Historical information
Kids of all ages enjoy the Miniature Railway.
Published: Nillumbik Now and Then / Marguerite Marshall 2008; photographs Alan King with Marguerite Marshall.; p163
On Sundays in Eltham thousands of children, mums, dads and grandparents can be seen travelling around Lower Eltham Park in tiny trains.
They are among the two and half million passengers who have travelled on the Diamond Valley Railway since it officially began in 1961. The miniature railway originally operated from the 1940s at Chelsworth Park, Ivanhoe, until flooding caused it to be moved to the Eltham Lower Park in 1959. The railway is modelled on the 1920s era – the heyday of passenger rail travel – and the trains are built on a scale of two inches to the foot (1/6).
Although not exact replicas, trains include models of the Spirit of Progress, Puffing Billy, The Overland, Dog Boxes, Vic Rail S class, G class and a NSW 81 Class.
The three and a half kilometres of track is set amongst native plants and picnic areas. A friendly hoot or the clang of a bell occasionally punctuates the tranquillity as a train emerges from a treed bend with passengers excitedly waving to onlookers.
For $3 the train takes you on a 13-minute two-kilometre ride. Passengers sit in single file in the narrow train, which clatters along tracks built to the scale of the Australian narrow gauge of three feet six inches (1.1m). These are used in Queensland, South Australia, Tasmania and Western Australia.
Safety standards are stringently kept. Even before you buy a ticket notices tell you that you must wear closed shoes. You can even borrow these, and you are given a pair of socks for the ride!
Blue-overalled volunteers check tickets, see you aboard, and drive the train. They are mainly retired men who can at last devote their time to what little boys dream of – playing with trains.
Passengers are instructed in safe behaviour, then the station master waves a white flag and off we go. The guard sits at the back with his whistle and green flag at the ready.
The winding track, fringed by native trees and bushes planted by volunteers, stands on crown land managed by Nillumbik Council. The train clatters along the track and crosses a bridge over a drain elevated by name to The Blow Fly Creek. We pass by Meadmore Junction at a speed of three kilometres an hour. Then on through a tunnel, accompanied by squeals of delight, and after a few moments of blackness, light glimmers at the end. On we go, past the original platform, along another route past busy Main Road through Pine Creek Station, over a bridge and through another tunnel with more screams of delight.Then a signal stops us before the ‘all clear’ to return to our original point of departure.
The railway services its passengers – the largest number of any miniature railway in Australia – with a fleet including: six diesel locomotives, three steam locomotives, eight sets of passenger cars and one battery electric Dog Box set. Members also privately own 20 locomotives and powered carriage sets as well as four carriage sets.1 All the trains are stored on-site in workshops, sheds and a tunnel.
The railway is entirely run by volunteers, so that all ticket money is used for maintenance and extensions, and some goes to local charities. Since 1991, the entire railway has been rebuilt, including an upgraded signalling system.
About half of the 120 volunteer members are active with about 35 working each Sunday, and a dozen or so working every Wednesday. Members are trained to positions of station assistant, booking officer, train guard, train driver or signalman. Members construct new carriages and locomotives as well as maintaining track, signalling and rolling stock.
Significance
This collection of almost 130 photos about places and people within the Shire of Nillumbik, an urban and rural municipality in Melbourne's north, contributes to an understanding of the history of the Shire. Published in 2008 immediately prior to the Black Saturday bushfires of February 7, 2009, it documents sites that were impacted, and in some cases destroyed by the fires. It includes photographs taken especially for the publication, creating a unique time capsule representing the Shire in the early 21st century. It remains the most recent comprehenesive publication devoted to the Shire's history connecting local residents to the past.
Physical description
Born digital image file
