Vintage Australian railway film - On time - 1953

This vintage Australian railway film, produced by the National Film Board 1953, details the control of passenger and goods trains through Flinders Street station in Melbourne, which at one time was claimed to have the largest one station traffic in the world.

[@Kizonia]

"No one ever seems to grow out of playing trains" Truer words have never been spoken.

[@edwardj.ximipa3125]

i loved how australian trains seems like a mix between american and british style trains. anyway, good short movie, bennett; thanks!

[@beeble2003]

In this film, they look mostly British, to me (as a British person).

[@simonf8902]

Note the Great Northern Railway somersault signals. Victoria was the only state to use these widely.

[@Noah-rq2ek]

Well, and there is a bit German in between there...

[@paulkidger]

A shot of a Walker articulated railcar, somewhere around 4 mins. Brilliant!!!

[@johnd8892]

At 4:10 , the then new 280hp Walker railcar. One of three Walker types used by the Victorian Railways then to keep costs down for the common lighter passenger loads on many lines. Warmly received by passengers at first.

[@mce_AU]

I must have seen this clip 10 or more times and I could watch it 10 times more. Thanks for sharing.

[@RailfanDownunder]

Superb 😊

[@stephenrice4554]

That's a grand little film

[@stuarthall6631]

Very watchable and entertaining ... even (or should I say, especially) from the U.K. Thank you for regularly putting up these real gems.

[@bluetraxdax2001]

This has the Coronation Scot theme at the beginning, where Spencer's theme from Season 7 of TTTE came from.

[@darylcheshire1618]

I remember in the mid '70s where people would line the platform edge with their case or bag next to them and they'd pick them up as the Tait or Harris train arrived. A train driver told a journalist he'd worry about the passengers hitting their heads on the passing train when they bent to pick up bags. Doesn't happen now. There is always a voice telling you to stand behind the yellow line. And there are only two or three doors. Other thing I'd remember is there was this man who would walk in the pit with a stick with a spike on the end picking up papers and putting it in a sack. There was a lot of rubbish in the pit in spite of signs saying do not throw rubbish onto tracks. (the signs are still there on the platform edge). Taits would be regularly attached and detached in the platforms, presumably this stopped when the Loop opened. One time an engineer or something crawled under a Tait to look at some fault, the other staff on the platform made sure the train didn't move. In the year before the Loop opened, it would take 30 minutes for trains to travel from Richmond to Flinders Street. They would stop at every signal for 3-5 minutes. This was widely reported in the newspapers. One day during such a stop, irate passengers alighted from trains in the yard and walked to the platforms and this was photographed and printed in the papers. In pre-Loop days, trains had to arrive and depart from the platforms and any delay had a multiplier effect. One day the VR chairman took his senior managers to the yard to show them passengers alighting from stalled trains in the yard. Employes* were on hand to show passengers where to walk. I cracked the joke that there should be a long platform from Richmond to Flinders Street so one can alight at any time. This improved when the Loop opened. *For many years the VR printed staff periodicals which spelt employees as "employes" until Labor transport minister Steve Crabb called them out on it.

[@smedleyfarnsworth263]

That is quite an exageration about the delays between Richmond and Flinders Street. It would also be a brave and foolish passenger who would get down and walk through the yard with all those trains running.

[@darylcheshire1618]

@@smedleyfarnsworth263 I have personally experienced the 30 minute time between Richmond an Flinders St. For a few days people would alight from the stalled trains and walk to the platforms. This action was widely reported in the newspapers. The trains were stalled. The next day officials wete guiding the passengers where to walk. It was really public disobedience.

[@smedleyfarnsworth263]

@@darylcheshire1618 If, I repeat, if that occurred it would be an extremely rare occurrence for passenger to walk through the yards. So I call BS on that as something regular. I have known of long delays to occur as a result of an incident but again it was not common like you are trying to portray.

[@darylcheshire1618]

@@smedleyfarnsworth263 Excuse me, I was there.

[@smedleyfarnsworth263]

@@darylcheshire1618 It was NOT a regular occurence as you are implying. You are wrong. Oh and it is my city as well.

[@johnd8892]

At 4:10 , the then new 280hp Walker railcar. One of three Walker types used by the Victorian Railways then to keep costs down for the common lighter passenger loads on many lines. Warmly received by passengers at first.

[@simonf8902]

Rail cars were widely used on the many branch lines that still existed in the 1950s.

[@johnd8892]

@@simonf8902 if track the closure dates very few were closed in the fifties. It was really the seventies and eighties that the closures happened, unlike the UK. Railcars were not often limited to branchlines but travelled all the way to Melbourne like the Wonthaggi example in this vid.

[@Thespiansewist]

I travelled in a run down NSW railway system that was criminally ignored by pollies of the time 1970s ending in catastrophic train crashes and many deaths

[@dieseldavetrains8988]

Great video, really enjoyed that, thank you. Tait sets and not a Harris set in sight, to come soon though!

[@johnclayden1670]

Luvved it! And Oakleigh - great little area - good coffee, Metaxa and a smoko! Life is perfect.

[@InnocentAbyssinianCat-eb7ge]

1953 is the year a senior shunter named Ronnie Francis who I worked with at jolimont yard in the late 80s and early 90s started working there in that year 1953

[@ianomeara3963]

Where has the grey dust coat gone?

[@simonf8902]

Australia was so modern even then ! Swing door carriages with clerestory roofs. Manual signalling. Pens and ink.