X-Nico

5 unusual facts about Victorian Railways


Balranald railway line

The Balranald railway line was a Victorian Railways broad gauge line that branched from Barnes on the Deniliquin railway line and ran to Balranald.

Frank Berryman

Frank Horton Berryman was born in Geelong, Victoria, on 11 April 1894, the fourth of six children and the eldest of three sons of William Lee Berryman, a Victorian Railways engine driver, and his wife Annie Jane née Horton.

Frank Counsell

Around 1885 he left Adelaide for Melbourne, where after working as draughtsman for several firms, he gained emplowment with the Victorian Railways, and was responsible for the work on several country stations, notably Maryborough (of which Mark Twain wrote a humorous piece) and Ballarat.

Norman Charles Harris

Norman Charles Harris (10 April 1887 – 3 May 1963) was a decorated World War I army engineer and Chairman of Commissioners of the Victorian Railways from 1940 – 1950.

Walker railmotor

Walker railmotor is a term for a family of railcars ordered by the Victorian Railways of Australia.


Goulburn railway station

The station buildings were opened in 1869 with arrival of the railway from Sydney, which was opened by the Governor Lord Belmore (an event commemorated by Belmore Park in the centre of the city), along with the completion of the line from Sydney to Albury in 1881 (and the connection with Victorian Railways in 1883), was a boom to the town.

Outer Circle railway line

The Outer Circle railway was first advocated by a group known as the Upper Yarra Railway League in 1867 who suggested that the Gippsland Railway could be brought into Melbourne via the outer suburbs, but the term itself was first conceived in 1873 by Engineer-in-Chief of the Victorian Railways, Thomas Higinbotham who suggested an "outer circle route".

State Electricity Commission of Victoria

The final major generator of electricity was the Victorian Railways who operated the Newport Power Station, for the supply of electricity to Melbourne's suburban trains.

The Gippslander

The Gippslander was am Australian named passenger train operated by the Victorian Railways from Melbourne through the Gippsland region to Bairnsdale.

Transport Act 1983

The Act abolished a range of long established transport agencies including the Victorian Railways, the Melbourne and Metropolitan Tramways Board and the Country Roads Board.

Western standard gauge line

The first inter-capital link between Melbourne and South Australia was completed in 1887 when the Victorian Railways line was extended to Serviceton on the state border.

Whitfield, Victoria

In 1897 the Victorian Railways accepted the tender from the Baldwin Locomotive Works, Philadelphia, U.S.A. for narrow-gauge locomotives of the ‘A’ Class, (two 2 foot 6 inch-gauge locomotives) and the first two to be received were placed on the Whitfield/Wangaratta line construction project.

Yallourn railway line

Operated by the Victorian Railways and successors, the line served the State Electricity Commission of Victoria operated Yallourn Power Station, open cut mine, and briquette factory complex; as well as the adjacent company town of Yallourn.


see also

Victorian Railways J class

During the early 1950s, Victorian Railways embarked on a massive upgrading of its ageing locomotive fleet as part of 'Operation Phoenix', an £80 million program to rebuild a network badly run down by years of Depression-era underinvestment and wartime overutilisation.