Geelong–Ballarat railway line
| Geelong – Ballarat | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Overview | |||
| Type | V/Line passenger service | ||
| System | freight | ||
| Former connections | Lal Lal racecourse branch | ||
| Operation | |||
| Commenced | 10 April 1858 | ||
| Opened | 1862 | ||
| Number of tracks | Single track, crossing loops | ||
|
|||
The Geelong–Ballarat railway line is a broad-gauge railway in western Victoria, Australia between the cities of Geelong and Ballarat. Towns on the route include Bannockburn, Lethbridge, Meredith, Elaine and Lal Lal. Major traffic includes general freight from the Mildura line, and grain.
After the railway from Melbourne to Geelong was opened in 1857, agitation soon started in Ballarat for a railway link to serve the rapidly growing gold mining area.
The prospectus for the £1,000,000 "Geelong, Ballaarat [sic] and North Western Railway Company" was advertised in January 1854 with the Francis Bell as the engineer. Bell surveyed and designed the line, and lithographed plans were made available with the prospectus. Because private railway companies were unable to raise the necessary capital in London, the Victorian colonial government took over the construction of trunk railway lines to Ballarat and Bendigo. Bell's plans were used as the basis for the current railway alignment by the engineer-in-chief of the Victorian Railways, George Darbyshire.
Construction work on the Geelong – Ballarat railway began in 1858 under the supervision of the Victorian Railways engineer Robert Watson, and the official opening occurred on 10 April 1862. The line was built to a high standard, with double track provided throughout, bluestone station buildings at all of the initial stations, a number of bluestone bridges for roads that crossed the line, and the substantial 1,450-foot (440 m) Moorabool Viaduct over the river of the same name. The line remained the only rail route from Ballarat to Melbourne until 1889, when the Melbourne to Ballarat was opened.
...
Wikipedia