Electric Comeng trains Warragul Drouin Gippsland line

[tribble921]

Why did they de-electrify the line?

[reidgck]

@tribble921 The line was originally electrified, mainly for the coal and briguette traffic from the latrobe valley to supply Melbourne and the Newport power station. Both use gas now & the 25 well used electric locomotives were not replaced. With deregulation and privatisation, other freight went to road too and the overhead which could have been left in place at least to Warragul for future use, was pulled down and sold off for profit for a few as was lots of essential government infrastructure

[CAD390]

By the way, from what I recall, there were still many electric suburban trains that terminated at Pakenham even when they went as far as Warragul. Does anyone know how many suburban services there were daily beyond Pakenham?

This was proably the only surban line in Victorian history of electrified rail to have level crossings without boom gates?!

[CAD390]

Probably one day they may have to rebuild the catenary between Pakenham and Warragul as suburban sprawl is heading there and probably will be as far as Warragul by the time I'm an old man

[reidgck]

@CAD390 -- You will surely never be an old man if you stay young of heart. Wisdom comes with age. Seems as if you have acquired much ahead of time. You are surely right about the sprawl and future requirements. Boom gates have only been in - I surpose about 20 or 30 years. Usually it was hand operated railway gates. There were originally open crossings on the Dandenong line beyond Clayton and other lines too. There were at least 3 services to Warragul daily. A Comeng stabled there over night.

[Stardust052]

I used to catch the electric train home from school from Waragul to Bunyip in the early 90's. Great memories there, Thanks for that.

[reidgck]

@Stardust052 The scenes of electric trains in the area have become merely memories now. It's hard to realise electric trains ever ran to Warragul now. It would surely have been of common sense (which has become uncommon), to at least have left certain infrastructure in place for the future. The same infrastructure still operates OK west of Pakenham. There were obviously big short term economic rationalism bucks in it for a few at the time at Victoria's ultimate loss.

[Stardust052]

I used to catch the electric train home from Waragul to Bunyip in the early 90's. Great memories there, Thanks for that.

[Effluvium4]

WOW i remember these trains!!!

i was only about 5 or 6 when they got rid of them

i was born and raised in warragul lol

and i have an undying love for trains...always wanted to drive a train, or even just take a ride in the cockpit

[shanep753]

Great video. Thanks for sharing. I can remember the Warragul train in 1978 from Caulfield at about 3.30 and it would be a rake of bpl cars.

[reidgck]

@shanep753 - They were the days! There's more about it at - tripple w nex.net.au/~reidgck/l-class.ht­m

[emdB67]

Spent many hours on the platform at Warragul in the 90s and early 00s videoing Comeng and Hitachi sets, not to mention log trains, the paper train and N class.

Need to make time to digitise them all and upload some. :)

[reidgck]

@emdB67 - It'd be great to be able to see them..

[NR54trailerail]

Nice video, its a shame they de-electrified the line.

[reidgck]

@NR54trailerail Yes it is a shame; the copper and steel would have been worth a lot more to the taxpayers if they had waited longer.