Vintage Victorian Railways footage from 1967.

[@jamescarmody6467]

Been on the Southern Aurora,sleeper Melbourne to Sydney,great memories.And we would get our Dad to drive us out at night to watch it at Broadmeadows with the neon lights on the back disappearing into the night, wish it was still around.

[@johnd8892]

The Southern Aurora is still around with many of the carriages kept running by rail preservation groups. Runs infrequently for special events like the 60 th anniversary of the train earlier this year. One of numerous vids on this on KZbin : kzbin.info/www/bejne/qpeXfXmGr6eNbaM Tickets sell out quickly despite very high prices. No taxpayer subsidies paying 80% of the operating costs.

[@johndoyle486]

The beautiful sounds coming from those locomotives, and the clacking sounds of the wheels on the tracks. Perfection.

[@HarrisTrains]

Really cool seeing the Harris trains before they were buried

[@damienmilk3025]

I have said it before and I will say it again, thanks for transporting me back to a time of happy memories as a kid living in a house backed onto the Lilydale line near the Mont Albert station.

[@greebo7857]

Lilydale AND Belgrave lines mate!

[@damienmilk3025]

@@greebo7857 Yep, I forgot, I haven't lived in Vic for 20 od years, but they split a Ringwood don't they?

[@paulgriffiths8359]

This fantastic, all the stuff my father and I would talk about, wish he was still here to show him Thank you so much for uploading and sharing with us all

[@3800TURBO]

Memories. I used to love sitting in the open doorways on hot summer days. I went all the way to Bendigo from Melbourne a few times just sitting in the doorway. Cool brease coming in. Conductor would clip my ticket and have a chat. I really miss the old days.

[@bodhi9464]

another great clip Gezz … so happy to have grown up with these trains and in these times …. 🙌🏽🇦🇺

[@greebo7857]

I remember being excited when the train from Princess Bridge to my home near Eaglemont was one of the then new blue Harris trains. It was even better when it was one of the newer ones we called walkthroughs, with the communication doors. In summer we'd have the sliding doors open. Nobody fell out! Funny, no other trains ever sounded like those blue ones. I am so glad to have found this channel full of memories of my youth. Thanks mate.

[@Gezza1967]

Cheers again Greebo, great to read.👍

[@Stephen-dc3og]

Seeing the "Southern Aurora" at Spencer Street brings back memories,from 1979 to 1986.

[@ianomeara3963]

Well done, when our railways moved everything.

[@johnd8892]

Thanks Gezza. I had overlooked the full version since ACMI choose such irrelevant thumbnails unlike your choice. They don't add anything to the title also which does not help when they swamp me with a dozen or so new releases. Good choice of highlights from the fifteen odd minute ACMI version. Your music choice adds to it also.

[@andrewgoldbergs4474]

Another good catch Gezza despite the poor sound syncro. Loved the S class" purring cat " on the Aurora..distinctively VR. .

[@leopoldonotarianni8663]

Brilliant. Absolutely fantastic. Thanks Gezza

[@gregbowen617]

Ahh, the old red an Harris blue trains and the Southern Aurora, I train I travelled on many times as a youngster...Great compilation!

[@cudgee7144]

At .20 at Flinders Street Station, not a slob to be seen in " Trackies ".

[@tubester4567]

I noticed that too. Everyone was well dressed in 1967, By about 1970 many people started looking like long haired hippies.

[@dieseldavetrains8988]

That was when we had a railway, Australian built suburban cars, and an all EMD main line fleet still in the hands of the government. More please...really enjoyed that.

[@johnd8892]

The full 16 minute VR film is worth a look too : kzbin.info/www/bejne/o2rMgXijr7Cejtk

[@MarkHenstridge]

This is one of the best that I have seen, cheers

[@robertedwards7695]

Great stuff. REALLY like the mixture of these wonderful creations. Thanking you Robbbert from Melbourne Australia .😊.I will be storing tbis vid for future viewing.❤.

[@Gezza1967]

1967 Vintage Victorian Railways Footage. The excerpt is from the ‘Going Our Way’ documentary that was produced by the VR commissioners and filming done by the Crawford Productions. Documentary sourced from the ACMI collection and the 2022 editing done by this KZbin channel.

[@danrobinson572]

Awesome 👏

[@Java_Bean_Studios]

Does the raw footage exist?

[@Gezza1967]

@@Java_Bean_Studios yes the ACMI channel.👍

[@Gezza1967]

@@danrobinson572 cheers👍

[@danrobinson572]

Happy Australian day

[@neilmansfield8329]

This is great, any more

[@ayrsen123]

I started working for them a few short years after this.. Very surprised to see a boom at 01:36 . All I remember is the old gates which were either operated automatically by the guy in the signal box or manually, where the guy had to come out and open and shut them by hand. One gate at a time lol

[@johnd8892]

Get the impression that the railways were only wanting to show the latest and greatest in this. So no gated level crossings, red Tait suburban or red swing door trains, no Z four and six wheel guards vans and no 1800s era older station buildings. No semaphore signals or the lever frame signal boxes and staff. All widespread in 1967 and for near another twenty years but not filmed. Bet they would have preferred to have no E and W series red wooden country passenger carriages in it either, but you would be waiting a long time for a country pass train without them. Probably a few more things they avoided too.

[@cudgee7144]

I was a kid in the early sixties when the old hand gates were replaced at Ormond Station on North Road. Then saw them replaced with the line going under North Road in 2015. So i have seen all 3. But there were boom gates well before 1967.👍

[@ayrsen123]

@@cudgee7144 I grew up in the Western Suburbs. We still had the old gates in the 70's lol

[@cudgee7144]

@@ayrsen123 Yes mate, we still had them here. There were hand operated gates at Neerim Road Carnegie untill the 1980's. And at the end of New Street Brighton untill the 90's. 😀🤚🤣

[@ayrsen123]

@@cudgee7144 Yeah I think New St was just about the last to go?? I think they got cleaned up by a train or something like that??

[@geoffhuggins3201]

Trained it both to school & to work back in the 50's & 60's

[@InnocentAbyssinianCat-eb7ge]

I love old trains cars buildings anything old this footage was taken the year before I was born as I was still just a tadpole back then

[@swishswish386]

Great complication Gezza … And some beautiful old loco’s amongst that footage too👍👍

[@johnd8892]

Full vid worth a look too : kzbin.info/www/bejne/o2rMgXijr7Cejtk

[@swishswish386]

@@johnd8892 thanks 👍

[@derek5168]

In your minds eye 👁 or memory from your my earliest memories it's just so fantastic that someone had the foresight to film this brings it back more clearly thanks gezza

[@PharaohDeathMask]

Here is a story that might interest somebody. If not, then I apologise for putting it here. (I don't post on message boards - don't know how!) I worked at the Newport Railway workshops from 1966 until 1974. From 1970 to 1974 I was one of a handful of people who were on permanent afternoon shift. The afternoon shift hours (3pm to 11pm) suited me and also meant that I was paid 15% extra as a “Shift Allowance.” One afternoon, I was working in the “West Block” part of the workshops, possibly on number 5 Road or number 6 Road. I was on the roof of a wagon and doing some repair work, when I spotted something on a heavy steel beam that supported the building’s roof. A close inspection revealed that chiseled into the steel, about 15 feet above the workshop floor, in letters that were between four and six inches in height was ‘N CLARK Killed by shark” and a date, which the internet tells me would have been 15-2-30. The letters and numbers were crude and uneven in size, but I was impressed by the effort that this writing would have taken using a hammer and cold chisel. The next day, at the start of my shift I spoke to a tradesman who was near to retiring age, (he was a particularly switched on old guy) and I told him of the writing carved into the beam. He told me that Norm Clark was at the Brighton pier, and despite warnings of a shark being in the area, had jumped from the pier into the water. As he had jumped, he screamed, because he saw the shark in the water below him. He virtually jumped into the shark’s mouth and was taken by the shark. His body was never recovered. Norm had some mates who had carved his name into the steel beam as a tribute to his memory. I cannot remember whether or not Norm Clark worked at the railway workshops. I have never told anybody else about the chiseled memorial, and thought that this may interest somebody. In 8 year it will be a century since this tragedy occurred. I recently found a blog about this tragedy, which can be found at: passingparade-2009.blogspot.com/2011/11/brighton-shark-attack-of-1930.html

[@Gezza1967]

Thanks for sharing👍

[@johnd8892]

Interesting story. The Public Record Office of Victoria has records of the names of historic records of Victorian Railways employees. I will pass on the N Clark story to someone who knows their way around the PROV record system to see if they can find out more.

[@PharaohDeathMask]

@@johnd8892 Yes, it would be interesting to know if Norman Clark was a Railway employee.

[@LeopoldoNotarianni-rk9vv]

Excellent work there my friend

[@denisovanhybrid9610]

Fantastic, thank you 🙏

[@SheltonDCruz]

Thanks for sharing!!

[@danrobinson572]

Very interesting video!

[@brendanengland8385]

Nice again.. classic footage.maybe Victoria railway in its prime.

[@PharaohDeathMask]

Great video. Thanks for posting it.

[@samuelanketell8190]

Cool footage mate 👌

[@clayton4115]

Incredible footage ! looks like Sunshine at 00:45

[@darylcheshire1618]

There was a lot of pride in the VR, I think it was 36 AE which was claimed to be “the first air conditioned carriage in the British Empire”, Also General Motors wasn’t sure about building a double ended bull nose EMD locomotive so the CME visited GM in Detroit and convinced them to build 25 B class locomotives. The VR also ran the Mt Buffalo Chalet where Edmondson tickets were issued for various hotel facilities like swimming pool or ski hire etc. I actually have one as a souvenir. What amazed me at the Chalet was to see the windows have a typical signal box balcony, presumably for window cleaning.

[@jamesgovett2501]

The only thing is GM in Detroit didn’t build the double ended B class or any other GM locomotive for that matter used by the Victorian Railways they were all built by Clyde Engineering in NSW under licence and the B and S classes were built with a coco 3 powered axle and were longer and lower than the 2 axle bo bo designs of the US streamliners that double ended design was a requirement of the VR for efficiency as to not use turntables or lack of them at destinations

[@darylcheshire1618]

@@jamesgovett2501 You are correct, built by Clyde, I’m not sure if they were a GM subsidiary or just a contractor?

[@johnd8892]

Clyde built them and numerous other locomotives under licence from GM EMD using lots of standard EMD parts. Noteworthy was the streamlined noses were built in the USA by EMD but narrowed here to fit Australias more restrictive loading gauge of height and width. The three axle all wheels powered bogie was reluctantly developed first for VR only but EMD soon saw the sense of it and since the early fifties almost all high power GM locomotives have used variations of it. A much better idea than their previous design with an unpowered centre axle that they wanted us to use. We knew the value of all axles powered from our suburban electric passenger and goods locomotives.

[@johnd8892]

The full vid here : kzbin.info/www/bejne/o2rMgXijr7Cejtk

[@alanriley9754]

The golden years when publicly owned. Service not for profit.

[@brendanengland8385]

Another rippa.. thanks buddy

[@jessesands4099]

Fantastic Images Of A Bygone Era Of The Victorian Railways From 1967 Brilliant Stuff!☺🚉🚆🛤🇦🇺

[@bull716]

A proud time for vic rail ✌️

[@andyrob3259]

The mighty VR. Much preferred the blue and gold - imo more classy and unique. Not the silly branding these days using ‘hip’ colours that date and have to be changed every 6 years or so. Could just imagine a modern Vlocity with the B & G and VR wings on the front below the drivers window.

[@sammy_dog]

hell YES I would love to see that even if it was just a one of I do miss the old VR days

[@andyrob3259]

@@sammy_dog I reckon it would look hot ( so to speak) in that colour and with those aggressive wings on the front stating ' I'm taking you and we're going fast'

[@sammy_dog]

@@andyrob3259 ALL A BOARD train now departing platform 6

[@samuelanketell8190]

Oh don't worry you'll see it one day with rail heritage society's starting to paint locomotives in VR livery that never carried it once rebuilt from a B class into A class locomotives, and you can also expect to see an N class locomotive in VR blue and yellow since their addicted to that livery and despise The Vline orange and grey.

[@gusman37]

Just Wow 👏

[@marknapier8426]

As a kid we use to catch the RED RATTLER from Traralgon to Flinders st pulled by these beasts of a locomotive...great memories in simpler times🤗

[@johnd8892]

If you were traveling to and from Traralgon between 1956 and 1987 it would likely be one of these electric L class locomotives not shown in this vid but covered here : kzbin.info/www/bejne/m5qZp4ePbbJjd7M More powerful than all these diesels. Do you recall these L class locos?

[@3800TURBO]

@@johnd8892 I had no idea that they had wires all the way to Traralgon! I was a 70s kid and by time I was daily on them most were diesel and no wires. I've been to Traralgon many times by train and had no idea they previously had elec. Fascinating.

[@doctorbohr1585]

3:29 that's a cool tracking shot

[@Aussiedave54]

A better time to be living 🇦🇺

[@Zonda1996]

anybody know what station the aurora was going past at 3:40?

[@nkelly.9]

Great stuff again Gezza. I rode lots of those trains. They even had great names. The Spirit of Progress, The Vinelander, The Southern Aurora, The Intercapital Daylight Express, The Overlander. Demonstrates just how much the neo liberals have systematically dismantled in this country. One thing I want to find out is : where did the beautiful model of the B Class locomotive that was placed near the main entrance to Spencer Street Station end up? On its plinth it was 5ft high. Where is it now? Anyone else remember it?

[@andyrob3259]

You missed The Gippslander. To Bairnsdale. Remember riding it a few times.

[@PharaohDeathMask]

Just a small correction: The train that ran between Melbourne and Adelaide was called The Overland (not Overlander). I also wonder what happened to the B class model that was in Spencer Street Station. There was a plaque that attributed construction of the model to Railway Apprentices. In 1966 or 67, apprentices from my year constructed a model of a GJX bulk wheat hopper. This was much smaller in size that the B class which was shown at Spencer St Station.

[@nkelly.9]

@@andyrob3259 Didn't ride that one, neo liberal jeff shut it down, like The Vinelander

[@nkelly.9]

@@PharaohDeathMask Thanks Pharaoh, I sit corrected. Where is the model you guys built?

[@PharaohDeathMask]

@@nkelly.9 I think that the model of the GJX bulk wheat hopper was displayed for a while at Spencer Street station along with a model of the first series of "X" class diesel. This would have been in 1967 or "68. The "X" class model was the same scale as the GJX bulk wheat hopper, which is to say it was about 1.5 metres in length. These models were nowhere near as impressive as the very large model of the "B" class diesel. I have no knowledge of the fate of any of these models.

[@Melbournelost66]

I waa one year old.

[@Tony_P]

HERALD! 😊

[@RichardFelstead1949]

In 1967 I was working at Crawford Productions. I don't recall this film but I do recall a VR film that Crawfords made about recruitment. It starred ,then 3GL announcer, Barry Casey.I've chatted to Barry on Facebook and he's love to get a copy of the film in which he starred. Do you have a copy of same?

[@johnd8892]

Looks like you may have found this by now : kzbin.info/www/bejne/o2rMgXijr7Cejtk So did Barry Casey have any comments after seeing it?

[@nhilltiger]

thanks Gezza. My guess is that notwithstanding the footage of shiny B class locos, Southern Aurora and Harris suburban trains, in 1967 the Victorian Railways must have been at a low point in its history (perhaps the need to produce a jazzy newsreel). Underfunded, overstaffed, with aging rolling stock, poor morale and unloved by the Bolte government

[@nkelly.9]

Underfunded and unloved by bolte covers it.

[@mebeasensei]

1978 was the low point I think. Country lines closed en masse. Proposed massive cuts for suburban network too. Labor has been kind to trains and density. Liberals kind to roads and sprawl.

[@andyrob3259]

@@mebeasensei yet many chose sprawl over living in apartments. But some how you think it’s the fault of governments people not wanting to live in medium and high density. No: people want room for their kids not growing up on the 5th floor of a small apartment (and I say that as someone that lives in an apartment). They get 2 or more kids and they want room and a garden and they are off out.

[@junctionroadparklandsvlog5035]

Were they trying to avoid filming the red rattlers ?

[@johnd8892]

Yes. And avoided filming the red wooden Z class four and six wheeled guards vans on goods trains. Eg at 1:50 a train of four wheel goods wagons in the suburbs level crossing under the overhead train wiring then the end shot is the latest aluminium bogie wheat hopper with a near new bogie guards van.

[@darylcheshire1618]

Bring back the blue and gold VR

[@timhinchcliffe5372]

Wow, 😏, the "VR" logo looks like it was drawn by a kid... makes my state's "QR" logo look like a masterpiece.

[@JBofBrisbane]

Art deco - it was based on the Virginian Railroad's "VGR" logo. The rest of the livery was a straight take from the Erie Railroad, substituting Royal Blue for the Erie's black.

[@timhinchcliffe5372]

@@JBofBrisbane Art Deco hey? Well let me show my jazz hands... 🙌

[@robweckert5689]

Mmm!? Where's all of the horrible graffiti?

[@zdravkoleski2375]

Cool video vintage!