Stationspast is now on Instagram

Posted on June 21, 2016 by Mike
Lock Station

Down Yarram Walker railmotor at Loch Station, November 1965

A suggestion from a user (thanks Nick) has lead to the creation of an instagram account for this site. As noted in the ‘Whats New‘ page, it has been five years since we’ve done anything serious here. At first it was storage space on the server, and the cost thereof, and the time needed to keep up the standard of the site. The storage issues have gone, but not so much the time constraints. Coupled with this, there is a bit of embarrassment about the amount of photos that have been submitted, and nothing done with them. So we’ll start posting out a trickle of these photos to the new account, and yes, we’ll eventually include them on the site. This will also be an ideal means of displaying ‘orphaned’ stations where we don’t have enough content to create a whole line section.

Search for @stationspast on Instagram (or just click the link)

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Otago Central Rail Trail, New Zealand

Posted on May 21, 2015 by Mike

Trail under bright blue sky
In February 2015, while things were very quiet at work, a colleague and I decided that we should visit New Zealand and investigate the Otago Central Rail Trail. For me, this had been a bucket list ride for quite a few years. This trail is marketed as the success story of how to do rail trails right, and at a public meeting discussing the then proposed Atherton Mareeba Rail Trail, a documentary about the Otago Central was shown. After viewing the doco, I decided that one day I would ride that trail, but it also kicked of my interest in our local trails. The combination of specially priced air fares, the quiet period at work, and the desire to earn more flight status credits meant that the only thing to do was to head over to the land of the great white cloud.

Originally, the railway was responsible for opening up New Zealand’s Central Otago Region. Construction commenced in 1877 with the line opening in stages until 1921 when it reached its final destination of Cromwell. The line was moderately busy moving agricultural products and livestock in both directions, and of course passenger traffic. After the second world war, passenger numbers began declining due to increased use of the private motor vehicle, however goods traffic was largely unaffected. Tonnages began to decline from the 60’s as restrictions on road transport began to be lifted. In 1980 the construction of a dam saw the closure of the Clyde – Cromwell section. By the late 80’s the only reliable traffic was construction materials for the dam, which once completed, heralded the closure of the line. The line was closed from Middlemarch in March 1990. A tourist service operated by Dunedin railways still uses the line between Dunedin and Middlemarch, travelling along the spectacular Taieri Gorge.

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Blackbutt to Moore (BVRT)

Posted on August 19, 2014 by Mike

 

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Due to a conversation on the Wheels on Steel rail forum, a bunch of contributors came to agree that a ride on a section of the Brisbane Valley Rail Trail would be a good idea. So a plan was hatched back in May, with the aim to ride the Benarkin to Linville (ie: the downhill bit) during a weekend in the middle of August. The advanced planning was necessary because two riders were coming down from Cairns, with another one from Toowoomba and two from Brisbane. Therefore airfares were and bike transport logistics were arranged and it was simply a matter of waiting for the appointed date.

The ride was also altered so the entire section between Blackbutt and Moore was going to be ridden. Three of use also decided that we’d ride back up the ‘hill’ to Blackbutt. The town of Blackbutt sits on top of a Range of the same name. Between Moore and Blackbutt, there is a net climb of 450 metres, however the main climb up the range is the constant ascent between Linville and Benarkin.

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Bairnsdale to Nowa Nowa

Posted on January 26, 2013 by Mike

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Melbourne was heading for a blistering 42 degree day, and I was on the 0712 Bairnsdale train heading East for a 60 Km ride to Nowa Nowa. I was very concerned about the heat and had known for nearly a couple of weeks that these sort of temperatures were on their way for this part of my trip. Because of this, a few days previously, I decided to cancel the second part of my East Gippsland trip by foregoing a Nowa – Orbost – Nowa ride of some 76 km, and instead, return to Bairnsdale then Melbourne on the following day. I did not want to be heat stressed a long way from any form of support or transport. There was also a developing fire risk to consider.

Travelling east away from the heatwave, it was quite remarkable to arrive in Bairnsdale and be greeted by a cool 22 degrees. A fairly stiff headwind in the direction I was to ride also aided in the cooling effect. Back in Melbourne, it was already 39 by this time so I had lucked into some good planning.

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Bright to Wangaratta

Posted on January 25, 2013 by Mike

Via Beechworth

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I have previously ridden this trail back in 2009, and it was not really my intention to do it again, with the exception of having a bit of fun on the Beechworth to Everton Section. However, because my transport had to rush back to Queensland I decided to revisit this trail again, seeing as I already had accommodation booked in Beechworth that night, and it was a simple matter to change my Vline ticket from Wodonga to Wangaratta for the run back to Melbourne the following day. Anyway, this is a seriously great trail so I really had no problem postponing the Tallangatta to Wodonga trip till ‘next time’.

After being dropped off at Bright, it was a leisurely 30 km roll down to Myrtleford, which was a repeat of a the same  ride taken a bit over three years ago. While much of Victoria was a little on parched side, being the middle of summer, the run between Bright and Myrtleford featured vibrant green countryside, under a stunning blue sky. This section was to be the busiest so far as seeing other riders on any of the trails visited.

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Tallarook to Alexandra

Posted on January 24, 2013 by Mike

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This rail trail trip represented the start of a bit over a week of touring a couple more Victorian Rail Trails. The planning was done about six months out from the trip which was to be done without my own personal motorised transport, so I was relying on the Victorian Public Transport System, and a friend to provide the logistics of repositioning from one trail to another. I arranged for the bike to be transported ahead of my visit by Greyhound, who transfer boxed up bikes, depot to depot, in their buses at a very reasonable cost. I chose a small hotel near the  Melbourne freight depot as a home base, as they agreed to store the bike prior to my arrival, and the gear I did not need for touring, while I was out and about.

Prior to arriving for the tour, I was on a cruise with the rest of the family and had a day in Melbourne. I used part of this day of shore leave to collect the bike and take it around the corner to the hotel – so I was very relieved that this  first part of the logistics worked.

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WTWS is Archived at PANDORA

Posted on May 6, 2012 by Mike

Back in March this year, Davo and I were rather chuffed to learn that When there were Stations has been archived on PANDORA – the National Web archive of Online Publications. PANDORA (Preserving and Accessing Networked Documentary Resources of Australia) was established by the National Library of Australia back in 1996 and is now built in collaboration with other Australian state libraries and other cultural collecting organisations.

The PANDORA archive collects Australian web resources, preserves them, and makes them available for viewing. Access to the archive is made available to the public via the Pandora web site. Web sites are selected based on their cultural significance and research value. This then is testament to the work that Davo and our other contributors have done to preserve an important part of Australia’s Transport Infrastructure history. It also means that this site will remain available long after we forget to pay our hosting and domain fees (click our ads to help us avoid this!)

Interestingly enough, the archived version at PANDOR seems to run a lot quicker than the live version of the site…. Something I need to discuss with our ISP 🙂

Our archive page at the NLA is here (click the ‘date’ of archive link).

 

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Lappa to(wards) Mt Garnet

Posted on August 6, 2011 by Mike

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I was recently browsing the Rail Trails Australia website, and was astonished to read that the old line between Lappa to Mt Garnet was a designated rail trail. The train my place of employment operates happens to pass through Lappa each week, so this is my closest local rail trail, until some more are developed closer to Cairns. Being a mere 160 odd km from home, and being a somewhat bleak weekend on the coast, a quick trip was in order for a short exploration mission along a bit of the old alignment.
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The Inner Circle, Melbourne

Posted on March 2, 2011 by Mike

And a tiny bit of the Outer Circle

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After spending some days belting from one end of the state to the other, the next part of the program was to spend a few days in the city before heading back out to the bush. Melbourne boasts a couple of rail trails, that follow the old Inner and Outer Circle railway alignments. I was going to write about both, but since returning home and researching more about the outer circle, the amount of it I actually rode was insignificant. So this post is more about the shortish Inner circle route, but with a brief mention and a few photos of the bit of the Outer Circle I did. But lets get the history out of the way first.

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Mirboo North to Darlimurla

Posted on February 25, 2011 by Mike

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This ride was originally planned to be along the entire length to Boolarra, however, bridge damage caused by the Churchill Fires in 2009 meant that the track was still cut between Darlimurla and Boolarra. The trail is very much a down hill run when you start at Mirboo North, so if you can arrange transport at the end of the track it would be quite a bonus. The trail drops 152 meters over its relatively short 12 km run.  For the shortened 5.6 km run to Darlimurla there is still a healthy 73 meter drop, but because this has become a return trip, you face a climb of the same height on the way back. You can view a “Runkeeper” GPS track of the return trip at this link, which gives you a good idea of the grades.
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