Thanks Noel.
I will check Murrumbeena & will see if the house is still standing.I wonder if you remember the mechanical signalling at Murrumbeena.The searchlight siganalling was commissioned in early 1941. You were lucky to see the rails still in situ on the Outer Circle Railway.Ther were still in situ 40 years after closure.THe track was lifted in 1941.In the 1920s,the Caulfield Council campaigned to try & get the line re-opened,but the railoways opened Hughesdale Station & that severed the line.
Unfortunately,I never rode the Glen Waverley line until 1961,thus missing the A.B.M car.However,I still remember the train running over the short rail lenghts between Darling & East Malvern<old track re-fettled in 1929?>.
Keith Kings lived in Ashburton & he rode the first train on the re-opening of the Alamein section.
Jeff
--- On Mon, 11/6/12, Noel Reed <noelreed10@...> wrote:
From: Noel Reed <noelreed10@...>
Subject: RE: [TramsDownUnder] Re: Erskine St Wharf
To:TramsDownUnder@...
Received: Monday, 11 June, 2012, 10:49 PM
Hello Jeff,
My grand parents (my mother's side) lived in Neerim Road , Murrumbeena quite close to the station and with the rear fence dividing their property from the VR railway easement.
On a pre WW2 holiday visit I walked east to Hughesdale and then north along the Outer Circle Railway. At that time, there were rusty weed covered rails still in situ. I think that my walk on that occasion could have been to about the site of Chadstone shopping centre (well in the future at that time).
In 1947 I travelled from Sydney to Melbourne with my mother by train, sitting up, eight to a compartment second class. After breakfast at the Albury " Rooms " , we travelled on the second division train (with red Buffet Car 'Wimmera"), all stations to Seymour then express to Melbourne . I counted down the miles by the blue enamelled fence mounted signs proclaiming " XX Miles to Griffiths Bros Teas", also the mileages on the large lineswide hoardings advertising "Dr Morse's Indian Root Pills" ( Are they still sold and what are they for ?)
During the stay at Murrumbeena, my aunt took us to lunch in the city at Griffiths Bros "Tea Rooms" This demonstrated to me that Griffiths Bros "Rooms" must have been at the precise zero point of mileages on the Victorian Railways.
On this holiday occasion I made many visits to Murrumbeena station and stood amazed at the signalling intricacies seen through the signal box door. I was later (illegally) invited in by the friendly elderly signal man and he showed me the features of the indicator diagram (which much later I obtained from a VR friend). I also learned the meaning of the lever colours and ultimately I was allowed to wind the gate wheel on several occasions.
On another day of the same holiday I photographed my first trams in Swanston Street .
Making a second visit to the Outer Circle railway, I noted that the rails had been removed northward from Hughesdale. At East Malvern I photographed a single electric ABM car arriving from Glen Waverley and then proceeded further north. After crossing Gardiners Creek, I continued walking and finally arrived at some freshly painted buffer stops which was the end of the line of the new railway extension from Ashburton to Alamein. When I had photographed the buffer stops, It was then mid afternoon and I didn't have the fare for a rail journey, so I retraced my steps back to Murrumbeena arriving back in time for tea.
So that was my introduction to sixtyfive years of railway signalling and my final exploration of the Outer Circle Railway.
Noel Reed.
PS. On another later occasion I travelled to Carnegie by tram and noted the single track at the end of the line.