Loved it!! I was 10 back then growing up in melbourne. Fantastic train journey. Sad too, nostalgic. Grew up on the Hurstbridge Line, Greensborough/Monty/Eltham off and on there predominantly.
Great video thankyou. I used to ride the Upfield line to Brunswick back in 1968, when it depated from Spence Street 20 years on I also used the city loop for many journeys mostly to Caulfield or East Malvern usually catching the train from Flagstaff. You have bought back wonderful memories from 50 odd years ago.
Wow - I think I counted 26 levels crossings on that journey. Many of which were hand operated too! Merry Xmas driver667 and thanks for a wonderful year!!
Cool. Quite good quality I have been watching a few of these videos lately. The biggest difference was they were still using jointed track No road gates or barriers for the last few stations Coburg is unrecognizable
Very nice to see this. I didn't make the effort to travel this line (by rail or even road) to see it before the 'upgrade', which I now realise was a mistake. :( I've actually not been on it since either. However, the loop footage is very similar to some that I got in 1991/92. I travelled the Belgrave and Epping lines in Comeng and Hitachi cabs. So I intend to digitise all that for upload in the new year. Several platforms were being cut back at the time for the then new 4D set.
I was in Melbourne May 1987 but didn't have time to take local trains (I was just between long-distance trains). There was Spencer St station back then. Cheers from Vancouver.
Spencer Street station had a name change and is now called Southern Cross station. Pity you didn't have time to ride a train or two. The Upfield would have been a great one to experience back then. 👍😀
I usually pass upfield and the fact that those barry road shops connecting to sydeny road are still there are surreal. There is a turkish kebab shop there (Katik Kebabs) and it never really came to my head how old the building is.
What you saw was a distant signal. It is yellow with a fishtail end. It warns the driver to expect the next signal, a home signal, to be red. Distant signals show yellow or green but not red. 👍😀
This will make a great comparison video for when the Upfield line becomes Skyrail from Coburg to Park Street at Parkville 😁😁😁. PS enjoyed the video - I was 18 in that year and had my 1st job at Commonwealth Bank Sydney Road and Albert St Brunswick and would take a train from Gowrie each morning.
There is already a certain amount of skyrail on the Upfield line. Below is the link to the first of two videos for the Upfield line. Glad you enjoyed it 👍 😀 ruclips.net/video/9KTdltCZptc/видео.htmlsi=PVtq1Ug7fGbPoKmd
@@driver667 having been born, raised lived and worked in and around Brunswick I have seen and noted on other videos about the changes on the Upfield line. I usually try to make a visit "home" once a year from Brisbane and check out the line
Things have changed alot through the 80s like gates on the rail track even Citylink bridge didn't exist when the footage happened and also the metropolitan freeway sydney road to Greensborough yet to exist until nearly 40 years later things have evolved quickly
Can you organise new footage of the present day journey from city loop to Upfield soon. I would like to see what has changed. Why is the a single track from Gowrie to Upfield. Double tracks to Upfield with an extra platform at Upfield and a diamond crossover would allow down trains to terminate at either platform. Up trains could start from either platform and use the crossover to commence the return trip to Flinders Street.
The Upfield line has already been videoed. The playlist for suburban trains has it and more suburban lines in it. Here is the link to the first video of the Upfield line. Click on the end screen at the end of the video to continue the journey. 👍😊 ruclips.net/video/9KTdltCZptc/видео.htmlsi=_qF1um-O5pbVOLD-
Love all the crossing attendants huts, would they be classified by the National Trust??? Did you have to hold the camera while driving the train??? Box Forest Road crossing was very primitive in those days, you had to wait for the cars to see you and you press the horn continuously before they let you through......
Most of all the infrastructure along the line is heritage listed now. I held the camera whilst someone else drove for that video. It was a long time ago and the equipment was primitive compared to today. 👍😀
They also wanted to close the upfield line and replace it with a light rail line at around that time but decided to postpone it because of the government having spent too much already on the St Kilda and Port Melbourne light rail conversions in a time when a recession was imminent. However it was a good thing the government never closed the line as ridership boomed on the line in the early 1990s during the recession in response to excessively high fuel prices at the time.
@@gregthompson3274 It was pretty much the Liberal government trying to cut costs and encourage car dependency as they believed most people should be driving to and from places! :)
I could have been the Guard on this train, the odds are against it, but one never knows heh! Seeing Ardern Street and Macaulay sidings after a very long time!! Used to dock trains out of Macaulay in the afternoons. We had to go into the Staff center to get the road number for our dock, the toilet adjoining the meal room there had some graffiti on the door, "Blue Danube male massage parlor", that always made me laugh!
@@yar1 the signalman at Gowrie had not given us a green for some reason. After we challenged the signal with a long whistle, he placed the signal to proceed. Maybe he was busy selling tickets 🤔🤔👍😀
Thank you for the old footage and its good to see how everything was before everything was modernised. You can't beat a old school semaphore signal in the footage. What is that bell which rings two times in the comeng train before it takes off? And and you still driving trains today?
I drive for vline these days. Back then we still had guards on the back of the train. The guard would ring two bells to signal to the driver that it is clear to start the train off to the next station. Glad you enjoyed the ride. 👍😀
I never knew that about the two rings someone was actually manually operating it. If you were driving trains since the 80s until today that's amazing, 30 plus years.thank you again for the amazing footage
@@johntasevski8046 It's been a long and good career and still going. Things are certainly a lot different today. It's good to look back at what was and how different it was. Very happy you enjoyed it. 👍😀
@@driver667 people were employed in those warehouses which parallel the railway line, all of them went out of business during the recession in the early 90’s, never to re-open again. It’s really sad to see what has become of Melbourne, it waa Australia’s industrial capital back then.
@@mvfc7637 all those warehouses have transformed into housing or similar. Expensive real estate. As the inner industrial areas have closed, the outer industrial areas have grown. Some of the warehouses and factories I have watched grow in the outer areas seem like they could house a small suburb under their roof. It's a different world now. 👍😀
WOW!!! I'm very impressed you were able to get this footage. I love older footage of what the Melbourne train lines used to be like, particularly in the 80s, 90s and early 2000s. How did you come by it? And whereabouts does it start from exactly? I'm blind so I can't see where.
I hired a video camera back in about 1988 as the rumour was that the line was going to be closed and I wanted to video the drivers view for future generations to see. The video starts in the underground loop between Parliament and Museum stations. Very happy you enjoyed the ride 👍 😀
@driver667 Yeah I know how they were saying they were going to close the line back then. So glad that they didn't. Glad you were able to film it. Is there any particular reason the footage didn't start at Flinders Street? And would you happen to have any more footage from back then or just historical driver's footage from the Melbourne or V/Line network?
@@therealsammyvee888 I was wondering also why I started filming from in the loop 🤔 I have video of the return trip as far as Royal Park but not much more than that from those days. I should've videod more but you know, hindsight....🤔👍😀
Interesting, hardly anything automated. Wooden barrier crossings, some roads don't have barriers. The aborigine running in front of the train at 27 minutes, very basic infratructure with stations and many unsheltered. Nothing like that in my first visit to Melbourne in Jan 2006, they must have done some serious upgrading between then and 2006.
Omg Gowrie station, don’t activate the boom gates, then a man walks in front of your train 🤣. And talk about being ahead of the times, filming a video for YT 25+ years ago… no one would’ve believed you back then that you’d actually post it on this thing called the internet lol. Merry Christmas 👍
I had thoughts of getting the footage to post somewhere back then. I'm glad I did. As you say, ahead of the times 😀 Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year 👍😀🎄🎅
Love the bell before tooting the horn, really old school. Macaulay station is unrecognisable from now with the freeway going over it, and what about the semaphore signals, really old school, and also the clickety clack of the short tracks not like the continuous track of today...... 🚋🚋🚋🚋🚋🚋🚋🚋
Loved it!! I was 10 back then growing up in melbourne. Fantastic train journey. Sad too, nostalgic. Grew up on the Hurstbridge Line, Greensborough/Monty/Eltham off and on there predominantly.
Very glad you enjoyed this look back at a bit of history 😀 👍
It was just wonderful for me to see scenes from 1988. The cars I saw at crossings brought back memories, too. Thanks!
I thought the same when I remembered I had taken this all those years ago. A great trip down memory lane 👍😀
Great video thankyou. I used to ride the Upfield line to Brunswick back in 1968, when it depated from Spence Street
20 years on I also used the city loop for many journeys mostly to Caulfield or East Malvern usually catching the train from Flagstaff. You have bought back wonderful memories from 50 odd years ago.
Thanks for watching. Glad I could bring back those memories for you. Things have certainly changed over the years. 👍😀
Fabulous. A Christmas Day special! Love the gate system too.
I thought it would be a good one for Christmas day. Glad you enjoyed it. 👍😀🎄🎅
@driver667 Nice thinking. Merry Christmas!
@@therealsammyvee888Thank you. Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year 👍😀🎄🎅
Wow - I think I counted 26 levels crossings on that journey. Many of which were hand operated too! Merry Xmas driver667 and thanks for a wonderful year!!
It was quite different driving trains along this line back then. Glad you enjoyed it 👍 Have a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year 👍😀🎅🎄
That stretch between North Melbourne and Flemington Bridge is practically unrecognizable nowadays thank to Citylink.
It certainly is different now. Citylink and the Macaulay light repair centre are some of the changes. Glad you enjoyed it 👍😀
Wow. That was a blast from the past. None of that looks like that anymore. Thanks for sharing.
It's certainly a lot different now. Glad you enjoyed it 👍 😀
It’s great to see such old footage. How things have changed. That crossing where the horn was just used. Wow
It's certainly changed over the years. Very happy you enjoyed the ride 👍 😀
Merry Christmas! Love the thumbnail with the Coldstream Train; Bring back our railways!
😀😀 Merry Christmas. Very happy you enjoyed the ride 👍 😀
Merry Christmas Driver 666 i have enjoyed watching these tapes each day have a safe 2024 keep up the great work.
Thank you. I'm glad you enjoy them. Hope you had a great Christmas and have a Happy New Year 👍 😀
It’s cool to look back and now compare how much it’s changed
It certainly is. It's changed a lot. Watching it brings back memories of running trains up the line back then. Glad you enjoyed the ride. 👍😀
Cool. Quite good quality
I have been watching a few of these videos lately. The biggest difference was they were still using jointed track
No road gates or barriers for the last few stations
Coburg is unrecognizable
I do love the jointed track. I'm glad I videoed this trip back then. Very happy to hear you enjoyed it. 👍😀
Very nice to see this. I didn't make the effort to travel this line (by rail or even road) to see it before the 'upgrade', which I now realise was a mistake. :( I've actually not been on it since either.
However, the loop footage is very similar to some that I got in 1991/92. I travelled the Belgrave and Epping lines in Comeng and Hitachi cabs. So I intend to digitise all that for upload in the new year. Several platforms were being cut back at the time for the then new 4D set.
I wish I had videod many more lines back then but you know what they say about hindsight...🤔👍😀
@@driver667 Absolutely. I think we all suffer from such things.
@@emdB67 👍😀
Merry Christmas. Really, really old footage and I like it.
It certainly is old footage. Glad you enjoyed it. Merry Christmas 🎅 🎄 👍😀
I was in Melbourne May 1987 but didn't have time to take local trains (I was just between long-distance trains). There was Spencer St station back then. Cheers from Vancouver.
Spencer Street station had a name change and is now called Southern Cross station. Pity you didn't have time to ride a train or two. The Upfield would have been a great one to experience back then. 👍😀
25:40 Interesting that you had to stop short of Box Forest Rd for some reason considering the platform at Gowrie was free ??
I guess the signalman was busy selling tickets and forgot about us for a moment. 👍😀
@@driver667 thank goodness it wasn't night time or inclement weather
@@fordfan1au we would be fine, just delayed 👍😀
I usually pass upfield and the fact that those barry road shops connecting to sydeny road are still there are surreal. There is a turkish kebab shop there (Katik Kebabs) and it never really came to my head how old the building is.
I remember that kebab shop years ago. 👍😀
Just watching the video again cause I thought I did see and watching confirmed it - at 22:33 in the video is the semaphore on Red?
What you saw was a distant signal. It is yellow with a fishtail end. It warns the driver to expect the next signal, a home signal, to be red. Distant signals show yellow or green but not red. 👍😀
This will make a great comparison video for when the Upfield line becomes Skyrail from Coburg to Park Street at Parkville 😁😁😁. PS enjoyed the video - I was 18 in that year and had my 1st job at Commonwealth Bank Sydney Road and Albert St Brunswick and would take a train from Gowrie each morning.
There is already a certain amount of skyrail on the Upfield line. Below is the link to the first of two videos for the Upfield line. Glad you enjoyed it 👍 😀
ruclips.net/video/9KTdltCZptc/видео.htmlsi=PVtq1Ug7fGbPoKmd
@@driver667 having been born, raised lived and worked in and around Brunswick I have seen and noted on other videos about the changes on the Upfield line. I usually try to make a visit "home" once a year from Brisbane and check out the line
@@fordfan1au it has certainly seen some changes over the years 👍😀
Seems like only the bottom 2 notes of the RVB horn were blowing
Nowadays the RVB whistles have all been replaced. 🤔🤔👍
Things have changed alot through the 80s like gates on the rail track even Citylink bridge didn't exist when the footage happened and also the metropolitan freeway sydney road to Greensborough yet to exist until nearly 40 years later things have evolved quickly
It was certainly a lot different back then. A lot of changes over the years 👍😀
Can you organise new footage of the present day journey from city loop to Upfield soon. I would like to see what has changed. Why is the a single track from Gowrie to Upfield. Double tracks to Upfield with an extra platform at Upfield and a diamond crossover would allow down trains to terminate at either platform. Up trains could start from either platform and use the crossover to commence the return trip to Flinders Street.
The Upfield line has already been videoed. The playlist for suburban trains has it and more suburban lines in it. Here is the link to the first video of the Upfield line. Click on the end screen at the end of the video to continue the journey. 👍😊
ruclips.net/video/9KTdltCZptc/видео.htmlsi=_qF1um-O5pbVOLD-
Love all the crossing attendants huts, would they be classified by the National Trust??? Did you have to hold the camera while driving the train??? Box Forest Road crossing was very primitive in those days, you had to wait for the cars to see you and you press the horn continuously before they let you through......
Most of all the infrastructure along the line is heritage listed now. I held the camera whilst someone else drove for that video. It was a long time ago and the equipment was primitive compared to today. 👍😀
@@driver667 Probably National Panasonic or JVC and quite bulky.....
@@noelroberts8199 it was very bulky. A big camera attached with cables to a small suitcase like bag. Quite different to today. 👍😀
Omg, North Melbourne station looks very different compared to now!
The rail system has changed immensely since then. 👍😀
Indeed it has!!!
Also where did you find this?
@@hilarybadger1231 I filmed it back then as I wanted a record of what it was like at that time. 👍😀
They also wanted to close the upfield line and replace it with a light rail line at around that time but decided to postpone it because of the government having spent too much already on the St Kilda and Port Melbourne light rail conversions in a time when a recession was imminent. However it was a good thing the government never closed the line as ridership boomed on the line in the early 1990s during the recession in response to excessively high fuel prices at the time.
Thankfully the line survived 👍😀
The looney report wanted to close this line, and a number of others, stop services after 8pm, reduce Saturday services and scrap Sunday services
@@gregthompson3274
It was pretty much the Liberal government trying to cut costs and encourage car dependency as they believed most people should be driving to and from places! :)
@@gregthompson3274 what a difference now. Give people a decent service and they will use it 👍 😀
What was the safeworking system from merlynston to gowrie & gowrie to upfield
It was train staff and ticket from Fawkner to Gowrie, Gowrie to Upfield. 👍😀
@@scottgreagg7552 👍😀
I could have been the Guard on this train, the odds are against it, but one never knows heh! Seeing Ardern Street and Macaulay sidings after a very long time!! Used to dock trains out of Macaulay in the afternoons. We had to go into the Staff center to get the road number for our dock, the toilet adjoining the meal room there had some graffiti on the door, "Blue Danube male massage parlor", that always made me laugh!
Yes, brings back memories of how it used to be. 😀😀👍
I remember the Upfield line in the 1980s😊
It's changed a lot over the years. 👍😀
awesome
Thank you. Great to hear you enjoyed it. 👍😀😀
Wow this is very cool!!! You wouldn’t happen to have anymore cab views from the 80s ?? Even if not this is still very cool
I have the return trip but that's about it. I videoed this due to rumours it was about to close, which of course it didn't. Glad you enjoyed it. 👍😀
@@driver667 Why did you have to stop at the level crossing at 25:30? did you have to activate it?
@@yar1 the signalman at Gowrie had not given us a green for some reason. After we challenged the signal with a long whistle, he placed the signal to proceed. Maybe he was busy selling tickets 🤔🤔👍😀
Dose the city loop still run
It certainly does. Plenty of suburban trains still run through it. 👍😀
Hello all Merry Christmas. Mister conductor ^^,your familly, and Australian people ,peace on Earth. Hello from your cat too,"".Yann to France.
Thank you. A Very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to you, your family and everyone in France 🎄🎅👍😀
Thank you for the old footage and its good to see how everything was before everything was modernised. You can't beat a old school semaphore signal in the footage. What is that bell which rings two times in the comeng train before it takes off? And and you still driving trains today?
I drive for vline these days. Back then we still had guards on the back of the train. The guard would ring two bells to signal to the driver that it is clear to start the train off to the next station. Glad you enjoyed the ride. 👍😀
I never knew that about the two rings someone was actually manually operating it. If you were driving trains since the 80s until today that's amazing, 30 plus years.thank you again for the amazing footage
@@johntasevski8046 It's been a long and good career and still going. Things are certainly a lot different today. It's good to look back at what was and how different it was. Very happy you enjoyed it. 👍😀
Can you remember what year they stopped the gaurds ringing the bell in the comeng? And was the same thing also happening with the Hitachi trains?
@@johntasevski8046 it was around 1994 that the suburban system went 'driver only'. This was across the system and not just one type of train. 👍😀
Old Melbourne, the Melbourne I grew up in.
It's changed quite a bit since then. 👍😀
@@driver667 people were employed in those warehouses which parallel the railway line, all of them went out of business during the recession in the early 90’s, never to re-open again. It’s really sad to see what has become of Melbourne, it waa Australia’s industrial capital back then.
@@mvfc7637 all those warehouses have transformed into housing or similar. Expensive real estate. As the inner industrial areas have closed, the outer industrial areas have grown. Some of the warehouses and factories I have watched grow in the outer areas seem like they could house a small suburb under their roof. It's a different world now. 👍😀
Did you use to like Trains when you were a kid Colin..?😊
Yes, I did 👍😀
Merry Christmas 🚂
Thank you. Merry Christmas to you and your family also 👍😀🎄🎅
@@driver667also great video
@@rileycummaudo8612 👍😀
WOW!!! I'm very impressed you were able to get this footage. I love older footage of what the Melbourne train lines used to be like, particularly in the 80s, 90s and early 2000s. How did you come by it? And whereabouts does it start from exactly? I'm blind so I can't see where.
I hired a video camera back in about 1988 as the rumour was that the line was going to be closed and I wanted to video the drivers view for future generations to see. The video starts in the underground loop between Parliament and Museum stations. Very happy you enjoyed the ride 👍 😀
@driver667 Yeah I know how they were saying they were going to close the line back then. So glad that they didn't. Glad you were able to film it. Is there any particular reason the footage didn't start at Flinders Street? And would you happen to have any more footage from back then or just historical driver's footage from the Melbourne or V/Line network?
@@therealsammyvee888 I was wondering also why I started filming from in the loop 🤔 I have video of the return trip as far as Royal Park but not much more than that from those days. I should've videod more but you know, hindsight....🤔👍😀
@@driver667 Yeah I get that. Would love to see the return trip vid though.
@@therealsammyvee888 I will get it up at some point in the future. 👍😀
Well this is a blast from the past ❤🍀
Is this a tait train, Sometimes I hear a bell from the guard me tinks?
Comengs had guards originally too, and this sounds like a comeng.
It is a Comeng train. We still had guards at the time and the bell system of communication 👍😀
@@driver667 Thank you for clarifying that, I thought only the older trains had a signal from the guard the move. 🍀
@@brianmcgill7314 👍😀
Well today is Christmas Day, like I said once before, here today and gone tomorrow, Enjoy
We hope you have a great Christmas and New Year from all of us here including our cat 🐈 🐈👍😀🎅🎄
6:03 Was I the only one looking at this moment and for a second was like "Oh sh...🚈💥🚈" 🤣
🤣🤣 It would give you a fright if you didn't know what was going on 👍😀
@@driver667 and it still does today but in the past it has happened when it comes to a faulty point
@@Mediawatcher2023 that's something we don't want to see 🤔👍😀
@@driver667 exactly
@@Mediawatcher2023 👍😀
I bet you'd wished you'd cleaned the windscreen in hindsight now after all these years 😉
Yes, it would've been nice. But at least I videoed it back then I guess... 🤔👍😀
Interesting, hardly anything automated. Wooden barrier crossings, some roads don't have barriers. The aborigine running in front of the train at 27 minutes, very basic infratructure with stations and many unsheltered. Nothing like that in my first visit to Melbourne in Jan 2006, they must have done some serious upgrading between then and 2006.
The rail network is unrecognisable to what it was when I started in the 1980's. Very different today. 👍😊
The Met Comeng
👍😀
Omg Gowrie station, don’t activate the boom gates, then a man walks in front of your train 🤣. And talk about being ahead of the times, filming a video for YT 25+ years ago… no one would’ve believed you back then that you’d actually post it on this thing called the internet lol. Merry Christmas 👍
I had thoughts of getting the footage to post somewhere back then. I'm glad I did. As you say, ahead of the times 😀 Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year 👍😀🎄🎅
26:58 Omg! What was that idiot thinking? He'd risk his life crossing in front of a train instead of waiting for only 20 seconds?
Some people are in such a hurry to get nowhere. 🤔👍😀
Casino 🎰 🎰 Royale Park..
A bridge over Flemington
👍😀 Merry Christmas 🎅 🎄 👍 😀
@@driver667 🤶🎅🎄🌲🧑🎄 likewise
@@jimpikoulis6726 👍😀🎄
What a Clown at Gowrie station 🤬
Impatient people 🙄 😬
@@driver667 thats 1988 for you lol
@@Mediawatcher2023 🤣🤣 and the world has gotten faster since then 😀😀👍
Love the bell before tooting the horn, really old school. Macaulay station is unrecognisable from now with the freeway going over it, and what about the semaphore signals, really old school, and also the clickety clack of the short tracks not like the continuous track of today...... 🚋🚋🚋🚋🚋🚋🚋🚋
It is very different now from what it was then. I'm glad I took this video back then. 👍😀