victorian railways

The Victorian Railways were the state owned and government run railway for the state of Victoria in Australia. The first railways in Victoria were private companies, but when these companies failed or defaulted, Victorian Railways was established to take over their operations. Victorian lines use 5' 3" gauge, with the exception of a few experimental narrow gauge lines, as well as some 4' 8½" freight & interstate lines. Victorian Railways grew to service all parts of the state, and became something of a political football with politicians demanding new lines to be built in places where traffic levels never justified it. Since the 1970s Victorian Railways has contracted, and many low use lines have been closed. For the latter days of the VR, it was known as VicRail, after a name change in 1974. Victorian Railways experimented with four short narrow gauge lines of 2' 6". By the 1960s, interstate traffic was suffering from the break of gauge at the New South Wales state border, and a parallel 4' 8½" line was build from the state capital, partly with Commonweath (national) funding. A bogies exchange depot was introduced to allow wagons to operate across the broad and standard gauge lines.

Victorian Railways

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See also