Eureka Railway Line

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T367 shunting the oil company sidings at Eureka, taken from the site of the Free Trade Hotel, 25 August 1981. Photography: Ron Wood.
T367 shunting the oil company sidings at Eureka, taken from the site of the Free Trade Hotel 25 August 1981. Photography: Ron Wood.
T367 passes under the Victoria Street bridges with the Eureka Pilot, taken from the site of the Free Trade Hotel 25 August 1981. Photography: Ron Wood.
T367 shunting the oil company sidings at Eureka, 25 August 1981. Photography: Ron Wood.

On 12 September 1889 the Ballarat East to Buninyong railway line opened. The 7.5 miles of single track railway cost £8,795 per mile with a total cost of £65,958. [1] On 21 November 1904, the year of the Eureka Stockade 50th Anniversary, the Eureka siding was renamed Eureka. [2] The Eureka to Buninyong line closed on 28 February 1947.[3]


Trains that run short shunting trips from a station to a nearby siding and return are known as pilots. Depending on their destination, Ballarat had the following regular pilots:

Eureka Pilot – served the sidings at Eureka
Workshops Pilot – served the Ballarat North Workshops (may still run as required)
Cattleyards Pilot – served the saleyards at Delacombe
Redan Pilot – served the industrial sidings south of La Trobe Street at Delacombe. (VR called this area Redan for decades before it was officially named Delacombe.)[4]

Other Sites

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buninyong_railway_line

References

  1. http://www.victorianrailways.net/grades/buninyong/buninyong.html, accessed 09 October 2013
  2. http://www.victorianrailways.net/grades/buninyong/buninyong.html, accessed 09 October 2013
  3. http://www.victorianrailways.net/grades/buninyong/buninyong.html, accessed 09 October 2013
  4. Email from Ron Wood to Clare Gervasoni, 08 October 2013.