Only the old timers (like me) would remember the overhead road bridge and ramp at Station Pier. Used it twice each week day in the early 1980s. We see the branch line that led off to the BP oil tanks then located at Beacon Road. Who then would expect poor old Port to become affluent and trendy 5 - 10 years later with hundreds of medium density houses on the ex rail land and later hi rise apartments? A historic video in many ways. Thanks.

I remember back in the mid 1970 to early 80', as a trainee engineman then driver, this line was still operational with goods trains & the local shunting yard pilot (Y-class loco), dreadful 3 Am start @ dynon depot, ran goods trains from Melbourne yard to Jolimont yard then changed over with the loco back onto the opposite end of the train and onto Port Melbourne yard, those level crossings if I remember correctly, sill had hand gates with the gate man to swing them! Some ships were still been unloaded/uploaded at the dock and some times we would go all the way onto the end of the pier along the rail tracks with the loco, to place or remove goods wagons next to the ships. Also recall the track that swung around from the top end of the yard and led to the BP oil terminal and mainly 4 wheel tankers we would bring out of that oil storage terminal. The large number of empty 4 wheel GY trucks in storage waiting for the next wheat season Also remember the old VR electric L-Class Locos, with goods straight through to Gippsland, i think some of it was brown coal briquettes However, most of the yard and freight was beginning to wind down, I also recall the numeous large old customs goods sheds and the large rolls of paper that were unloaded for storage in those old sheds for the Herald & Age news paper companies, and wool bails, including the Kraft Cheese factory near the station and factories and a lot of passengers on the trains at North Port going to work, then from around 1982, , it started declining and the obvious closure of the goods yard & severe decline in patronage to & from Flinders Street up till Premiere John Cain, and his Transport Minister ('Snappy' Tom Roper closed the line down for light rail. Never been there since, thanks fort the live video from the cab, lost count of the numerous runs to Port Melbourne and St Kilda from Flinders Street Station Thanks for the memories

I never got the opportunity to ride this route on a train before it was all converted to light rail. I never got to travel over the Yarra River and through the bit where the casino got built. This is as close as I will get to doing any of this. And Melbourne looked so much better back in those days compared to the ugly concrete jungle that it is now. These memories are priceless.

@darijoe1

3 жыл бұрын

Yes a fair bit of Melbourne's appearance has changed for the worse, but plenty has also changed for the better. For instance, the stations look a lot more run down and tired in this video compared to what they generally look like now. I am glad there has been a big effort to clean them up in the years since.

as a blind guy, i love these old train sounds. love full trips. hitachis had my most loved sounds but the taits witch were before my time had great sounds, i have recordings of them.

@some.muppet

4 жыл бұрын

i would be really interested in hearing these recordings!

@io4439

3 жыл бұрын

@@some.muppet yt search for tait sounds

I miss old Port and loved seeing this footage. I was really surprised to see my younger self standing at Graham st station, although the film is a little grainy I can recognise my mop of black hair and my then favourite top and jeans. Thanks for uploading!

@johnphillips592

4 жыл бұрын

Wow , your on KZread that's great and thanks for the comment.

Wow, never thought I'd see something like this, as a kid growing up in the nineties I'd always wondered what this looked like...

@johnphillips592

5 жыл бұрын

Thanks for that, glad you enjoyed it

@tubester4567

4 жыл бұрын

I rode it heaps of times in the 70's and 80's as a kid to go watch Port Melbourne in the VFA. Good times. Even rode the red rattlers plenty of times as they were being phased out.

@darijoe1

3 жыл бұрын

I grew up in the nineties too. I was born in 1990 and live closest to Box Hill where the 109 tram terminates. I have a few times travelled the entire length of the route from or to Port Melbourne. Fascinating to see how it used to look as a heavy rail system! I have to say the stations look a lot more run down and tired in this video compared to what they look like now.

A great piece of history. Only 4km? It seemed like a million miles when I was a kid. I did the trip hundreds of times ans still remember a Migrant Train locomotive derailing on the Pier. It was amazing watching four guys get her back on the rails again. The light rail does a wonderful job, but every time I went to Port Melbourne it was on "Dog Boxes" with swinging doors. Well done. Loved it!

Damn, not only a drivers view of a closed line but a refurbished Harris at that! Wow!

I’m so grateful to you John for uploading this video. I travelled on this line many times as a kid back in the 70’s. Standing in the open doorway of the old Red Rattlers as we crossed Sandridge Bridge. I was hanging out for the end of the line as I fondly remember the flyover at Port Melbourne with the ramp down to Station Pier. My dad would park down the side of the ramp in the shade as we spent many a day at the beach in Summer playing under Station Pier. The area was very industrial back then..you wouldn’t recognise it now. Love the sound of the old train horns..brings all those memories flooding back. Thankyou!!

@johnphillips592

4 жыл бұрын

Thank you Paul for your comments , so glad it brought back happy memories for you, makes it all worth while.

@vsvnrg3263

3 жыл бұрын

paul liddy, we also played under as well as on the pier. we used to have barbies on the beach in the big hollow beneath it using dried drift wood cooking spuds in tin foil. some people i knew found a body under there back in the 70's.

So awesome. Thankyou. I drive the 109 tram and always wondered what it looked like. Hoping you might have footage of what is now the 96 too

@johnphillips592

3 жыл бұрын

Yes there is one on the St Kilda line , here is the link studio.kzread.infolxZXKTDIkfE/edit

I never thought I would see a video of the Port Melbourne line prior to conversion..... thanks for the upload.....

Wow thanks for sharing, I'm too young to remember these lines. I was 4 when they closed.

Some nostalgia here that's for sure. Used to get on the Port train to go down and watch the Burragh play at North Port Oval back in the day. I Remember the old black bridge that crossed the Yarra carrying both the Port and St Kilda lines near the old Allen's lolly factory there too - where the Crown complex is nowadays. Even back then it was a dirty and grungy part of town and I'm glad it's been cleaned up significantly to what it once was. I cycle the path these days from Clarendon St down to Port. It's a great ride!

@seiner0ne

4 жыл бұрын

I was born in 91 so never got to see how different Melbourne was back in the day. I do remember the late 90s early 2000 and that signal box got burnt down.

@KennyTC63

4 жыл бұрын

@@seiner0ne As I said above, it's interesting and yeah even nice I suppose to see the videos and reminisce, but you really haven't missed anything by being born later. Melbourne, whilst now the world's most livable city, or at least one of them, was a far cry from that status back in the 80's and earlier. Areas like the Port railway line, what is now Southbank, St Kilda and Docklands were a blight on the city really. They were dirty and ugly. Not so nowadays - and much, much more for the better too imo.

@seiner0ne

4 жыл бұрын

@@KennyTC63 they certainly look different now but i kind of like the industrial look. Its also amazing how an area can change in 20 or 30 years. I use to live in Macleod where the old mental asylum is. The whole place use to be a ghost town until the developers knocked down the buildings, now theres million doller houses

@MRHenHen

8 ай бұрын

My grandfather used to work in the Allen’s factory with the gigantic neon sign. He started working there in 1932 he was in the RAAF during WW2 stationed in PNG. After returning home he continued to work at the factory until he retired

I worked in Port Melbourne for 14 years from 1989-2003! Always wondered what the Montague North Port Graham and Port Melbourne Railway Stations looked like! I've got a few Railway DVDS which show little bits of the Port Melbourne line but not all the Stations!🙂🚇🚃🚃🚃🛤️

After the bridge at Graham it's unrecognisable. I've only ever known the current layout so it's great to see how it used to look. Sad to see it change as a Railfan but certainly an improvement for the locals.

@74_pelicans

7 ай бұрын

AY THE BIG MAN IS HERE. Vlog of Port Melb line when?

@ReubenSilveira6

7 ай бұрын

@@74_pelicans Hahaha good idea. Might have to put that on the to-do list!

I miss the Port Melbourne Train Line and all the Station's Montague,North Port,Graham Street, Port Melbourne & Station Pier

@johnphillips592

Жыл бұрын

Yes , agreed it was a lovely ride to Port Melbourne

It's SO different back in pre-1987!!! This is the 1st time I've seen the old Port Melbourne line via it's throwback trainage!! So gentrified now and leveled up via the current tramline!! And Port Melbourne with a Y-class and that bridge near the end of the station!!!! OMG!!! Priceless seeing this, it's everything I had hoped it was back then?!...Surpassing all expectations.

@johnphillips592

4 жыл бұрын

Thanks Mathew , glad you enjoyed it

Wow, thanks John. Nostalgia there! I used to catch the Port train many dozens of times in the late '60s when working on Fisherman's Bend (Dog Box then of course). Two things always struck me - 1. For a line that was dead straight on the earliest maps - apart from the curve into Sandridge station and the curve off the Yarra bridge, its amazing how many curves it had by the end, and, 2. Why did they not have a station near the St Kilda/Port diverge? Flinders St to Montague was half the length of the line but with no intermediate stations; then in the second half of the line, Montague to Port there were two intermediate stations. With all those factories around at the diverge point there be plenty of clientele every morning and afternoon. - Phil

@johnphillips592

5 жыл бұрын

Yes I agree there was a big gap before Montague station , no doubt there was a reason , glad it brought back so many memories , thanks for the comment.

This is wonderful to see, I used to go fishing at Station Pier if the fifties and sixties with my father and the terminus brings back happy memories for me and also used the train occasionally in 1966 to get to work. The area didn't change all that much up till 1987 and then of course everything happened.

That train looks like a Cyberman 😀 Awesome video, miss that sleepy quiet Melbourne.

@johnphillips592

4 жыл бұрын

Thank you , glad it brought back a few memories.

i remember 1979 i was running away from home i hang around the train all the times and the driver ask me do you want you to drive the train i say yes and i drive the train about 10 times and i love it one of the driver very nice to me and the last one i rove the train was in epping and back and never heard from him again

Well done . I drove trains to Port Melb. a thousand times …. St Kilda as well. We did many pilot jobs there too… plus we ran the daily direct Warragul goods with L class electrics ! Pity the locals objected to the extension proposal from Graham to Garden City. The line to there and StKilda would still be there today if they had approved the project.

And the tram/light rail is even slower than the train was. To be fair, the tram does not go into Flinders Street station, but even if it did, it is not as quick as even the old swing door trains that used to run to Port Melbourne back in the day.

thoroughly enjoyed this. the good old days. dad used to mainly drive this and the st kilda line. he used to let us ride in the cab with him on the first train on sundays as an enticement to convince us to go to church. however we used to wag going to church.

@johnphillips592

5 жыл бұрын

Thanks for that , and a great story .

This was a flash back, worked Port melbourne one shift. Then hearing the gaurds bell bleeding hell they were the days.

@Whatevs8485

4 жыл бұрын

Joffa Dee - was a soda of a job the old Port Melb Pilot, the sound of that bell reminds why I wasn’t a fan of the sparks on my first tour there.

Great to see. As kids (14 year olds) we would come into the city then get the train down to Port Melbourne then spend all day at Station and prince's pier vising ships. Those days was red rattler train that ran there (late 60's) Thanks for posting.

Very beautifull catching 👍👍💚👍👍

Wonderful - Slow rail - this is meditation at its best. Can't wait to share with my Port Melbourne neighbours! Great to see the change in the parklands along the rail ... sad too ... the last two old elm trees at North Port (city side on Evans Street) are to be chopped down this week! Thanks so so much John.

@johnphillips592

4 жыл бұрын

Thank you , glad you enjoyed it, and yes , please pass on the link to your friends

@borisjevic6338

4 жыл бұрын

Sorry to hear about the elms. Why are they cutting them down? Maybe take some photo's and post a video on KZread before they are gone for good. :-( oh and post a link here ;-)

@vsvnrg3263

3 жыл бұрын

the last 2 elm trees being chopped down? i'm thrilled! i'll check it out on google street. i don't share your sympathies for them. or the plane trees. they are great trees if you like the alien birds like sparrows, blackbirds, mynas and starlings. these trees and these birds are what dominated port when i grew up there. what do these trees offer the native birds? nothing. and no shelter in a winter rainstorm either. tim flannery promised to shout the bar in a south australian bar if anyone could present him with a plane tree leaf which showed that something had taken a bite out of it. he considers them as useful as concrete. i jump for joy when i hear about alien species being removed for an underground railway station at domain road. when i view videos of this and the st kilda line these days i see native trees and native birds that i never saw when i was a kid.

Thanks for the upload. Ive riden the tram down to st kilda many times but ive always wondered what the st kilda and port melb lines use to look like when they were train lines.

I did ride on this Railway Line in 1986! Got off at Graham Railway Station from memory! 🙂🚇🚃🚃🚃🛤️🏖️

You brought back many old, lost memories my friend. Thanks for sharing. This was my childhood era. What year is the film taken?

@johnphillips592

4 жыл бұрын

The video was made in 1987

As per usual it's great to see the old crossing signals and teardrop bells. What we got after the conversion to light rail was interesting - normal traffic lights at the tram crossings, with carpark-style boom gates and Barker Technics E-bells (which are really not in good shape now sadly)

I worked in the railways 84-88. One Saturday night was working at Sth Melbourne station. I received a complaint that a couple were making love on the down side. What to do ,I did nothing. I have fond memories of my time in the railways.

@johnphillips592

3 жыл бұрын

Good story and good decision .

Fascinating, as I never travelled this line - great to see!

I remember those in the days ,But transport back then was great! Now it's the the tram! As i used to buy a Passmaster ticket and ride the rails all day back in the late 70's -80's?

Montague had been "shortened" due to safety concerns around 1983-1984 when the Taits were 3 car runs on this and St.Kilda lines..some runs were still 6 cars long in peak hour though nearing their end.

00:52 EM100 in orange. Today known as IEV100

@Gaminggunzeller

4 жыл бұрын

At least it's still in service with Metro

Great footage mate =]

Great video, thanks for sharing. 👍

the difference is absolutely stunning, i walked down this entire route to make a video on it and theres very little resemblance

I first rode on it in 1962.

I remember when the Clarendon Street Bridge was demolished in 1990! Very sad!😞

That brings back memories thankyou mate

Thank You for this upload, like other commenters I would never have thought I'd see this perspective again. One of the few areas of Melbourne that has actually improved over time, I'd forgotten what a mess it had been down by station pier. Now days there'd be no change out a million dollars or more for a little townhouse in that exact same area.

@johnphillips592

4 жыл бұрын

Yes you're right , there have been many changes in that area and as you have said, all for the best and thank you for your comments .

Looks like the platforms at Montague had been fenced to only be four cars long.

Great video John.

Look at all those lines. Almost all gone now and with expanding Melbourne we are worse off for it :(

That was awesome thank you very Much 😁🍺

You can see the newly constructed elevated part of the Westgate freeway.

The footage i want to see is of the springvale cemetery line

Been there drove that.....quite a few times before the closed it off to trains.

Really wish the saint killda railway station was operational aging

Great video John

@johnphillips592

5 жыл бұрын

Thanks , that area has changed over the years

Please please please if you have the Port to Flinders run would you mind upoading that one? I use to ride that train every day going from Graham into flinders then out to Albert Park for school back in the early 80's

@johnphillips592

Жыл бұрын

Sorry but for some unknown reason I only filmed one way

The silver ghost and the bell.

@johnphillips592

2 ай бұрын

Yes , both long gone now

I have a question: when did IEV get owned by V/Line?

@johnphillips592

3 жыл бұрын

As far as I know when V/Line was formed

@giddy1337

3 жыл бұрын

John Phillips ok, thanks.

Great but would be nice to see this in original 4:3 aspect to retain detail and quality

I take it those people getting on at Graham were returning to the city?Only other scenario would be a trip to PM to do the shopping.

@johnphillips592

4 жыл бұрын

Thanks Mike for your comment , you could be right .

Boy it looks empty without Southbank depo lol

We ran goods down the from Melbourne yard

Just before Port Melbourne got yuppified. A house might have sold there pretty affordablly then .

That is where the route 109 goes.

@michaelwyres

5 жыл бұрын

Yes, the line became tram route 109...

Thats cool.

Nearly everything even the buidling are all gone, barely recognise it today

@johnphillips592

Жыл бұрын

Yes , certainly a lot of changes

Lovely, but I can totally understand why it was de trained and made into a tram.

Will you doing a Flinders Street service from Port Melbourne?

@johnphillips592

4 жыл бұрын

Sorry , I only took that line in one direction

you've uploaded the st kilda line in both directions. have you got the port line going up?

@johnphillips592

4 жыл бұрын

No, sorry , we had a pretty grumpy driver on the way to Port Melbourne and didn't want to go back with him then didn't do a return trip.

@vsvnrg3263

4 жыл бұрын

@@johnphillips592 ,ha ha ha. well it wasn't my old man. he'd retired 5 years earlier. he used to make life hard for crawfords when they were filming division 4, homicide or other things in our street. they'd ask him to park his car elsewhere because they'd have to reshoot scenes for continuity and he'd tell them "too bad, bugger off".

Although it is nostalgic to watch, port melbourne looked terrible back then.

Funny how your mind plays tricks ton you. I always thought it became a single line AFTER Graham Station

@johnphillips592

6 ай бұрын

Agreed , I often think the same way

Wonder when this film was taken?🤔

@borisjevic6338

4 жыл бұрын

it mentions 1987. :-)

i've got a story for your viewers. if anyone else can remember. someone found a blue plastic container (about a 15 litre size) full of money under the down side montague station about 30 years ago. i'm sure it was after i moved to perth in 1987. as kids we used to play under the platform and wonder where the infamous "montague gang" hid their shanghais( a.k.a. slingshots). blue plastic containers hadn't been invented then. anyway, they handed the container plus contents in to the cops. and then returned to look for more. and they found, i think, 3 more and handed them in as well. anyway, it got on the news and everyone was turning under the platform upside down looking for more. there were no more reports of any more being found. there were no genuine claims for the blue jars full of cash so the finders got to keep! i have not been able to find anything about this on the internet. can anyone else remember this?

@biglethal

4 жыл бұрын

this was at Balaclava station 1996. close to $450,000 In 1996 two men found $200,000 in a drum buried beneath one of the platforms at Balaclava Station. The local men handed the drum into the police and the find was reported in the media. Probably spurred by the report, another eager digger, in the same week, found a second drum under the platform containing a similar amount of money, which was also turned into the police. For whatever reason, and we can only imagine, no one claimed the money and both ‘finders’ were granted ownership of their loot.

@vsvnrg3263

4 жыл бұрын

@@biglethal ,thanks for the reply. i'll check it up. i was bloody sure it was montague. were they blue jars/drums as you remember it?

@biglethal

4 жыл бұрын

@@vsvnrg3263 yes from memory, blue plastic drums

@vsvnrg3263

4 жыл бұрын

@@biglethal , i can't find anything on-line about it. are you really, really sure it was balaclava station? i'm sure the footage showed montague which i knew very well as a kid. it looks like you can or could get under balaclava station.

@biglethal

4 жыл бұрын

@@vsvnrg3263 short write up from the age newspaper In May 1996 St Kilda detectives sought legal advice before handing over nearly $450,000 to two businessmen who found it buried in plastic drums near the Balaclava Railway Station. They had already discounted up to six claims on the money, including one believed to have come from Queensland. The first of the drums, containing about $200,000, was unearthed on January 23 of that year. The second was found a week later. After examining the bills for fingerprints, police destroyed most of the money, in new $100 and $50 notes, because the Reserve Bank had agreed to accept and replace the damaged cash.

Port mebl

Did you drive these? Miss the guards bell. Worked Port a couple of times..great shifts

@johnphillips592

4 жыл бұрын

No , I was the railways Chief Photographer for 25 years .

@vsvnrg3263

4 жыл бұрын

@@johnphillips592 , i noticed what you wrote here and moved on............WHAT? RAILWAYS CHIEF PHOTOGRAPHER FOR 25 YEARS? from when to when? did it include some of the steam era? do you have any pikkies of the famous s class steam locos? omg, what a sweet job.

@johnphillips592

4 жыл бұрын

@@vsvnrg3263 I started in the railways in 1965 an joined the photographic section in 1970 worked there until it was all shut down in 2003

@vsvnrg3263

4 жыл бұрын

@@johnphillips592 ,i've just started rereading copies of old stack talk mags i bought at a newport workshops open day a while ago and i noticed your name in the ad for the public records office.

@johnphillips592

4 жыл бұрын

@@vsvnrg3263 yes I worked there for a while after they shut down the photographic section , that's where the negatives went.

Not one for viewing the past with rose coloured glasses I must say I miss Centenary Bridge. However the gunzel in me is less charitable - I'm aggrieved the rail infrastructure at Port Melbourne is gone and the whole area was turned into a 'resort' for cashed up retirees. Yuk! It was far nicer before - at least it wasn't pretentious.

It should never have being converted to light rail

@fauzirahman3285

5 жыл бұрын

It was a short line. They should have connected it directly to the Sandringham line at Flinders Street.

@thomasmatthewharris1980

4 жыл бұрын

Agreed

@mikeporta1909

4 жыл бұрын

@@fauzirahman3285 yes,or taken it down to Fishermans Bend.

@vsvnrg3263

4 жыл бұрын

maggie 92, agreed, but it could be argued that it and the st kilda line finally got built to the gauge that the original owners of the lines wanted it to be built as. both lines should have remained connected to flinders street but there may have been a big problem with the foundations of the sandridge bridge.

@vsvnrg3263

4 жыл бұрын

@@fauzirahman3285 ,yep.