In this video we visit Deer Park, a station on the Ballarat and Geelong lines in Melbourne's western suburbs. Deer Park is a relatively modern station, having opened on the 24th April 2023 to replace the old ground-level station as part of the grade separation of the Mount Derrimut Road level crossing. I originally visited the new station on opening day when it was still largely a work-in-progress, but several months on and now that the station is looking a little more complete I decided to come back for a revisit.
We see some V/Line trains during the afternoon peak filmed roughly between 4:45pm - 7:45pm. We mostly see various three and six-car Vlocity trains on stopping and express trains, but we also see several N Class locomotive-hauled trains with N and H Set carriages, including intercity services to Warrnambool and peak-hour services to Geelong. This includes the 18:12 Geelong service which is currently the last V/Line service to be restored with the H Set carriages.
However we also see a N Class locomotive-hauled train hauling the 18:02 Melton/Bacchus Marsh service in what was a relatively unexpected move! What made this train especially rare was that it was rostered with N Set carriages, which haven't been seen on the Ballarat Line in many years.
V/Line officially ended locomotive-hauled trains to Bacchus Marsh on the 8th December 2023, with all services on the Ballarat Line now rostered as Vlocity trains. However during the week starting the 18th December 2023 several N Classes found their way onto Bacchus Marsh services substituting the Vlocity sets.
Despite all this excitement not everything went to plan this evening. Even as I arrived I noticed some Melbourne-bound trains were running around 25 minutes late. Just as things were getting back on-time, a trespasser in Sunshine halted all V/Line trains in the area, with V/Line reporting delays of up to 60 minutes on the Ballarat, Bendigo, and Geelong lines. I personally observed that trains were running up to 40 minutes behind schedule in both directions. At least one consequence of this was that the 19:16 service to Waurn Ponds which was rostered as a N Class was substituted with a 3-car Vlocity. This particular train is formed by the arrival of the 15:13 service from Warrnambool, which was well-behind schedule. I was also hoping to see the two peak-hour services to Wyndham Vale that are rostered as 9-car Vlocity trains, but unfortunately they both ran as 6-car trains on this particular evening.
Date:
December 2023.
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