More Christchurch Brill 11 and St Kilda train station and light rail

Greg,

I can't see the roller bearings looking at the truck.

I was the one that put the original proposal for the conversion of the

Kilda and Port Melbourne train lines to light rail. I did that with
Melbourne City Councillor Ivan Powell as Secretary of the Tram & Bus
Travellers Association. It was done as a counter proposal to offset the
Lonie Report's call to close both rail lines because they had an
inadequate
passenger catchment area.

I remember getting a costing of $200,000 per kilometre to change gauge
from
5'3" to 4'8.5" from the Chief Engineer of the M&MTB. The idea was, of
course, you increased the passenger catchment area by increasing the
number
of stops and thus the number of people within, say, a five minute

distance of a rail service.

My original proposal called for them to run the tram tracks off the end
of
the rail line up Grey Street, right on Barkly etc etc which would really
increased passenger catchment for the line. I didn't want them to go

Acland Street because there is already a tram congestion problem on that
street South of Carlisle Street. I also wanted them to continue using

old rail bridge across the Yarra and terminate at a regauged and

Platform 9, with an optional connection at Clarendon Street so some

could do what they all do now. Once again I wanted to keep the Private
Right
of Way Intact to keep the vagaries of motor car congestion from
g
running times.

We won on saving rail but lost on the rail bridge which, was somewhat
later,
also supposed to provide a vintage tram shuttle to the proposed Museum

Southbank and later to the Casino which we knew was going to be a huge
traffic generator.

Back to St Kilda Station, the old stretch of rail track which remained

the old disused platform actually had a ret rattler on it until about

years ago. It was a driving unit and was going to be used as a cafe or
extension to a cafe in the Station. Someone didn't pull it together and
so
they built a cyclone fence around it to protect it which, of course,
didn't
work. The poor car got vandalised. I was living in St Kilda at the time
(for
5 years) and tried to get it saved but by then it was too far gone. When
it
came time to redevelop, they hauled the old car away on a truck.
By the way, the last bit of the old 5'3" gauge Victorian Railways tram
track
was at the north end of the parking lot on the west side of the station,
where the buses used to turn around while the station was still for
trains.
There was a sloping footpath down to the street where the squash courts
were
(now yuppie filing cabinets). To the right of that the tram rail was
still
in the ground only an inch below the surface for at least 20' from the
end
of the parking lot.

It was an interesting spot before the SLOPS moved in big time. It's

going to end. I pulled stumps 2 years ago and moved from Park Street, St
Kilda up to my land near Guildford. The Kennett Government and their
tollway
E-tags were the last straw.

If you're interested, remind me to tell you of the Federal road money
which
was available for the Tullamarine Freeway Extension to Footscray Road
which
got put on hold by the Victorian Government because they wanted it spent
on
access roads for the Olympic Village when they got the next Olympics for
Melbourne. :)

Bob Murphy

----- Original Message -----
From: "Greg King" <[email protected]>
To: <[email protected]>
Sent: Friday, August 24, 2001 11:08 PM
Subject: Re: [TramsDownUnder] More Christchurch Brill 11

Hi Bob,

That care has a very robust Brussels Brill 21E (note roller bearings),

they

also have air brakes.

Some news from here. When the St Kilda Rail line was converted to LRT

back

in 87, the rail station (plus platform, trainshed and the single track

under

it) was bypassed by the LRT that ran through what had been the yard

train storage. Anyway, over the years the station fell into disrepair

but
a

recent redevelopment has seen it incorporated into a new shopping and
resturant complex whith the building and train shed preserved, where

the

tracks were, a steel framework was built in the area and the whole

area is

being made level, the interesting thing is, the foundations are built

on
the

old tracks which are still in place, in years to come when some
archaeologist digs the place up, they'll wonder what those rusty

lengths
of

steel are!

Greg

Does that Brill have air-brakes? The handbrake wheel seems mighty

close
to

the controller.

That truck is a busy looking thing from the side. Were they sound,
structurally?

Nice shots.

Bob Murphy

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