Wanderings by Train in the Bendigo District — 1959
At the tender age of 17 a token income from a pre-Christmas job in the Post Office was sufficient to buy me a fortnightly all lines rail ticket for an early January 1959 wander around Victoria. The first five days were spent covering the Kooloonong, Deniliquin, Robinvale, Wycheproof and Dunolly lines and these travels are the subject of this article. Subsequent travels to Port Fairy, Queenscliff, Serviceton, Tocumwal, Albury, Bairnsdale and Woomelang seem to have escaped being recorded in similar detail. Oh that such travels could be done now!
The story is based on my diaries from that time. Some changes and annotations have been made to make the story more comprehensible in the 21st century. Units of measure are as they were then (miles, tons etc.) but times have been changed into 24 hour format to clarify that side of things, given that some of these travels were during the night. The substance of the original has been retained, hopefully conveying the novelty impact of new places and new experiences to a fairly naïve teenager. It all happened long ago at a time when VR was little more than 100 years old. Now the elements of the broken-up VR are 170 years old and nothing remains the same.
Monday 5th January 1959
The 08·20 Bendigo train was standing at platform 5 when I arrived at Spencer St about 07·50, although the locos B83 and T334 did not turn up until just after 08·00. The train left on time and lost time to Woodend (about 5 minutes late) but regained it again to Golden Square. Due to the large recovery time (15 minutes for a little over a mile) we arrived at Bendigo 10 minutes early at 11·05.
The two diesels then took the leading three cars off and placed them in No 2 road. The locos were then split, and one took the early holiday extra from Bendigo while the other took the regular up Swan Hill at 12·10. The delightfully numbered D3 666 came on to the remaining four cars at Bendigo, from where we left five minutes late at 11·45. We were held for a few minutes at North Bendigo Junction waiting for the up Swan Hill pass (D3 682) which was running about ten minutes late.
Our D3 climbed steadily to Eaglehawk where there was another ten minute delay from unknown causes. The running of the D3 from here was very lively reaching 50 mph quite often; the main trouble seemed to be getting a good start and slipping occurred leaving just about every station. It wasn’t until well out on this line that it became apparent that the wheat season was in full swing. At Mitiamo we crossed X28 on a rag-tag collection of wagons that looked like a pick-up goods.
In the compartment with me was a crew travelling to Lake Boga to take over an up wheat extra. At nearly every station there were new steel silos which I assume had been erected for this year’s bumper wheat crop. Concrete silos were about as frequent as the steel silos. Near every silo were half a dozen GY’s with tarpaulins being loaded with wheat, their load being about 22 tons. There were also lines of farm trucks at each silo with varied types of hopper truck trays.
At Kerang the 102 hp rail motor for the Koondrook service was lurking in the yard, along with locos D3 677 and J504. The train loco cut off here and ran forward to the water tank which was at the far end of the yard. Most of the stations on this line (and a few, seen later, beyond Korong Vale) were of a basic three road design with a dog leg on the main line through the platform, presumably allowing for an additional road that was never installed.
The wheat train at Lake Boga had D3 655 at its head and a considerable number of trucks with a CP van. The load for a D3 on this line is about 650 tons. Arrival at Swan Hill was about 15 minutes late, once again helped by recovery time in the last section. J508 and J524 were at Swan Hill. A strange feature here was a direct connection from No.3 road to a siding on the near side of the main line.
From Swan Hill to Piangil we had 6 RM (102 hp) which had six passengers to Nyah West but then only me from there. However, there was a large amount of van goods. At Piangil we met the postal motor VRS16, the driver of which was very friendly and told me a lot about the line and service. Wind chutes at various points along the line had just about collapsed, not surprising since they were erected during the 1946 drought.
The motor towed a normal broad gauge trolley with sides which was loaded with parcels, the mails being in the motor. The trip was fairly rough but interesting. At Kooloonong there were large silos but Natya only had the old galvanised bulkhead, although construction of a new steel silo was due to be started in a week or two. At Kooloonong the motor and trolley were turned on a conventional trolley turntable and our return was run non-stop to Piangil. At Piangil I watched the unloading of wheat from road hoppers into the silo, then walked down to the little café near the Murray and bought something to eat, after which I tried to sleep in the waiting room.
Tuesday 6th January
I woke up at about 05·00 and as the rail motor was not due out until 07·05, I had some time to spare. A wheat special to Kooloonong was due to depart Swan Hill at 05·00 and cross the rail motor at Piangil. I went out and sketched the layout at the station before walking about a third of mile towards Swan Hill. Quite a bit earlier than I expected the goods with J508 came over the hill and somewhat caught me by surprise. I walked back to the station and watched the train shunting.
By this time the rail motor was ready to depart so I joined it. There were a few more passengers than on the previous day, but still not many. At Nyah West there was a huge stack of bagged barley. All barley shipments had stopped on the previous Friday due to lack of shipping, and as a result there were large stacks of barley at many of the stations.
At Swan Hill there were practically no goods vehicles left, most having gone out during the night. The up passenger train was the same as the day before and again had D3 666 at its head. The train left Swan Hill on time. At Lake Boga we overtook an up wheat train with J524 at its head.
Running was good to Kerang where there was a 10 minute stop while the loco again cut off for water. C4 was a new arrival in the shed while D3 677 shunted the yard. From Kerang the trip became very dusty. We kept good time right into Bendigo, and although we were on time the down Swan Hill (D3 682) was waiting for us. It had the same crew that had travelled up with me to Lake Boga the day before.
At Bendigo I had a wait until 16·55 for the rail motor to Deniliquin so I went down to the shops and got a good hot meal in a café. The Bendigo trams all seemed to have maximum traction bogies, something no longer seen in Melbourne (the former Melbourne trams with this arrangement having all been moved out to the Provincial city tram networks many years prior).
Just as I got back to the station J507 went out on a Swan Hill goods. All the red on this J had completely disappeared making it look something like a shrunken C class loco. A D3 with the Eaglehawk goods followed it out. I then went to watch Bendigo’s two Y’s, 112 and 131, shunting. At one stage one of the Y’s couldn’t start a string of trucks so a D3 coupled on and they shunted double headed for a while.
The ‘midday’ train from Melbourne arrived on time and seemingly hundreds of screaming kids raced into the van and grabbed their bundles of Heralds. The motor to Deniliquin was 85 RM (280 hp). An interesting sight was the Sea Lake motor which went out as 58RM, 26MT, 63RM, 16C, the last two separating at Korong Vale and going to Ultima. I later found out that this train was normally RM, MT, C but the additional motor was run for the large number of holiday passengers. Just before this left X28 arrived from Korong Vale.
The Deniliquin motor left on time and made a good run to Rochester where half the passengers left. We crossed J502 on an up goods here. At Echuca, where there was a 10 minute stop, there was no railway life at all, not even an engine being in sight. The trip to Deniliquin was uneventful, the country up there being as flat as a billiard table. Deniliquin itself had a large spread out yard, probably half a mile long. D3 685 was there having come up from Echuca on the goods that day.
The goods runs down on Tue, Thu and Sat while the up runs out of Deniliquin about 09·30 on Mon, Wed and Fri arriving Echuca at around 13·00. I went and bought something at a café and then went to sleep in the waiting room. The station was of all stone (brick?) construction with very little timber being in evidence. The town was quite modern especially around the shopping area. It was also, unlike Piangil, fairly free from mosquitos although both towns were situated on large rivers.
Wednesday 7th January
Again I woke early and traced the track diagram. At Deniliquin there were over 50 trucks being loaded and unloaded, or already in consist of the goods for Echuca. Fairly early, the crew of the D3 came on duty and stoked it up. About 07·00 they came out and proceeded to shunt which, because of the strange yard layout, proved quite amusing at times. I took several photos and then went back to the rail motor.
I was lucky enough to get the ‘observation’ seat at the front, just as I had coming up the previous day. The trip was as uneventful returning as it was on the forward trip and Echuca once again had no sign of any activity. During the 10 minute stop at Echuca the rail motor ran back and refuelled at the bowser at the down end of the platform. One piece of track not far out had evidently been recently relaid and was quite good, but the rest was fairly rough, especially in the end of the motor where I was.
At Elmore we crossed J508 (seen the day before heading toward Kooloonong) on a down goods. We were slightly delayed here because the Cohuna motor preceding us was ‘on the boil’. However we arrived at Bendigo almost on time. At Bendigo D3 669 and D3 677 were on the down and up Swan Hill passenger trains while J524 was also around in the yard.
After about 30 minutes the Sea Lake train, consisting of RM58, 26MT and 21C departed for Korong Vale. At Bridgewater we crossed X28 on the up goods from Korong Vale. This train left Korong Vale immediately after the up motor in the morning and took the C van, which came in on the arrival Ultima line motor, through to Bendigo.
At Korong Vale our C van was uncoupled from the motor and trailer which then headed off towards Sea Lake , while 63RM backed onto the waiting van. After about 5 minutes we departed for Robinvale. D3 621 was shunting while D3 616 was on a Wycheproof goods. The line was fairly flat although it was more interesting than out near Deniliquin.
The second station out on this line, Mysia, was a semi-automatic unattended crossing loop. It had upper quadrant home arrival signals which accepted whichever train arrived first. The staffs for the sections Korong Vale – Mysia and Mysia – Boort could be withdrawn at Korong Vale and Boort respectively without the necessity for a man at Mysia. The auto signals looked quite out of place out in the wheat fields.
Coming towards Boort the line dropped down on a very long U curve around the end of the lake and into the township. The curve was 30 chains radius and nearly half a mile long. There was a falling grade of 1:120 in the down direction on this curve. The load for a J on an up train from Boort was 1,200 tons which wasn’t a bad sort of load. At Boort we crossed K146 on an up goods. This line turned out to have much K class working. From Boort there was some newly laid track with welded rail, new sleepers and rock ballast which was good to ride over. However, work had stopped on this project.
At Barraport we crossed K168 on a down goods. This was the second of the unattended crossing loops on this line and was worked in the same way as Mysia. At Quambatook we crossed up and down goods trains with T330 and K151 respectively. The two trains between them barely fitted into 2 and 3 roads and the neck at the down end.
After Quambatook there was not much to see until Ultima. Over the pit was K175 while D3 653 was on one of the turntable roads. Ultima was opened in 1900 and the extensions were opened to Chillingollah in 1909, Manangatang in 1914, Annuello in 1921 and Robinvale in 1924. All of these, except Annuello, had turntables, evidently installed when they were termini. Through to Robinvale the country was fairly uninteresting, alternating between wheat fields and Mallee scrub.
At Robinvale J511 and a dozen wagons were standing in 2 road. I decided to travel back as far as possible on the goods. I had time to get something to eat and take a few photos before we left at 19·20. The guard, Tom Ross I think, was very friendly and told me a lot about the line. Some miles out of Robinvale he pointed out some kangaroos in a cleared patch near the line. Evidently, they were more or less a permanent fixture.
At Bannerton we dropped a 2,000 gallon water tank for the locals. At Annuello we dropped off another water tank and picked up some loaded wheat trucks. Here the fireman invited me up into the cab. It was almost dark when we left and the headlight was on all the way. It later turned out that 130 miles (209 km) of the 250 miles (402 km) I did by goods train was at night.
Although it was fairly mild outside it was rather hot in the cab, even right over on the fireman’s seat. It was interesting watching how the loco was driven. This driver kept the train exactly on 30 mph except for a few spots where the grade changed and he hadn’t adjusted the loco to it. One intriguing feature was the steam operated fire-doors operated by a treadle. Once, just as the fireman went to throw a shovel full of coal the engine rocked and although the coal was well thrown the fire-doors didn’t open. Apart from this he never missed.
The engine rode quite well although it was a bit like being at the top of a mast or rather the end of a tail; the cab sort of wags itself. There was also a rough unsprung vibration, similar to Belgrave trolleys but not as bad. The water gauges were two little tubes hidden away in the metalwork, each with a light focussed on it for night travelling; a rather odd arrangement after being used to the rather more exposed NSW type. The fireman and driver each have a water gauge as it was impossible to see one from both sides of the cab.
We ran express through Koimbo but stopped at Bolton where we picked up several more wheat trucks, making our load 23 trucks and a van. Here I went back to the van. One of the two ‘amenities’ in the Z van had been lit — the oil lamp. It was far too hot to light the stove which was the other amenity. At Manangatang I helped load a couple of dozen empty steel beer barrels into one of the van goods vans which were on the train. Ten wheat trucks were added making the total load 34 wagons for 899 tons, 1 ton below the full load for a J over the 1 in 60 switchback on the up side of Waitchie. Around an hour was spent here putting waybills on the Bolton and Manangatang wagons and allowing the crew to have a meal.
The train was due to run through to Ultima, which was still 40 miles away, stopping only where there was van goods waiting to pick up. We left Manangatang about 23·00 and wandered along until we got to the level crossing about a third of a mile on the down side of Chillingollah. The train was stopped and the engine ran light to replenish its water from the tank there. It then came back and hauled the train into the station to collect van goods. I never worked out quite why this was done but it may have had something to do with level crossings or maybe a bit of upgrade.
From Chillingollah we ran on, stopping at Waitchie and Gowanford to pick up van goods. Just after Waitchie there was a 1 in 60 switchback section where 40 mph was allowed to enable the train to get up the other side. In the van it was very rough as the couplings alternately pulled and pushed.
Thursday 8th January
We arrived at Ultima at 02·30 and were put into No.2 road, which annoyed the guard no end as there was a full 44 gallon drum to be removed from the van. I went down to the loco again and talked to the fireman for about 20 minutes while the driver checked the brakes on the train it was now coupled to in No.3 road. The opinion seemed to be that D3, K and N locos were generally liked by crews, J class were too heavy on fuel and water, and R class were good for passenger work but were too ‘slippery’ for goods work.
After the brake test was complete the loco went over the pit, dropped its fire and then went to a turntable road next to D3 653. A different K was there; K151. I then went back to the station and got a couple of hours sleep in the waiting room; by then it was around 03·30.
By 06·00 I was up and about again, so went down to the turntable to take some photos of the locos there and then went up into the cab of K151 and talked to the bloke who was preparing it to go out later to Manangatang. About 07·00 I wandered back to the station and didn’t have long to wait for the rail motor which arrived at 07·19, on time.
The motor was already pretty full although it was only about half way to Korong Vale. After picking up passengers and doing van goods we backed into the ‘work van siding’ to let T330 with 53 empty GY wagons get past. There were no vacant roads in the yard for it to run in to. They must have had some challenging shunting there afterwards! The rail motor left about 5 minutes late. At Quambatook we crossed K168 on an up goods. The yard here was much less crowded than on the previous day. At Barraport we crossed K146 on a down goods.
From here on we didn’t have any more crosses but still managed to arrive at Korong Vale 10 minutes late, at exactly the same time as the Sea Lake motor which preceded us into the platform. J504 left Korong Vale almost immediately on an Ultima train while X28 was standing in the yard waiting to follow it with the 10·20 goods to Bendigo.
The Sea Lake motor and trailer left for Bendigo 10 minutes late at 10·00 on a 1 hr 35 min schedule. At Glenalbyn B70 and B72 in multiple had a train so long it occupied both No.2 and No.3 roads. I found out later that these two were running the Korong Vale – Dunolly shuttle which explained why the branch at Inglewood was so shiny.
The rail motor and trailer, although not heavily loaded, was steadily losing time so that we arrived at Eaglehawk 20 minutes late just after the up Swan Hill train had gone through, which meant another 10 minute delay. By this time I was wondering if instead of going to Balranald as planned it would not be better to go to Sea Lake. We arrived at Bendigo at 11·55 just as the Echuca motor was due out, but it was held for 5 minutes for any connecting passengers, of which there were none.
The Sea Lake motor train was due out at 12·00, but in fact left at 12·25 after running round and collecting a C van. The driver was pretty desperate by this stage so despite the heavier load he managed to pick up a bit of time in each section. At Bridgewater we crossed X28 on the up goods which had a CP van with the Robinvale C van trailing behind. At Korong Vale I only had time for a quick glance at the special train notice board before the motor departed. D3 621 was shunting as usual.
Not far out of Korong Vale a bloke realised he was on the wrong train and told the driver. The rail motor backed back to the level crossing at the down end of Korong Vale where the bloke left and careered madly down the middle of the track with two heavy suitcases. Not far out of Korong Vale there was a series of fairly steep climbs with 1 in 50 grades. The motor made good time and we were a little under 20 minutes late at Buckrabanule. In some places the silos at one station could be seen from the next. It was quite odd being virtually able to see two stations at once. Buckrabanule and Barrakee were two such places.
Charlton yard gave the appearance of a cumbersome sort of place. Just on the down side the Avoca River was crossed on a long bridge. Near here was a bowling club where one of the lady players was seriously off the mark when the driver whistled just as she bowled. From Charlton to Teddywaddy there was a rise and fall over a long but not very high hill. Grades of 1 in 50 applied on the down and 1 in 61 on the up.
The motor ambled on to Wycheproof to arrive only 15 minutes late. In No.2 road there was a goods which I decided to get back to Korong Vale. After the motor had gone, I discovered that the goods had just arrived from Sea Lake and was not going until 03·00 next morning. The next train toward Sea Lake was not until 01·00. I decided to hitchhike back to Inglewood (if possible) and catch a Dunolly goods so I could see that line again. At Wycheproof J500 was in the shed while D3 618 had arrived on the goods.
I had walked about a mile when I got a lift with a ‘road transport inspector’ who offered to drive me through to Dunolly if I missed the train at Inglewood. He drove at 70 mph most of the way to Teddywaddy where I noticed an up goods waiting. He waited until I found out when it was due to leave and then when everything was found to be okay, he left for whatever he had to do at Charlton.
The train at Teddywaddy had T322 24 GY wagons and 668 Z, a load of 25/730. A T could bring over 1,400 tons into Teddywaddy from the north but due to the comparatively heavy grades after there could only take 800 tons toward Korong Vale. Loads for other loco types over these sections were proportional. The usual practice therefore was to take a full load to up Teddywaddy and drop the excess loading. In the wheat season this meant quite a pile up of overloading and there were two return trips to Korong Vale run with the T class to clear about 1,500 tons each day.
Teddywaddy was quite a large place and had four roads although it was not even a staff station. All the roads were occupied, our train on the main line and wheat trucks in the others. When a gangers’ trolley came along from behind (from Wycheproof) it went into the back of No.2 road. The ganger, probably from Charlton, wanted to get home but the train was not due to leave for another half hour. He got the driver to back up until the trolley had a clear run on the main line.
We left at 17·00 and the load over ‘Charlton Hill’ had a great effect on the T. Speed dropped to about 5 mph all the way. Near the top there was a wheat field with a large part of it burnt; a train had set alight to it a few days before. At Charlton we were turned into No.2 road to wait for a down goods. It arrived about five minutes later with D3 616 and a fairly long load trailing. It took water at Charlton. We were soon on our way again and didn’t stop until Buckrabanyule where we picked up two trucks of wheat and one of bagged oats to make the load 806 tons. We ran through to Korong Vale from there.
At the top of the hill outside Korong Vale it was possible to see silos as far as Barraport, 26 miles out on the Robinvale line. We arrived at Korong Vale at about 19·20. The guard suggested that when I went to Dunolly I try and travel on the loco, as the van on the 60 wagon train gets very rough. He also introduced me to the signalman in B Box. I bought something to eat in the town, then sat up in the box and chatted to the signalman. D3 621 was still the shunt engine while K146, K166, K168, D3 653 and J502 were in loco.
After a while the program of freight trains came through for the next day, as follows
Departures from Korong Vale for ……
- Bendigo: 07·00, 10·20, 19·00
- Dunolly: 06·00, 11·00, 17·00, 23·00
- Wycheproof: 00·01, 07·20, 12·15, 17·00
- Ultima: 01·00, 08·30, 15·45
- Lalbert: 06·00
- Quambatook: 15·00
- Boort: 17·00
Departures from …… for Korong Vale
- Bendigo: 02·30, 06·00
- Dunolly: 03·00, 08·00, 14·00, 20·00
- Wycheproof: 03·00, 11·30, 15·00, 21·30
- Ultima line: 06·00, 08·00, 09·45, 11·00, 20·00, 21·45
[A total of 33 freight train arrivals and departures, plus of course 6 rail motor departures and arrivals — 39 trains in 24 hours.]
Some time later Wedderburn Junction rang through to say that the 20·00 from Dunolly has just passed through some hours early. Not long afterwards it rolled in at the back of No. 1 platform — the only place long enough to hold it. They had done the round trip in 4 hours 23 minutes which was a record up to that time.
The signalman showed me how the staff for Korong Vale – Mysia was obtained. He wound a hand generator operating a relay which acted as the non-existent bloke at Mysia, and then a staff could be withdrawn (as long as there was not one already out). A signal inspector had come up the night before and caught many of the stations with no lights in their signals, so all that day guards and station men had been trading information as to who had and hadn’t had their signals lit in time.
About 22·30 I went over to the locos, B70 leading B72, but the new crew had not yet booked on. It was not long before they appeared. The drivers name was Yorston and he was the senior driver at Korong Vale. He was a beaut bloke and very friendly. He showed me the controls of the diesels and how they worked. They were very simple as far a controls go, with five main controls — throttle, reverser, dynamic and train and engine brakes. As well there were a couple of indicator lights, brake gauges, ammeter, speed recorder and a row of switches.
We left right on 23·00 with a load of 60/1,873 tons. On the way to Inglewood both the throttle and dynamic got quite a bit of use. The few rabbits that were near the track could be picked out quite easily by the glow from their eyes reflecting from the headlight. Coming down the hill into Inglewood with the headlight on high and horn blowing for the four road crossings must have given the locals a bit of grief. We went through Inglewood just after midnight.
Speed limits in the area had been lowered recently, now being 40 mph Korong Vale to Kurting and 30 mph to Inglewood. Once again the driver kept as close as possible to the speed limit all the way. The cross-country line from Inglewood to Dunolly was a succession of ups and downs with a 20 mph speed limit, but the guard later said he was only banged around a couple of times, for which he was no doubt very grateful. At the various stations along this line there were large loops mostly with a few wagons in them, apart from Llanelly which was the only place with a silo and it had a dozen GY wagons.
We ran down into Dunolly about 01·30 and set back with the loaded trucks to uncouple them. We then ran forward and picked up 63 empty wagons in the long siding which runs off the platform loop at the up end. The driver, observer and I changed ends to the far end of B72. When the guard finished his load sheet he was at our end of the train so instead of walking back 64 vehicles he travelled in the cab with us. Several Bendigo shunters had been sent to Korong Vale as guards and our guard was one of them.
About 02·30 we were given the right away (not a hard task from where the guard was!). The train started and moved about 10 yards before coming to a stand, although with the headlight still off no one woke up for a while that we were not moving. On investigation a coupling was found to have parted and so we had to muck around and back up to rejoin the train. When everyone was settled into the cab again we once more started, but stopped again after 10 yards. Another coupling had parted. After some rather coarse comments about the Dunolly pilot and a bit more mucking around we eventually left around 02·50.
The guard and observer spent a frantic few minutes making sure the van was following along (by its side lights) before everyone settled down to the usual tale-telling session. I rested for part of the trip to Tarnagulla where we stopped for a meal break of home brewed tea and an assortment of sandwiches and biscuits. The guard also had to ring through to Dunolly and give the ACRE (train arrived) message – Tarnagulla had been opened as a temporary block post so the Dunolly pilot could follow us out and pick up the full GY wagons from Llanelly.
We then set off for Inglewood arriving there around 04·00, just after the 02·30 goods from Bendigo had departed. We stopped with the engines opposite the platform and the train stretching way out onto the branch. The Station Master asked us to pull forward as we were disturbing his kids in the station residence. At about 04·30 we were given the staff and we set off again, no doubt making life for the Inglewoodegians squirm again with the noise. From the conversation it seemed that every railwayman in the area once lived at Inglewood.
At Kurting a pair of steel silos were under construction. We took the staff at Glenalbyn on the run, just as it was beginning to get light. By Wedderburn Junction it was fairly light and for the first time I was able to look back and appreciate the length of the train. We arrived at Korong Vale around 05·30 just before sunrise. The trucks off the Bendigo goods were in No. 2 platform, while we ran into one of the long roads behind No. 1 platform. The diesels then cut off and ran back through the yard and onto a loaded train standing in the long neck at the far side of the yard. X28 was over the pit receiving attention after arriving from Bendigo. D3 621 was making up the 07·20 Wycheproof goods in No 2 platform road and just doing yard work.
The two B’s left again for Dunolly at about 06·15. At the same time D3 653 came out from loco for the 07·00 Bendigo train, which was the train I was intending to catch. X28 came out onto the 07·20 Wycheproof goods at about 06·50. Because of the length of the train (over 60 vehicles) it had been made up in No.2 platform and the adjoining road. The X pulled the trucks out of the adjoining road and dropped them onto the remainder in the platform road. The van was just in front of the level crossing at the up end of the station while X28 was up beside B box. (It is to my eternal regret that I didn’t go with X28 toward the cross with the Sea Lake motor, but it is all a bit too late now).
By 07·00 no guard had appeared for the Bendigo train, but I put my bag in the van just the same. At about 07·20, T322 arrived from Wycheproof. The guard stepped across from the Wycheproof van, surveyed the load sheet (19/431 tons), gave the ‘right away’ and we were off. The train would, I suppose, have been a fast goods since we didn’t pick up or set down any trucks along the way (the full load for the D3 was 480 tons in any case). We stopped at Inglewood for water and Bridgewater to cross D3 685 and to exchange guards. We then ran express to Bendigo passing D3 699 on the Freezers and Eaglehawk goods at the latter place.
The diary story abruptly ends at this point, but other records allow a simple ending to be compiled to allow the reader to return to where this story started from five days earlier. Maybe the return to ‘normal’ main line trains after the novelty of five days of travel to previously unknown places was sufficient to still the pen back in 1959.
D3 688 arrived at Bendigo on the up Swan Hill train while D3 670 and C4 were sighted there. The Swan Hill train was taken on to Melbourne by B83 with a built up load of 11/450 tons. Departure was 45 minutes late after having to attach yet another car to accommodate the passengers offering. X29 was refuged on an up goods at Kyneton while B61 was similarly refuged at Woodend. A2 874 and C1 were in Tottenham Yard as we came past, somewhat late, to end what was an amazing few days in northern Victoria.
A large amount of the rest of Victoria was yet to follow during the remaining currency of the all lines ticket but mostly as out and back day trips to the far corners of the then VR empire.
