Last of the early 1950s Gippsland overhead structures being replaced with the High Capacity trains project with the new ones at a closer spacing than the 80 yards the old ones were at. The wiring itself was renewed in the late 90s with the contact wire originally having the simply supported arrangement and spring tensioning. The replacement here has weight tensioning. The original structures were erected in 1952-3 to Warragul with completion to Traralgon by early 1956. Note several of the concrete footings have steel bracing over them due to cracking from horizontal movement which was an issue here.
Thanks for your additional information. I believe that earlier masts were too far apart and strong winds could blow the wire off the ends of the pantographs.
tressteleg1 the 1920s lattice structures are up to 100 yards apart hence they replaced the lot on this line. Interesting to see the Pakenham East depot wired the main line with a stub to continue on by the look of it - ironically.
Correct - Dandenong was part of the 1920s electrification scheme, completed in 1922 along with Frankston. For many years most suburban trains terminated at Oakleigh which was the limit of suburbia up to the post war years.
Thank You again for the upload Tressteleg. Brings back some memories, I used to live in Dandenong and work in Pakenham so made this trip many times well before the days of Cardinia Rd station. My scariest moment ever on a train also happened in this section of line just outside Berwick station where lightning struck and bought down the overhead wiring which danced around on the roof of the carriage I was in. I was the only person in the carriage, as you can imagine the train come to a screaming halt and it was ages before I had any communication from anyone, I didn't even know if it was safe for me to touch the door handle!!!
On the South Morang Line as of 2018, the Mernda Rail Extension from South Morang to Mernda was completed and it included 3 new stations at Middle Gorge, Hawkstowe and Mernda. Middle Gorge Station was built on ground level and Hawkstowe and Mernda Stations were built above ground with skyrail. And that train line is now called the Mernda Line. And as of 2019, the level crossing at High Street, Reservoir was removed by building a 1 km skyrail with a new elevated Reservoir Station. Then as of 2022, the 4 level crossings at Murray Road, Cramer Street, Bell Street and Oakover Road in Preston were removed by building a 2 km skyrail with 2 new elevated stations at Bell and Preston. Now under construction, is the level crossing removal at Keon Parade, Keon Park which will be removed by 2025 by building a 750 m skyrail with a new elevated Keon Park Station.
On the Hurstbridge Line as of 2018, the level crossing at Lower Plenty Road, Rosanna was removed by building a skyrail with a new elevated Rosanna Station, which also included track duplication between Rosanna and Heidelberg and the level crossing removal at Grange Road, Alphington by lowering the rail corridor beneath the road into a rail trench. And as of 2023, the Hurstbridge Line Duplication was completed which included around 3 kms of duplicated tracks between Greensborough and Eltham and around 1.5 kms between Diamond Creek and Wattle Glen. Around 4.5 kms of track duplication in total between Greensborough and Hurstbridge. Diamond Creek Station got upgraded and Montmorency and Greensborough Stations got completely rebuilt. Now they are planning to remove the level crossing at Ruthven Street, Macleod by 2027 by building a skyrail over the road. Also the rail tunnel under Greensborough Highway in Watsonia will be extended a few hundred metres longer by 2028 and there will be a multi-deck car park built at Watsonia Station also by 2028 as part of the North East Link.
The overhead renewal for the introduction of the High-Capacity Trains or just general replacement? Some of the ones closer to Pakenham look very rusty! Well we get to see the continuation over the new 'skyrail' section?
I suppose someone decided that the old poles needed to go. They looked OK to me. I collected a lot more video from the driver. I expect that some completed Skyrail runs will be there also.
Dead straight run from Pakenham to Beaconsfield. About 12 kms. Funny this came up. I just rode this exact track the other day from Pakky to Berwick. The front carriage had a small slit through to the drivers cabin and front windscreen. I never noticed that before.
@@tressteleg1 What I saw looked almost identical to this video except I was looking through the right hand front window. By the way, and hardly related to trains: the fish and chips from the shop near Pakenham station on Main St is the best I've ever had!
Stumbled into this from recommended videos as a U. S. railfan. Without recognizing the place names in the title, I was able to deduce this was Australia fairly quickly because; 1) Broad gauge, 2) Left-hand running/auto traffic, 3) English signage 4) Different vegetation than N. America and a more arid environment. Interestingly though, the casual, non-enthusiast viewer might not realize this wasn't North America because the general look of the passing commercial buildings and passengers at stations are very American looking.
I’m pleased you liked it. If you are stuck for something to do, this link will lead you to nearly every other rail line in Melbourne. The large tram system had been similarly treated in another link. Driver's View Trains Melbourne ruclips.net/p/PLLtOIHp49XNDtaNr2H41P2th0S56s6bIH
What city, state and country is this in?? Found it. I poked around Google Maps and found that this is southeast of Melbourne. Nice ride. There was quite a crowd of people at the stations. They looked too casually dressed to be commuters going to work. Were they going to some sort of a large event in town?
Sorry I missed part of your question. I don’t have time to watch it all again, but if you can see the time on any station clocks, if the time is before about 8 am, then they are going to work. Some could be going to university as well. If it is later in the day, they could well just be going to the city centre for shopping or other social activities. The centre of Melbourne, like most Australian cities, is very healthy and thriving with many shops, department stores and some cinemas, let alone various places to find meals including various national type dishes.
Noticed some Mud Holes, one location train swings side to side for a while? Out of gauge track? Going by the land either side 3 tracks is possible, be good for a Vline express track in the middle, city bound in the morning, Gippsland direction afternoon.
@@tressteleg1 Yes thats a real fact that means Gippsland trains travelling in and out of Melbourne have to follow stopping all station suburban trains.
I don’t know what the answer is. I saw the Skyrail days ago. No hope for a 3rd track there. Maybe some chance on the ground sections remaining - if they care. Lack of suburban express services is noticeable here, not that Brisbane has much apart from my Gold Coast line.
The odd person has seen themselves or father in my videos to date. I can only post what I get and that was piles of more scenes last week. It will take ages to sort them into lines. 😊
I wonder why they they ran a VLocity train to Traralgon duplicating the Bairnsdale train which left a few minutes earlier, surely it wasn't a capacity problem?
I like that comment about Cardinia Road; a new station which ruined a great speed run. When I turned on this video clip I was hoping that it would be old enough to be able to see footage of what the area beyond Berwick was like before all the new houses which are there now had gotten built, and what the area surrounding Cardinia Road Station was like before it existed. Unfortunately the footage was taken only about a year ago. But it does contain footage of at least 3, possibly even 4 level crossings which are set to be removed.
I have no doubt that as works start on that Skyrail section, he will produce one or more During scenes and eventual and After. I probably have some After Skyrail scenes of completed Dandenong sections. I’ll check if he has done any older on Pakenham but I doubt it. All his work is fairly recent.
Darren Miles-Morland Hi Darren, twenty years ago I worked in Pakenham and lived in Dandenong so this was a journey I travelled dozens of times when I was unable to drive to work. The track beyond Berwick has not changed in all those years but as You state with all the new houses the landscape has, almost unbelievably so. The 2nd main level crossing out of Pakenham is McGregor Rd. Back in my day there that road was unsealed from the railway line south. Now it is serviced by supermarkets and a small shopping centre! I worked 5.5km along that dirt track and can't believe it's the same area now when I go back on occasion, Cardinia Road itself was a dirt track with more tractors using it than cars! The train ride down there was always brilliant, especially on an old hitachi set with the windows pulled down on a hot day whistling through the wind as fast as the driver could possibly make it go.
irbs18, it was very interesting to hear your stories about what Pakenham was like 20 years ago when you worked there during that period and caught the train from Dandenong to get there. I remember the train journey out to Pakenham all those years ago too, as there was nothing but cow paddocks once you got past Berwick, and the train would travel really fast in between stations. I have wondered if metropolitan trains could have ever run as far as Traralgon if the electric wires which used to go out that far had have still been there today. In Sydney they have an electrified service which runs through the Blue Mountains all the way to Lithgow, and Lithgow would have to be at least as far if not further from the Sydney CBD as what Traralgon is from the Melbourne CBD.
Every foot or road crossing must get a toot. Not like 4 toots and blasts of the USA. A white cross board is a whistle board, plus one on departing stations.
I was never a train driver. A friend does these videos for me. As for fencing, there is still quite a few longish sections of the Melbourne suburban system with no fencing but the people have enough brains to stay off the tracks.
Rheostatic brakes are swapping around motor connections to make them generate power which then goes into adjustable amounts of resistance. Regenerative brakes do the same but also feed excess power into the overhead wires to move other trains.
Sorry I can’t help you. Usually I can pick the sound of Comeng trains , but especially not being a resident of Melbourne, I have no idea about the other two types. It is only on rare occasions that I am on the train as he drives it.
Nobody gets run over. If people cannot keep their eyes open near rail lines and parents keep a watch over little kids then Darwin’s theory will do the trick.
Can remember Hallam being the loneliest station on the line, and General Motors always busy mornings afternoons and evenings!
Last of the early 1950s Gippsland overhead structures being replaced with the High Capacity trains project with the new ones at a closer spacing than the 80 yards the old ones were at. The wiring itself was renewed in the late 90s with the contact wire originally having the simply supported arrangement and spring tensioning. The replacement here has weight tensioning. The original structures were erected in 1952-3 to Warragul with completion to Traralgon by early 1956. Note several of the concrete footings have steel bracing over them due to cracking from horizontal movement which was an issue here.
Thanks for your additional information. I believe that earlier masts were too far apart and strong winds could blow the wire off the ends of the pantographs.
tressteleg1 the 1920s lattice structures are up to 100 yards apart hence they replaced the lot on this line. Interesting to see the Pakenham East depot wired the main line with a stub to continue on by the look of it - ironically.
100 yards! No wonder they had trouble! I would guess that the lattice never went beyond Dandenong.
Correct - Dandenong was part of the 1920s electrification scheme, completed in 1922 along with Frankston. For many years most suburban trains terminated at Oakleigh which was the limit of suburbia up to the post war years.
Interesting!
Thank You again for the upload Tressteleg. Brings back some memories, I used to live in Dandenong and work in Pakenham so made this trip many times well before the days of Cardinia Rd station. My scariest moment ever on a train also happened in this section of line just outside Berwick station where lightning struck and bought down the overhead wiring which danced around on the roof of the carriage I was in. I was the only person in the carriage, as you can imagine the train come to a screaming halt and it was ages before I had any communication from anyone, I didn't even know if it was safe for me to touch the door handle!!!
As I Normally say when I disembark the Buses ...... "Thanks Driver"!
👍
Thanks for sharing. It's 50 years since I was a fireman at Dynon and used to run trains to Warragul. The area has changed.
Sure would have!
On the South Morang Line as of 2018, the Mernda Rail Extension from South Morang to Mernda was completed and it included 3 new stations at Middle Gorge, Hawkstowe and Mernda. Middle Gorge Station was built on ground level and Hawkstowe and Mernda Stations were built above ground with skyrail. And that train line is now called the Mernda Line.
And as of 2019, the level crossing at High Street, Reservoir was removed by building a 1 km skyrail with a new elevated Reservoir Station.
Then as of 2022, the 4 level crossings at Murray Road, Cramer Street, Bell Street and Oakover Road in Preston were removed by building a 2 km skyrail with 2 new elevated stations at Bell and Preston.
Now under construction, is the level crossing removal at Keon Parade, Keon Park which will be removed by 2025 by building a 750 m skyrail with a new elevated Keon Park Station.
On the Hurstbridge Line as of 2018, the level crossing at Lower Plenty Road, Rosanna was removed by building a skyrail with a new elevated Rosanna Station, which also included track duplication between Rosanna and Heidelberg and the level crossing removal at Grange Road, Alphington by lowering the rail corridor beneath the road into a rail trench.
And as of 2023, the Hurstbridge Line Duplication was completed which included around 3 kms of duplicated tracks between Greensborough and Eltham and around 1.5 kms between Diamond Creek and Wattle Glen. Around 4.5 kms of track duplication in total between Greensborough and Hurstbridge. Diamond Creek Station got upgraded and Montmorency and Greensborough Stations got completely rebuilt.
Now they are planning to remove the level crossing at Ruthven Street, Macleod by 2027 by building a skyrail over the road.
Also the rail tunnel under Greensborough Highway in Watsonia will be extended a few hundred metres longer by 2028 and there will be a multi-deck car park built at Watsonia Station also by 2028 as part of the North East Link.
The overhead renewal for the introduction of the High-Capacity Trains or just general replacement? Some of the ones closer to Pakenham look very rusty! Well we get to see the continuation over the new 'skyrail' section?
I suppose someone decided that the old poles needed to go. They looked OK to me. I collected a lot more video from the driver. I expect that some completed Skyrail runs will be there also.
Dead straight run from Pakenham to Beaconsfield. About 12 kms. Funny this came up. I just rode this exact track the other day from Pakky to Berwick. The front carriage had a small slit through to the drivers cabin and front windscreen. I never noticed that before.
Lucky peephole!
@@tressteleg1 What I saw looked almost identical to this video except I was looking through the right hand front window. By the way, and hardly related to trains: the fish and chips from the shop near Pakenham station on Main St is the best I've ever had!
👍👍
great video :)
Great video thanks 👍
love your pointy end videos ... great stuff
👍 there will be more in coming months.
Interesting in that it's very easy to see that it's 5'-3" broad gauge.
👍
Stumbled into this from recommended videos as a U. S. railfan. Without recognizing the place names in the title, I was able to deduce this was Australia fairly quickly because; 1) Broad gauge, 2) Left-hand running/auto traffic, 3) English signage 4) Different vegetation than N. America and a more arid environment. Interestingly though, the casual, non-enthusiast viewer might not realize this wasn't North America because the general look of the passing commercial buildings and passengers at stations are very American looking.
I’m pleased you liked it. If you are stuck for something to do, this link will lead you to nearly every other rail line in Melbourne. The large tram system had been similarly treated in another link. Driver's View Trains Melbourne
ruclips.net/p/PLLtOIHp49XNDtaNr2H41P2th0S56s6bIH
What city, state and country is this in?? Found it. I poked around Google Maps and found that this is southeast of Melbourne. Nice ride. There was quite a crowd of people at the stations. They looked too casually dressed to be commuters going to work. Were they going to some sort of a large event in town?
Robert Gambling Yes, well done! It used to be electrified more than 100 km further but wires were removed around 1990. Diesel now.
Sorry I missed part of your question. I don’t have time to watch it all again, but if you can see the time on any station clocks, if the time is before about 8 am, then they are going to work. Some could be going to university as well. If it is later in the day, they could well just be going to the city centre for shopping or other social activities. The centre of Melbourne, like most Australian cities, is very healthy and thriving with many shops, department stores and some cinemas, let alone various places to find meals including various national type dishes.
Ridden those rails many times - this gives a completely different perspective. Thanks. 👍
Riding in the passenger saloon, you don’t have the slightest idea what the driver can see, except in videos like these. 👍
I miss the stations Pakenham to Dandenong before they went sky rail
Can you do video of from Dandenong to Flinders street please
Great video! Riverina, NSW.
Interesting video Is there anything on Bairnsdale
Unfortunately I don’t know any VLine drivers so I have nothing beyond the electric tracks.
best view in the house or train thanks
👍
Noticed some Mud Holes, one location train swings side to side for a while? Out of gauge track? Going by the land either side 3 tracks is possible, be good for a Vline express track in the middle, city bound in the morning, Gippsland direction afternoon.
Welcome to Melbourne 😁 I have no idea if Gippsland trains get delayed but there certainly is no place for a VLine track in the Skyrail sections.
@@tressteleg1 Yes thats a real fact that means Gippsland trains travelling in and out of Melbourne have to follow stopping all station suburban trains.
I don’t know what the answer is. I saw the Skyrail days ago. No hope for a 3rd track there. Maybe some chance on the ground sections remaining - if they care. Lack of suburban express services is noticeable here, not that Brisbane has much apart from my Gold Coast line.
Love the cab vids. I am yet to see myself or my friend in any vids. Will we see any empty cars movements? keep it up
The odd person has seen themselves or father in my videos to date. I can only post what I get and that was piles of more scenes last week. It will take ages to sort them into lines. 😊
Would u be a driver?
No. I was a tram driver 1988-94. Drove some trains unofficially a long time ago. A friend does the filming.
tressteleg1 ok thanks. Would u be able to say his or hers last name. I wonder if I know them. I know a few drivers for vline metro qube ssr
Sorry. He wants to remain completely anonymous. Your other driver friends can tell you why.
I love General Motors station it's my fav place urban explore
Good to see you didn't speed from medium aspect signal
I’m not the driver, unfortunately, but he has been around long enough to know what he is doing 😊
I wonder why they they ran a VLocity train to Traralgon duplicating the Bairnsdale train which left a few minutes earlier, surely it wasn't a capacity problem?
I wondered the same thing.
I like that comment about Cardinia Road; a new station which ruined a great speed run. When I turned on this video clip I was hoping that it would be old enough to be able to see footage of what the area beyond Berwick was like before all the new houses which are there now had gotten built, and what the area surrounding Cardinia Road Station was like before it existed. Unfortunately the footage was taken only about a year ago. But it does contain footage of at least 3, possibly even 4 level crossings which are set to be removed.
I have no doubt that as works start on that Skyrail section, he will produce one or more During scenes and eventual and After. I probably have some After Skyrail scenes of completed Dandenong sections. I’ll check if he has done any older on Pakenham but I doubt it. All his work is fairly recent.
Darren Miles-Morland Hi Darren, twenty years ago I worked in Pakenham and lived in Dandenong so this was a journey I travelled dozens of times when I was unable to drive to work. The track beyond Berwick has not changed in all those years but as You state with all the new houses the landscape has, almost unbelievably so. The 2nd main level crossing out of Pakenham is McGregor Rd. Back in my day there that road was unsealed from the railway line south. Now it is serviced by supermarkets and a small shopping centre! I worked 5.5km along that dirt track and can't believe it's the same area now when I go back on occasion, Cardinia Road itself was a dirt track with more tractors using it than cars! The train ride down there was always brilliant, especially on an old hitachi set with the windows pulled down on a hot day whistling through the wind as fast as the driver could possibly make it go.
irbs18, it was very interesting to hear your stories about what Pakenham was like 20 years ago when you worked there during that period and caught the train from Dandenong to get there. I remember the train journey out to Pakenham all those years ago too, as there was nothing but cow paddocks once you got past Berwick, and the train would travel really fast in between stations. I have wondered if metropolitan trains could have ever run as far as Traralgon if the electric wires which used to go out that far had have still been there today. In Sydney they have an electrified service which runs through the Blue Mountains all the way to Lithgow, and Lithgow would have to be at least as far if not further from the Sydney CBD as what Traralgon is from the Melbourne CBD.
not many signals along the tracks and what's with the horns at crossings? like the USA
Every foot or road crossing must get a toot. Not like 4 toots and blasts of the USA. A white cross board is a whistle board, plus one on departing stations.
Seems very basic compared to say Qld and NSW and even more basic compared to our railways here in England
Depends what you mean by basic. Probably all the foot and road crossings. In hilly places like Sydney it is much easier to ‘Grade Separate ‘.
hi can you do southern cross to geelong/waurn ponds?
Hi only have an electric train driver so unless a budget line driver approached me, I can’t help. The Werribee line has already been done, however.
Should say VLine driver
I miss the old stations before they went sky rail
@@becibabe7364 in general, the old stations were much easier to get to the platform.
Hey do you have any videos on the Craigieburn line?
Only one very short bit. It will have to await hopefully more scenes next summer when I catch up with my driver again.
I am very puzzled. I thought this was in India. But now I am not so sure.
Not exactly. An outer suburban run Melbourne Australia
Are you still driving trains?
I was never a train driver. A friend does these videos for me. As for fencing, there is still quite a few longish sections of the Melbourne suburban system with no fencing but the people have enough brains to stay off the tracks.
Cool perspective of the action most never see.
I have quite a few more Driver’s Views already here if that is what you like.
Could you do one from Sunbury to flinders street please
Driver’s View North Melbourne to Ginifer and Ginifer to Sunbury are already there. It will be a very long time before I would do the opposite direct.
tressteleg1 ok thanks for the quick reply
Where is the fencing? V Track?
why are there so many people getting this train
They are probably going to work in the morning.
@@tressteleg1 ok i thought i could be a specail
Nope. All my videos come from regular services although the Mernda was an empty train movement.
@@tressteleg1 Ok, must be a really busy day then
Why wasn't driver using reo-static brakes?
A) What are "reo-static" brakes and B) How can you tell he's not using them?
Rheostatic brakes are swapping around motor connections to make them generate power which then goes into adjustable amounts of resistance. Regenerative brakes do the same but also feed excess power into the overhead wires to move other trains.
You hear the gears growling when that is being done.
Thanks Tress!
Cool
I used to live there
😊👍
plz do stony point and the v line
Sorry, but my driver only works the electrics. Maybe one day a VLine driver will come along and help out.
@@tressteleg1 it's fine
Lot's of space for track duplication.
Unfortunately not on the more important Dandenong to Caulfield section.
Yes
Alstom or edi
Sorry I can’t help you. Usually I can pick the sound of Comeng trains , but especially not being a resident of Melbourne, I have no idea about the other two types. It is only on rare occasions that I am on the train as he drives it.
100th commenter
Not happy Jan over the mud holes
Welcome to Melbourne. I’m sure there is worse somewhere.
Where's all the fencing to keep people off the tracks, level crossings, pedestrian foot crossings. Who designed all this primitive shit?
Nobody gets run over. If people cannot keep their eyes open near rail lines and parents keep a watch over little kids then Darwin’s theory will do the trick.