sand trains continued to regularly operate to Koala Siding and dismantling of the track beyond Leongatha was expected to be completed by late 1994. Since the line beyond Leongatha had not received extensive maintenance since 1990-1991, the removal process took almost 12 months to complete. Trains ran as minimally as possible due to the state of the track and trestle bridges. Notably, the approximately 275 metre timber trestle bridge at Meeniyan, which crosses over the Tarwin River needed to be strengthened even for the rail recovery tractor as the decking had extensively deteriorated when the track was torn up in September 1994. Loading of the rails were done at each station as far as Welshpool until the line was progressively dismantled up until Leongatha. During its later years in operation, it was common to see flatcars attached to the Barry Beach Goods as the rail line from Welshpool to Yarram was being removed during this period of time. The motive power used for these trains still slugged their way up the notorious gradients along the route despite the restricted speed limits and on one occasion T390 managed to stall on the upside at Fish Creek in January 1994. This situation saw multiple units used from then on and V/Line’s H and P Classes made rare appearances on the line. In the Newsrail April 1995 edition, Graeme Reid was given the opportunity to write about the dismantling of the line beyond Leongatha. Although, it would have been difficult to experience seeing this occur, Reid managed to film and keep detailed records and notes of the rail recovery trains and came to the conclusion that, “The South Gippsland railway was once one of Victoria’s important lines, with branches radiating to various locations. Over its final years, goods traffic gradually declined. It could be said that traffic was allowed to, or even caused to decline. Finally, as had happened to its branch lines and to many other Victorian lines, traffic was withdrawn with explanation that the line was uneconomical to operate”. 20 years on and it is still heavily debatable whether this reform was of any benefit to South Gippsland and many other regions in Victoria. Not surprisingly these communities have been continually lobbying for improvements to rail infrastructure and transport and the towns along the Ararat and Bairnsdale lines have been successful when they were both reopened for passenger trains in July 2004. One could only think what Leongatha (South Gippsland), Mildura (Mallee), Cobram (Murray Valley) and Central and Western Victoria have been missing out on for over the last two decades. Graeme Reid’s video of the last trains from Leongatha is included in this post. Shortly after this post is published, the ‘Disappearing Tracks’ article and images of the ‘Rail Recovery Trains will be posted, which all give an insight into the final year of the railway line that once existed beyond Leongatha. Last Rail Recovery Trains Leongatha South Gippsland Railway: vimeo/album/2408979/video/68938250
Posted on: Fri, 12 Dec 2014 07:29:37 +0000
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