The Old Finsbury Railway Line

[@BISAC]

Spent my entire youth around this line. Pinball in the old Finsbury Post Office, pushbikes on the stations, cubby hoses at the Cheltenham Racecourse, switching the points and sending the redhens onto the Kelvinator spur, banging the track with a hammer and setting off the crossing signals on Torrens Road, putting 2 and 1 cent coins on top of each other and letting the train squash them together good old childhood fun. My main curiosity was what was in the air raid shelter by the Finsbury Station. Found out in my late teens, but that is another story

[@Outdoorstype]

Love this.

[@beachbum433]

Me again, a new kid on the block! Another gem, mate. Well done!!! I "grew up" (NEVER!) in the Woodville area & we used to hang out in Finsbury in the 1950s. I remember the guard house or blockhouse near Torrens Road, and the big, empty, open, concreted tanks sunk into the ground at various points. We figured they must've been water storages in case of fire in any of the factories. We called them "batteries" for some obscure reason...🤔

[@BushTerrors]

We owned a place for 12 years that was built on the location of part of the former Actil station.

[@neilgrant873]

The Woodville North station had an impressive platform and multiple entry gates leading to it - I imagine for the lines of workers boarding or exiting the train during and immediately after the war years. I know that because as a 12 year old I use to ride my brand new malvern star Dragstar bike with my Woodville Hockey Club mates up the ramp onto the gravel platform and speed along the platform sliding between the light poles. This was in 1973 and the station was long closed by then although the infrequent week day Red Hen single car service from Woodville station was still operating and travelled along Audley Street as far as Park Avenue in afternoons. The Holdens station was no longer operating by then but the Holden factory at Woodville itself had this large unused bike park hanging lot just adjacent to the station which will had an operating air-line running around the perimeter with connections to inflate bike tyres. There must have been bike riding Holden workers in their many hundreds who took the train to work in the 40s, 50s and 60s to fill a bike facility of that size. I also remember that around that time there was an unused rail corridor from a spur line extending from Albert Park station crossing over from what is now West Lakes Blvd (previously Clark Tce) going into the SABCO factory on Botting Street. Yet another remnant from WW2 no doubt but it was a great place for kids to hang out and do mischief on a weekend afternoon ;-)

[@Outdoorstype]

Awesome memories! Thanks for the tip on the Albert Park siding. I'll be tracing that short line soon.

[@neilgrant873]

@@Outdoorstype Cheers. Progress demands that we continue to re-develop and make best use of our land. But it's equally important that we document our history of what existed before it is lost forever. Thank you again for your work in doing this.

[@Outdoorstype]

@@neilgrant873 I have similar memories of riding BMX's around Sydney, but those childhood wild lands have been replaced by the western motorway.

[@BISAC]

Hi Neil long time no see. Spent my entire youth around this line. Pinball in the old Finsbury Post Office, pushbikes on the stations, cubby hoses at the Cheltenham Racecourse, switching the points and sending the redhens onto the Kelvinator spur, banging the track with a hammer and setting off the crossing signals on Torrens Road, putting 2 and 1 cent coins on top of each other and letting the train squash them together good old childhood fun. My main curiosity was what was in the air raid shelter by the Finsbury Station. Found out in my late teens, but that is another story

[@markaylott1780]

Very informative, thank you 🙂👍

[@Outdoorstype]

Thanks for watching and commenting.

[@BlackDrac82]

I used to look over my parents street directories to look at where all the rail lines went. They had an older one from the 70s (I was born in 82) that I found, and interestingly I distinctly remember this line and its stations were still marked on there but Willunga was already marked as disused.

[@Outdoorstype]

I used to scour the old UBD in the car while I was bored too!

[@omalleetours3456]

So many familiar places in this video. I learned something today. Well done. Another great production!

[@Outdoorstype]

Thanks, OMallee!

[@jeremykemp5845]

Nicely put together. As mentioned by someone else, good job in getting the old pictures & find the same location years later! Love the before & after effect.

[@Outdoorstype]

Thank you, Jeremy. I'm getting better at photo matching and will keep practising.

[@honeykanakkary]

Wow... that's a great video and great to see the roads and scenes which is my daily travelling route as I live very close to this old line.. I heard about Finsbury line and seen some old photographs before.. A part of line ? is still visible on the road 03:06 just after the mosque.. One of my cars sat nav is still showing this railway route. The video is perfectly matching with the old photographs.. Mike, thank you very very much for this wonderful video..

[@glenn9229]

great matching of locations to old photos. It's certainly a fascinating area to learn a bit more about what went on there, especially during the war

[@Outdoorstype]

Thanks for watching! I learn so much from my research that sometimes it's hard just staying focused on the railway. There's so much history in the area yet so little railway history on this line.

[@AlonsoRules]

if you drive up Torrens Road there are some stobie poles that are much taller than the rest - that is where the line was

[@gingermegs138]

500 Class Diesiel Weed spray Train was the last train in 1978 to use this line.

[@maxhobby1701]

Only mixed guage diamond rail tram crossing in SA that I new off

[@Outdoorstype]

Maybe I'll try to find another one to surprise you. ;)

[@maxhobby1701]

@Outdoorstype there's many in Melbourne some already obsolete

[@maxhobby1701]

@@Outdoorstype some ingenious ways at Melbourne tram and rail crossings on how the power of two voltages was turned on and off.

[@maxhobby1701]

Melbourne trams ran on 600 /700 volts Dorect current Melbourne Trains run on 1500 volts direct current each current had to be switched off to allow trams or trains to cross the level crossing

[@maxhobby1701]

In the case of Torrens Road tram rail crossing The overhead tram power line was isolated either side of the crossing the power was switched off. As I beleive rail had priority over trams to cross the rail line.