A day on the Victorian Goldfields Railway

With an expat mate, Andrew visiting from the UK for a couple of weeks, there was discussion about a midweek trip to travel on the Victorian Goldfields Railway, which operates between Castlemaine and Maldon in Central Victoria.

The railway runs on Wednesdays and Sundays, with additional services on Saturdays during school holidays

It worked out that Wednesday the second  of October was going to work best, so tickets were booked First Class for three of us for a day out.

Andrew, Paul and I met at Newport station and caught a train to Footscray with time to grab some breakfast before getting on a Vline service to Bendigo.

Back over to the platform, and a few trains passed through on time before we had the station announcement, 'The Bendigo train is maybe five minutes late, and the Waurn Ponds is late too'.

A few minutes later, 'The next train might be the Bendigo, not sure, and the displays might be wrong, so listen for announcements'!

A train arrived, and as well as the station displays and announcements, the side of the train also said Bendigo, so we hopped on and settled in.

Vlo’s everywhere at Footscray!

It was a comfortable ride in the older Vlocity with reasonable seats, and tray tables, far better than the newer ones.

Heading out through Clarkefield, Gisbourne and Macedon, the city bound platforms had quite a few people on them, waiting for trains which we passed fairly frequently.

The only one of any interest was the loco hauled service from Swan Hill we passed in the platforms at Kyneton with N474, City of Traralgon on the front.

From here, the line is single, a feature of 'improvements' made as part of the Regional Fast Rail project in the mid 2000s.

There's a long crossing loop at Taradale which extends to Elphinstone, then back to single line for the run through the tunnel at the top of the hill before the line drops downgrade into Castlemaine.

In between Kyneton and Castlemaine, there's one intermediate stop at Malmsbury, a small town with a well known bakery, and pretty gardens beside the bluestone railway viaduct.

The remainder of the trip to Castlemaine was uneventful, arriving onto Platform 1, the main platform eight minutes late at 11:38. I'd expected to arrive on Platform 2, which is is the original 'Bendigo' bound platform, and shared with Platform 3, formerly the Maryborough and Maldon platform, these days used almost exclusively by the Victorian Goldfields Railway.

There was a pair of Sprinter rail motors occupying Platform 2, which eventually wandered off toward Bendigo, assumedly on a driver training or test run.

Using the underpass and stairs to access the island platform, we had a bit of a laugh at the 'only in Australia' watch out for snakes signs in the subway.

Up top, the booking office was open, and the train was already in the platform, so we went to check out our first class car, and then the rest of the train.

We were able to secure a compartment in Acheron, a former South Australian and Victorian Railways joint stock sleeping car which has been extensively (but tastefully) modified to offer a premium carriage.

Our compartment was formerly two sleeping compartments, but the middle wall had been removed to create a large open space which could accomodate a group of eight reasonably comfortably, but six would be less squeezy.

The trailing first class car, in an open lounge configuration with a bar in the middle was Macedon, originally built by the famous Pullman company in the US as a sleeping car, again, for the VR and SAR.

This heavyweight steel car was refitted and saw service crossing the Nullarbour on the Tea and Sugar train which dropped off supplies to the small communities spread out across the Trans Australian Railway. It was eventually retired, before being sold and receiving the restoration and refit it has today.

With plenty of time before our 11:30 departure, I went and exchanged our electronic booking for proper Edmonson cardboard tickets, before heading up to the loco with Andrew for a look.

J549 was gently simmering at the head of our considerable length train - seven carriages, and just short of a full goods load for the loco on the line.

Time for a bit of a polish before setting out to Maldon, the two Sprinters are still sitting in platform 2.

As mentioned in my last post, the J has undergone a major overhaul, and is looking great, a fantastic job by the railway.

With a few photos taken, we visited the museum and shop in the former refreshment rooms before it was time to join the train, and have a look at the menu to see what was on offer. Our host, Max came and introduced himself and had a chat about the railway, and rail preservation in general.

The bar menu onboard first class

Drinks were obtained, and we settled in with the windows open to enjoy the sights out the window, and sounds of the J working hard on the steep grades. There’s a map and curves and gradient chart on the VGR website here which shows the line’s hilly nature.

Settled in with a locally brewed Shedshaker ale.

Rob Lee lives nearby, and took a photo of the train climbing away from the Midland Highway bridge, nice to see it from the outside while we were sipping on a beer!

Crossing the Midland Highway bridge on the outskirts of Castlemaine. It’s always nice to have a photo of the train you’re travelling on,  thanks Rob!

After passing through bush and farmland, we arrived at Muckleford, the intermediate station on the railway, around 20 minutes from Castlemaine. A short stop was made here for Safe Working purposes - swapping the Castlemaine - Muckleford staff for the Muckleford - Maldon one.

Departing Muckleford, there's a slight downgrade before crossing the Muckleford Creek trestle bridge, and from there on, it's a steep 1 in 40 climb for around 5 km before some zig zag grades, with the last km to Maldon also being a 1 in 40. We arrived more or less on time at 12:15.

Almost at the top of the long climb out of Muckleford.

While there was a courtesy bus on offer to take people into town, we decided to walk and leave space for others - it's a short pleasant stroll anyway.

The Main Street of Victoria’s first Notable Town (as decreed by the National Trust). Many of the buildings lining the street date back to the goldfields era of the 1850s.

Not sure of what we were intending to do for lunch, we dropped into the Maldon Hotel to take refreshments, and look at the menu. The lady behind the bar suggested ordering promptly to ensure we would be fed before needing to get back on the train. Departure time was 14:45, which we thought would have been ample, but there was quite a few people in the dining room.

In the end, we opted for a couple of beers and a chat, before wandering over to the Maldon bakery, the oldest continuously operating bakery in Australia, having been established in 1854, and still going!

They do a very nice pie!

Back up at the station, we had time to wander around the platform - the loco having been turned, serviced, and positioned on the Castlemaine end for the return journey.

With departure time not far away, the booking office is closed, and signs are being bought in.

I stuck my head in the booking office, and remembered standing in front of the fire with a milo on cold winters days when volunteering as a conductor after the railway reopened in 1986.

A nice variety of Edmonson tickets in the booking office at Maldon.

The on board crew having a chat with some of the passengers at Maldon

It was soon time to re-board the train, so I went for a wander down to Macedon for a look. The open seating with comfy chairs, and view out to the back of the engine was very nice - I'm not sure which car I'd pick next time.

Macedon has some nice chairs, and plenty of windows to take in the views.

One thing that was noticeable on various sections of the line was the ride, and differing sounds from the wheels on track.

The track gang have re railed the line with heavier rail, salvaged from other closed lines, and have been carrying out an extensive re sleeping program replacing timber sleepers with concrete ones released from the level crossing removal program.

While it's been an expensive, and labour intensive project, once finished it will pay off for the railway in the long term, saving constant replacement of timber sleepers, and providing less wear and tear on the rolling stock.

To get an idea of the work involved, have a look at the railway's Civil Blog page, it really is amazing what the small team has achieved.

Back to Muckleford again, and the Safeworking stop was repeated, swapping the to staffs again for authority to enter the section to Castlemaine.

The beautiful interior of Acheron as the train pauses at Muckleford.

Leaving Muckleford, the line climbs on various gradients, including stretches of 1in 40 for about three km, before dropping down to the Winters Flat trestle bridge, and then climbing to the now removed junction with the Maryborough railway and back in beside the Melbourne - Bendigo line, and finally Castlemaine station.

It had been a fantastic day out, thanks to Max and the other car attendants and crew for looking after us!

We opted to wait for the Melbourne bound Swan Hill passenger train for our return journey, it’s likely that next time Andrew visits from the UK the loco hauled services will be extinct. The nice big windows, and extremely comfortable seats were a far cry from this mornings ‘improved’ offering!

N 461 brings the Swan Hill pass into platform 2, the large sheds in the background are the carriage and engine sheds for the VGR.

I hope you’ve enjoyed reading this one, and you consider checking out the Victorian Goldfields Railway, in any of their seating options.

Thanks,

Scott

PS - I mentioned the snake signs at Castlemaine station earlier - we spotted this brown snake not far away from there on our return!

An Eastern Brown snake getting some sun on the edge of the walking path alongside the creek in Castlemaine.