Victorian Railways

Victorian Railways
legal form	public legal society
founding	1859
resolution	1983
Reason for dissolution	Division into State Transport Authority and Metropolitan Transit Authority
Seat	Melbourne
Branch	Transport company

The Victorian Railways were a state railway company in Australia , which operated several railway lines in the state of Victoria . Most of the lines had a gauge of 1600 mm, but between 1898 and 1962 up to five narrow-gauge lines with a gauge of 762 mm and from 1961 the standard-gauge line between Albury and Melbourne were operated.

The Victorian Railways came into being in 1859 through the nationalization of distressed or insolvent private railway companies. The company was split in 1983 into the State Transport Authority for long-distance traffic with the brand name V / Line , and the Metropolitan Transit Authority for urban and suburban traffic of Melbourne with the name MetRail .

history

Emergence

The Victoria State Railway Department was established in 1856. British civil engineer George Christian Darbyshire became the department's first chief engineer that same year. He was in charge of railway construction until he was replaced by Thomas Higginbotham in 1860. Due to political turmoil in connection with the compensation of MPs in the government of the state of Victoria Higginbotham was released in 1878 and replaced by Robert Watson. In 1880 a new government wanted to redress the injustice of 1878 and reinstated Higginbotham. However, he died that same year, so that William Elsdon took over the post of chief engineer for the next two years before retiring in 1882. Watson then returned to the position he held until his death in 1891.

On November 1, 1883, the Victorian Railways Commissioners Act 1883, 47 Vic., No.767 - an act to build, operate and maintain state-owned railways - was passed. The staff of the railway department was subordinated to the Victorian Railways Commissioners, a four-member board of directors who ran the Victorian Railways . The lavish headquarters were located at 67 Spencer Street in Melbourne and were occupied in 1893.

development

Streamlined Spirit of Progress express train near Kilmore East. The tractor is the S301 Sir Thomas Mitchell steam locomotive of the S class .

F-class shunting locomotive

B-class mainline locomotive

Victorian Railways built routes to serve all regions of the state and also built some routes to New South Wales . At the end of the 19th century, the railway became a political plaything because some politicians demanded new routes that should lead to places where the volume of traffic did not justify the construction of the railway. In 1864, 409 km of track had been built. The network quickly expanded to 4,670 km in 1891. The maximum extent was reached in 1939 with 7652 km, where except in the mountain regions no inhabitant lived more than 42 km away from a railway line. At the end of the 1930s, the length of the route network slowly began to decrease because unprofitable branch lines were closed.

Melbourne's suburban railways were electrified between 1919 and 1930, creating the world's longest electrified suburban network. In 1937 the express train Spirit of Progress was introduced, which initially operated between Melbourne and Albury. It was kept in the streamlined design that was contemporary at the time and offered the comfort of air-conditioned all-steel sleeping cars.

From 1951, the steam operation was replaced by the diesel operation. First there were three-axle F-class diesel locomotives . The rod drive locomotives were supplied by the British Dick Kerr Works and were similar to the British Class 11 , which was also used in the Netherlands as the Class 500 . The electrical equipment and diesel engine were from English Electric . From 1952 to 1954, the B-Class took the mainline locomotives into operation. It was a series of 26 when local manufacturers Clyde Engineering built under license EMD locomotives of the F-Series .

In 1961 the standard gauge line Albury – Melbourne was put into operation, which enabled the connection to the standard gauge railway lines of New South Wales . Thus, through trains were Melbourne- Sydney possible and the Spirit of Progress was extended to Sydney.

In 1972 the last steam locomotive was scrapped.

Decline

In 1972 the so-called Bland Report appeared , the counterpart for the Australian state of Victoria to the British Beeching ax . The report - officially known as the Report of the Board of Inquiry into the Victorian Land Transport System - Victoria proposed profound changes such as closing unprofitable branch lines and giving up protecting the railroad from competition from trucking. Based on the report, the Railways (Amendment) Act was passed in the same year.

In May 1973, due to the new law, the management of the railway company was transferred from the Victorian Railways Commissioners to the Victorian Railways Board, which had seven members. In 1974 the VicRail brand was introduced for Victorian Railways . The existing royal blue and yellow paintwork of the rolling stock was retained until 1981.

In 1983 Victorian Railways was split into two companies: the State Transport Authority for overland traffic and the Metropolitan Transit Authority for Melbourne city and suburban traffic.

Successor companies

The State Transport Authority used the brand name V / Line while the Metropolitan Transit Authority did not use a brand until 1989 when the Public Transport Corporation was formed, known as The Met and alongside the suburban lines of the former Victorian Railways which operated under the MetRail brand also operated the trams and buses from Melbourne.

Between 1996 and 1999, V / Line and The Met were privatized. The passenger service of the V / Line was assigned to National Express , but returned to the state in 2002. The freight division of the V / Line was sold to Freight Victoria and is now owned by Pacific National . The railway infrastructure is owned by VicTrack , with the long-distance lines leased to the Australian Rail Track Corporation .

Metro Trains Melbourne has been the operator of Melbourne suburbs since June 2009 . The company is 60% owned by MTR Corporation , the operator of the Hong Kong subway , 20% owned by the John Holland Group , a Melbourne-based global railway construction company, and 20% owned by UGL Rail , an Australian rolling stock manufacturer .

management

Norman Charles Harris

When the railway department was founded in 1856, the management of the department was initially with the President of the Board of Land and Works (German for "Administration for Land and Labor"), which remained so until 1884. With the passage of the Victorian Railways Commissioners Act 1883, the management was transferred to a board of directors with four members, which had to report to the Ministry of Railways, from 1935 to the Ministry of Transport.

The chairmen of the board of directors were:

• Richard Speight : 1883-1892
• Richard Hodge Francis: 1892-1894
• James Syder: 1894-1896
• John Mathieson: 1896-1901
• William Francis Joseph Fitzpatrick: 1901–1903
• Thomas James Tait: 1903-1910
• William Francis Joseph Fitzpatrick: 1910–1915
• Charles Ernest Norman: 1915-1920
• Harold Winthrop Clapp: 1920-1939
• Norman Charles Harris: 1940-1950
• Robert George Wishart: 1950–1955
• Edgar Henry Brownbill: 1956-1967
• George Frederick Brown: 1967-1973

After the Railways (Amendment) Act 1972 was passed, the management of Victorian Railways was transferred to the Victorian Railways Board. This board of directors could have up to seven members, with six initially designated. It lasted until it was dissolved by the Transport Act 1983.

Rolling stock

Image from Seymour station in July 1952. A B-class diesel locomotive stands next to an S-class steam locomotive , which has been replaced by the first-generation mainline diesel locomotives .

The Victorian Railways operated a variety of locomotives and wagons for passenger trains and freight. Some of the vehicles were taken over by the private companies that built the first railways in Victoria. Most of the rolling stock was used to operate the broad-gauge lines, but Victorian Railways also owned the vehicles for the narrow-gauge lines. From the 1960s, part of the broad gauge rolling stock is designed to operate on standard gauge lines umgespurt .

Small steam locomotives were used first, most of which were imported from Britain . Later larger locomotives were manufactured locally. With the electrification of the suburban lines, small electric locomotives were procured, with the electrification of the main line to Traralgon also having to procure more powerful locomotives. Diesel operation began in 1951, but only the B-Class mainline locomotives were able to fundamentally redesign operation on the main lines. Except for the F-class shunting locomotives, all diesel-electric locomotives came from Clyde Engineering, which had the rights to build diesel engines and traction motors under license from General Motors EMD, which were built into the locally designed locomotive body and bogies.

The first passenger coaches were two- and three-axle compartment coaches, known in Australia as Dogbox Passanger Cars ("kennel passenger coaches"). From the turn of the century, larger four-axle wagons were also procured. Electric railcars were procured for the suburban lines of Melbourne to speed up traffic. In addition, various diesel and gasoline railcars were used on a trial basis for use on branch lines with little traffic. In the late 1970s, the rolling stock for long-distance traffic was run down and the older passenger carriages with wooden car bodies were at the end of their life. With the New Deal project , which emerged as a result of the Railways (Amendment) Act 1972, a new timetable was introduced in October 1981. 35 little-used stations were no longer served and new rolling stock with steel car bodies was used.

Initially, two-axle freight wagons were used, but the first four-axle wagons were available as early as 1871. The last two-axle open freight cars were built in 1958, but were only replaced by new bogie cars in the 1980s and then scrapped in large numbers. In 1987, 5000 freight cars with bogies were in operation.

When Victorian Railways merged into the two new companies in 1983, the Metropolitan Transit Authority received the suburban railcars and the State Transport Authority received the remainder of the rolling stock for long-distance passenger traffic and freight trains.

Operational units

West approach to Melbourne Flinders Street Station

The Victorian Railways were divided into several operational units, each of which was responsible for part of the operation. These units were reorganized several times. The organization from 1962 is shown as an example:

• Secretaries: Under the direction of the Secretary for Railways , this unit dealt with strategy, administration, transportation regulations and legal matters.
• Rolling Stock dealt with the design, construction, operation and maintenance of the locomotives and other rolling stock under the direction of the Chief Mechanical Engineer .
• Way and Works: This unit, headed by the Chief Civil Engineer, was responsible for the construction and maintenance of the fixed facilities such as tracks, bridges, stations, signal systems and for occupational safety.
• Traffic: Under the direction of the Chief Traffic Manager , this unit dealt with the operation of freight and passenger traffic on the railroad and on the road.
• Electrical Engineering: Under the direction of the Chief Electrical Engineer , this unit dealt with the systems of electrical operation as well as the power supply of the stations.
• Accountancy: Under the direction of the Controller of Accounts , this unit was responsible for payments, drawing up cost planning, carrying out audits and paying employees' wages.
• Commercial: Under the direction of the Chief Commercial Manager , this unit set tariffs for travelers and freight, promoted additional rail traffic, and took action against administrative offenses.
• Stores: Under the direction of the Controller of Stores , this unit managed the warehouse and was the recipient of all incoming materials and goods. The railway's own printing company was also subordinate to it.
• Refreshment Services: Under the direction of the Superintendent of Refreshment Services , this unit ran the catering establishments and bookshops at the stations. She also managed the advertising space in the train stations and ran the railway's own bakery, butcher, poultry farm and laundry. The poultry farm was located in Noble Park, a suburb of Melbourne and held over 2000 ducks and other poultry in 1926.

Visual identification

Early version of the Victorian Railways Wing logos as the Spirit of Progress was used

Freight car with the logo from 1961

B-class locomotive with the teacup logo on a poster from the 1980s promoting the New Deal project

For most of the 20th century, the colors royal blue and golden yellow were the distinguishing features of Victorian Railways. They were introduced on the Spirit of Progress express train in 1937 along with the winged VR logo. The logo was further refined with the arrival of the B-Class mainline diesel locomotives in 1952, with a reference to elements of the Erie Railroad logo being recognizable.

While the Spirit of Progress coaches were painted royal blue with golden yellow stripes, the rest of the passenger coaches had a more common red paint job. More wagons in blue and golden yellow did not appear until Queen Elizabeth II's visit in 1954. Freight wagons were painted a slightly different reddish brown with white lettering.

When the standard gauge line came to Victoria in 1961, the Victorian Railways held a competition with the aim of finding a symbol, sign or logo for the new freight cars that were to be used on this route. The winner was an 18 year old art student from Bentleigh , a suburb of Melbourne. The logo consisted of the stylized letters VR with arrowheads on both sides. In the 1970s, most of the bogie cars bore this logo, which only disappeared in May 1983 with the introduction of the V / Line logo.

In 1974 the Victorian Railways were renamed VicRail, with a new logo that was released on April 12, 1976, but the royal blue and gold yellow appearance remained until 1981, after which the orange and silver "teacup paint" appeared on the locomotives, the Comeng trains and the passenger car. That was the last appearance of the Victorian Railways vehicles before the V / Line livery was introduced in August 1983, which included the lettering in stylized capital letters with a black dividing line between the V and the L.

Named trains

Several Victorian Railways trains were named. Below is a list:

• Fruit Flyer - a freight train introduced in 1958 for the transport of fruit, which ran overnight from Mildura to the Dynon freight yard in Melbourne. In order for the train to travel at a top speed of 110 km / h, the freight cars were equipped with bogies of a similar design to those used for passenger coaches. The train started at 5 p.m., made four intermediate stops for further loading and reached its destination at 3 a.m.
• Geelong Flyer - this Victorian Railways' first named passenger train was introduced in 1926. It operated a day connection from Melbourne to Geelong and back.
• The Overland - a train introduced in1887 as the Intercolonial Express connecting Adelaide and Melbourne. The train was later called the Adelaide Express in Victoria, but was called the Melbourne Express in South Australia. The wagons wereprovided jointly byVictorian Railways and South Australian Railways . The train operated as a night service until 2007, but is now a day train operated by the private Great Southern Railway . The two states of Victoria and South Australia are subsidizing the project with 2.5 million Australian dollars annually .
• The Boat Train - This train only ran from 1936 to 1939. It consisted of electric suburban railcars and connected Melbourne to the port. Its traffic times were based on the schedules of the ocean liner.
• Spirit of Progress - one of the most important express trains in Australia. It operated between Melbourne and Albury from 1937 and was extended to Sydney in 1962. Operations ceased in 1986.
• The Gippslander - a train that runs from Melbourne through the Gippsland to Bairnsdale , the name was introduced in 1954 with the electrification of part of the line and is still in use today.
• Intercapital Daylight - a day train introduced in 1956 as the Sydney – Melbourne Daylight Express . In Albury had to change because the New South Wales Government Railways used the standard gauge in contrast to Victorian Railways. With the completion of the standard gauge connection to Melbourne, the train ran between the capitals continuously as Intercapital Daylight. The connection was discontinued in August 1991.
• Mildura Sunlight - one day train, the 1957 to 1967 between Melbourne and Mildura wrong
• Southern Aurora - a high quality night train that only ran first class cars. It was introduced after the completion of the continuous standard gauge between Melbourne and Sydney in 1962 and operated until 1986.
• The Northerner - a train that ran between Melbourne and Albury. The name still existed when operations were transferred to V / Line.
• The Vinelander - a night train that ran between Melbourne and Mildura from 1972 to 1993
• The West Coaster - a train from Melbourne along the coast to Warrnambool wrong

The railway also operated several special trains, which were intended as a service for the remote rural population. These included:

• Better Farming Train - a rolling agricultural show that ran between 1924 and 1935
• Reso Train - actually State Resources Train , a special train designed to bring Melbourne entrepreneurs together with those from the rural areas. The train traveled with the companies in the capital for five to ten days through rural areas. The first trip took place in 1922, with one interruption during the Second World War, the train was on the road until the 1950s.
• Train of Knowledge - a train that ran as a rolling school trip from 1958 to 1989.

Lines of business outside the railway

From 1888, the Victorian Railways ran the Victorian Government Tourist Bureaux until it was directly subordinated to the state in 1959. In 1911 the railway took over the management of the coal mine in Wonthaggi from the state mining administration .

From 1918, Victorian Railways operated Newport Power Station A, which was built to supply rail electrification, but also delivered energy to the public network. The power plant was transferred to the State Electricity Commission of Victoria (SECV) in 1951 .

In Melbourne, Victorian Railways operated two tram routes , the Electric Street Railways . The railway also temporarily operated three inns that were taken over by other operators. These were the in Mount Buffalo National Park situated Mount Buffalo Chalet , the largest wooden building in Australia, which belonged from 1925 to 1985 of the web which Feathertop Bungalow 1927-1939 and Hotham Heights 1934-1951.

Web links

Commons : Victorian Railways  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

• Mark Bau's VR website. Mark Bau(English). 
• Victorian Railways. Victoria Australia Museum(English). 
• Victorian Railways. In: Grace's Guide to British Industrial History. (English). 
• Victorian Railways History. Australian Railway Historical Society Victorian Division Inc.(English). 

Individual evidence

1. ↑ VR History. In: Mark Bau's VR website. Mark Bau, accessed February 25, 2018 . 
2. ^ Birth of the Government Railways. In: Victorian Railways. Museum Victoria, accessed February 25, 2018 . 
3. ↑ Thomas Higginbotham. In: Popflock.com. Retrieved February 25, 2018 . 
4. ^ Robert Watson (1822-1891). In: Grace's Guide to British Industrial History. Retrieved February 25, 2018 . 
5. ↑ William Elsdon. In: Grace's Guide to British Industrial History. Retrieved February 25, 2018 . 
6. ↑ Geoff Peterson: 67 Spencer Street . In: Australian Railway Historical Society, Victorian Division (Ed.): Newsrail . February 1993, p. 44-45 .
7. ^ Making Tracks - The expanding railway network. In: Victorian Railways. Museum Victoria, accessed February 25, 2018 . 
8. ↑ ^{a b c d} Victorian Railways. In: Grace's Guide to British Industrial History. Retrieved February 25, 2018 . 
9. ^ F class d / e locomotives. In: Mark Bau's VR website. Mark Bau, accessed February 25, 2018 . 
10. ^ B class d / e locomotives. In: Mark Bau's VR website. Mark Bau, accessed February 25, 2018 . 
11. ^ ^{A b c} Victorian Railways History 1950 - 1974. Australian Railway Historical Society Victorian Division Inc., accessed on February 24, 2018 (English). 
12. ↑ ^{a b} Railmac Publications: Australian Fleet Books: V / Line locomotives . Kitchener Press, 1992, ISBN 0-949817-76-7 , pp. 5 .
13. ^ Victorian Railways History 1975-1999. Australian Railway Historical Society Victorian Division Inc., accessed on February 24, 2018 (English). 
14. ↑ Public Transport Corporation: The Ruler! In: Imgur . ( imgur.com [accessed February 25, 2018]).
15. ↑ Who we are. Metro Trains Melbourne, accessed February 18, 2018 (American English). 
16. ^ Leo J. Harrigan: Victorian Railways to '62 . Public Relations and Betterment Board, 1962, p. 273 .
17. ^ Leo J. Harrigan: Victorian Railways to '62 . Public Relations and Betterment Board, 1962, p. 274 .
18. ^ Leo J. Harrigan: Victorian Railways to '62 . Public Relations and Betterment Board, 1962, p. 275 .
19. ↑ ^{a b} Vincent Adams Winter: VR and VicRail: 1962-1983 . 1990, ISBN 0-9592069-3-0 , pp. 6-9 .
20. ↑ Railmac Publications: Australian Fleet Books: V / Line locomotives . Kitchener Press, 1992, ISBN 0-949817-76-7 , pp. 2-3 .
21. ↑ VR - V / Line - VLP / FA Locomotives. (No longer available online.) In: Locopage. Archived from the original on February 8, 2008 ; Retrieved February 5, 2008 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  
22. ^ ^{A b} Victorian Railways — Loco hauled Passenger Carriages. In: Peter J. Vincent's website. Retrieved February 8, 2008 . 
23. ^ Norm Bray and Peter J. Incent: Bogie Freight Wagons of Victoria . Brief History Books, 2006, ISBN 0-9775056-0-X .
24. ↑ Mark construction: Four wheeled open wagons of the Victorian Railways . In: Notes from the Victorian Model Railway Society Prototype Modellers Meet 2007 .
25. ↑ ^{a b} V / Line Freight Rollingstock Fleet - July 1, 1987 . In: Australian Railway Historical Society, Victorian Division (Ed.): Newsrail . tape 15 , no. July 10 , 1987, pp. 303 .
26. ^ Leo J. Harrigan: Victorian Railways to '62 . Public Relations and Betterment Board, 1962, p. 162 .
27. ^ At the Railways Poultry Farm. In: The Argus . Melbourne, Victoria, Australia June 25, 1926, p. 9 ( gov.au [accessed February 20, 2018]).
28. ^ ^{A b} Norm Bray and Peter J Vincent: Bogie Freight Wagons of Victoria . Brief History Books, 2006, ISBN 0-9775056-0-X , pp. 14 .
29. ↑ Vincent Adams Winter: VR and VicRail: 1962-1983 . 1990, ISBN 0-9592069-3-0 , pp. 205 .
30. ^ Leo J. Harrigan: Victorian Railways to '62 . Public Relations and Betterment Board, 1962, p. 256-268 .
31. ^ Leo J. Harrigan: Victorian Railways to '62 . Public Relations and Betterment Board, 1962, p. 168 .
32. ^ Leo J. Harrigan: Victorian Railways to '62 . Public Relations and Betterment Board, 1962, p. 165 .
33. ↑ VR Tramway "Reminiscences." In: TMSV Running Journal. Retrieved November 28, 2010 . 
34. ^ The Sandringham Tramway. (No longer available online.) In: TMSV Running Journal. Archived from the original on July 6, 2011 ; Retrieved March 6, 2011 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.