Strange Melbourne Man

On the 28th of January, 2022, the route 673 was in operation for the final time. Although PTV states that the route will operate its last service on the 29th , route 673 does not run on weekends, which means that the 28th is officially the date of when the last service operated. A brief history Compared to other bus routes, the 673 didn't last for that long, only being introduced as part of bus reforms in the Lilydale area in 2006 . The route number had originally been given to a route that operated between Croydon and Lilydale , but the route was eventually cut back in stages and was completely deleted in 1987. When I say that this route has a brief history, I do mean it. As far as I know, the route was pretty much left untouched during its 15 years of exisistance. Needless to say, there probably wasn't much that really could be changed about this route, mostly because of how redundant such a change would be. Description The 673 operated between Lilydale Station and Lillydale ...

You may remember from way back that I made a post that detailed how many stations each Melbourne LGA had. There were some very interesting things I noticed that were quite intriguing, even though there were several mistakes made... The next logical step is to find out what LGA in Victoria has the most railway stations in them! Several criteria are used: - Stations included are served by either services from either V/Line or Great Southern Rail. - No stations purely served by tourist railways (Bellarine railway) are counted. - Stations located in a LGA that is considered a part of Melbourne (such as Casey) are not counted. There is a document I have made that can be found here A few thoughts: - Thirty-two LGAs are included in the spreadsheet I made. LGAs with no active train stations were not included in this table. - The LGA with the most stations is the City of Greater Geelong, with a whopping eight railway stations. These include all stations on the Geelong line from Lara all the way...

 Let us get on with it. This blog will cover every station from Westgarth to Hurstbridge. If you want stations betweens Jolimont and Clifton Hill, check out this article . Westgarth Westgarth was named after Westgarth Street, the street that crosses  the rail line to the south of the station. Westgarth is also a locality within the suburb of Northcote. The locality was named after William Westgarth , a Merchant, Politician, and Historian. 1906 Age article notes that Northcote South is a confusing name. It also notes the existance of a 'Middle Northcote', which is currently modern day Northcote Station, as explained here. Westgarth first opened as 'Westgarth Street', but was renamed to 'Northcote South' in August 1888, referencing the station's location. The name was changed in 1906 due to concerns that the name was causing confusion . Dennis Dennis takes its name from William Dennis, a Councillor of the former Northcote City Council. His son, Samuel follow...

Welcome to a new series to be featured on this blog! Today I will talking about suburb's in Melbourne! This week's overview will be on Keilor, a suburb roughly 15 kilometres away from Melbourne CBD. Overview of Keilor, includes its boundaries which might be a bit hard to see for some of you. What is even at Keilor? Here's what you should expect to see when at Keilor - Its got a village feel that few other suburbs in Melbourne can ever match. This is helped by the fact that the suburb is surrounded by nature. - Speaking of nature, that is another great thing about this place! It is right next to the Maribyrnong River, Taylors Creek, and Brimbank Park. Its also got a lot of nice parks within its boundaries. - It has some interesting sights to see, included a closed school, Overnewton Castle, various houses and some heritage bridges. Viewing the Keilor Iron Bridge, one of the first bridge crossings over the Maribyrnong. A closed school? Yes, a closed school. I know, your mind ...

I was bumming around Railpage when I found this old thread from 2006 . This thread outlines five proposed lines featured in the 1954 MMBW Report . The proposed line that I found the most interesting in this report was the line that would have seen a direct connection between Frankston and Mornington. The Original Mornington Line Alignment If you are a fan of Melbourne's railways, then you will probably know about the Mornington Line. The original line operated between 1889 and 1981, and split off from the Stony Point Line at Baxter (originally known as Mornington Junction). Stations included Moorrooduc, Tanti Park, Narrambi Road and, of course, Mornington Station. Mornington Junction Station is renamed to Baxter , 1918. Baxter is the station where the Mornington Line splits off from the Stony Point Line.   If you could not tell, the line to Mornington was not exactly the most direct line, and never served the suburb of Mount Eliza in its entire existence. This seems to be where the...

 I have just finished making a document detailing all the level crossings served by Metro Trains in Melbourne (except for the crossings on the level crossing removal list by the government). This includes pedestrian crossings. Here is a link to the document: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1rRQdPsJ6ItxhSHh4pF5kpiSi5vharyf5x3QW9RClAhc/edit?usp=sharing If you find any issues with this document, let me know ASAP, so I can fix it of course. Also, make sure to share this document (and this blog too!) because it might be interesting to some people.  

 Have you looked at a the route number for a bus route in Melbourne and didn't really understand why it was given that number? Well, there is a reason for it! It has to do with either location, or if the bus route was government owned . Government owned bus routes are typically numbered as 2xx or 3xx, bus routes in the west are typically numbered 4xx and so on and so forth. Well, ok, but you probably already knew about that, depending on if you already read the BCSV's website, or checked out Daniel Bowen's blog post on the matter . But what if I told it gets deeper than that? The second number of a bus route also helps show where that route runs, include what significant areas are served. Here is a list I compiled of what the middle digit of a bus route means. It should be noted that numbers 1 - 149 are used by Tram Routes. 150 - 199 - Wyndham Bus Routes 150 - 159 - Bus routes serving Williams Landing Station 160 - 169 - Routes serving Hoppers Crossing Station 170 - 179 - O...

Next up, we have the Craigieburn Line, an interesting line that's a tad underrated in my unprofessional opinion. It has interesting stations and a whole batch of name origins. Some of them are interesting, others not so much. To be specific, this article covers the 15 stations on the Craigieburn line that are after North Melbourne station. Anyway, I should stop blubbering on about nothing, Let us dive right in! Kensington In my Williamstown line article I talked briefly about South Kensington, but never mentioned where the Kensington part of the name came from. Well. for those of you who were wondering, Kensington is named after the London suburb of the same name . Kensington in London had major significance, with Kensington Palace being the birthplace of Queen Victoria. Kensington is derived from the Anglo-Saxon word 'Chenesitun', which references a family known as 'Chensei'. Newmarket Newmarket is named after the Newmarket Saleyards that existed between Epsom an...

September is the month that the Melbourne Show takes place. During any year that is not 2020, there would be an event called the Melbourne Show, occurring every September. Because the show is such a popular event for the city, the dormant Showgrounds station, located on the part-time Flemington Racecourse line, would be open, helping those from the south and the east get to the show without too much hassle. Welcome to part 5 of my Melbourne Train Station names series! This part is pretty short, only covering two stations. Anyway, let us dive right in. Showgrounds Named after the Melbourne Showgrounds located to the north of the station, what more should I say? The use of the name showgrounds is really only used in the UK (where they are called Showground), Australia, and New Zealand. Flemington Racecourse Flemington Racecourse station's name comes from the racecourse of the same name, located roughly east of the station . The name Flemington comes from two possible sources . The ...

Moving along, we have another part of the name origin series that will be covered in this article. Today's topic, the Sunbury Line! Sunbury Line stations from the PTV map, does not include White City or Holden. This article will cover every station on the Sunbury Line from Middle Footscray to Sunbury. This includes eleven stations that are open and two that are currently closed. For information on stations such as North Melbourne, South Kensington, Footscray, you can view my article on the Williamstown line, which can be found here . With that out of the way, let us find out where some of these names come from! Middle Footscray Middle Footscray's name is of obvious origin, being right in between Footscray and West Footscray. I have already written in an earlier post that Footscray is named after the town of Foots Cray in England. West Footscray Footscray is the westernmost of the Footscray area's three stations and is located in the suburb of the same name. Prior to Septem...

Part 3 of our Melbourne Metro train names series takes on a trip down the Werribee line, and finding out where every station on that line got its name from. The Werribee Line is one with a pretty complicated history. Prior to 1985 the section between Laverton and Altona did not exist , meaning that the line to Werribee and Geelong and the line to Altona were basically two different railway lines. Because of this, I am separating this article into 3 sections, so that it is easier to follow along. Stations that will covered in this blog. Closed stations are in black. Some of these locations may not be exact due to conflicting information. Before I get into the main part of this blog post, I will give you a quick rundown of what every station between North Melbourne and Newport comes from. If you want some more info about these stations, then you can check my blog post here . So here is the rundown: North Melbourne is north of the Melbourne CBD. South Kensington  is in the southern pa...