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Visit to Australia in 2024 (page 3) (by Shane Conway)

Page last updated on 27 October 2024

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9th OCTOBER 2024

October 9th saw us relocating back to Port Melbourne once again. On this occasion we used the route 109 tram which links Box Hill with Port Melbourne, and it was tram 3031 this time. Route 109 is almost totally worked by the 3000 series C class, made by Alstom in France. In appearance they are a shorter version of the modern Dublin trams, and even have similar fleet numbering. One of the stops on this route is adjacent to Southbank tram depot, so after we settled in, I took a journey on 3013 back to Southbank to see what was about. Despite its location, Southbank does not operate the 109, being responsible for routes 12,30,35,58 and 96. It opened in February 1997, and on my visit there were several of the 1950s trams parked up, plus some more modern A and E class. With a few shots (all taken from outside the yard boundary) on the camera, I waited for a return route 109. This time it was number 261, which is one of the 26 A2 class trams allocated to Kew depot, which along with all 36 C class, operate the 48,78 and 109 services.

Taken from the pathway outide Southbank depot, E class 6059 is on the right, facing C2 class 5103. The C2 comprises just five trams, this one received its advert livery on October 1st 2024. Finally W class 946 can be seen in the background, we travelled on that tram on the 35 route a week earlier.

Also taken from the pathway outide Southbank depot, here we see C class 3021 on its way to Port Melbourne.

My transport back to Port Melbourne that evening was on 261, one of the 26 A2 class trams. Despite the fact that most 109s are worked by C class, I managed two trips on these as well, the other being 266 on October 16th.

10th OCTOBER 2024

The next journey on the 109 was on board 3004. The destination today was a visit to Melbourne Zoo, which involved leaving 3004 on Collins Street and getting on 6052 round the corner on William Street. Although initially I went to what I thought was William Street, it quickly dawned on me that there weren't any rails or overhead wires!! 6052 is one of 50 E class articulated trams based on the Bombardier Flexity Swift design and were built at Bombardier's plant in the Melbourne suburb of Dandenong. Suffice it to say that (as this is a transport related site) I had the opportunity to view native Australian animals which are unfamiliar to European eyes, before boarding tram 2011 on the 58 and then 3007 on the 109. 2011 (B class) is a double section version of the contemporary A class. 3007 was the 5th example of its type I had travelled on since arriving in Melbourne eight days earlier.

11th OCTOBER 2024

The terminus of the Belgrave line from Melbourne, with an interchange for local buses and the Puffing Billy heritage railway to Gembrook. The latter originally continued on from here to Upper Ferntree Gully, now part of the Metro Trains route.

Another of our pre-booked outings was pencilled in for Friday October 11th. Tram 3013 took us to Collins Street, followed by a short walk across the massive Southern Cross station complex to board another of the X'Trapolis twin sets (982M,1691T,981M with 183M,1392T,184M on a limited stop service to Belgrave. A short walk from the Metro station at Belgrave (one of the few single track stretches on the entire network) leads folk to the famous Puffing Billy steam service to Gembrook. This is a two foot six inch gauge heritage line, one of the oldest in the world. Loco 7A had charge of nine coaches, two of which were empty and being moved to the line's repair shops at Emerald. En route it crosses two timber trestle bridges, and passengers have the option of sitting on the window ledges of the coaches with their legs outside the vehicle. I chose to remain inside though!! Among other things, the line is quite familiar to Seekers fans, as it features in a youtube video of the group in 1966 and then Judith Durham solo in 1990. Gembrook is a total contrast to busy central Melbourne, offering a glimpse of rural small town Australia. Its cafes do a decent trade with the arrival of each train and its hungry passengers!!

Crossing the first wooden trestle bridge out of Belgrave, most of the passengers have already taken the outside seating option. Hopefully no-one's shoes fell off!!!

The other end of the line, in the small town of Gembrook. It is fifteen miles from here to Belgrave, and a further nineteen to Melbourne. Gembrook had a poulation of 2,559 in the 2021 census.

Our return from Belgrave to Port Melbourne was by the usual means, a six coach EMU (176M,1388T,175M and 966M,1683T,965M) to Southern Cross, followed by tram 3019 to Port Melbourne. It was at this point I noticed that, although the external destination reads 109 Port Melbourne, the on board announcement refers to the final stop as Beacon Cove. An early night was required, to prepare for an early start the following day.

12th OCTOBER 2024

Our second excursion away from Melbourne started at 06.30 in a shared Uber to Tullamarine on Saturday October 12th, for our rebooked Regional Express flight which had been transferred to Virgin Australia, as mentioned earlier. The flight, which took off 49 minutes late, used VH-YFK, a Boeing 737 named Long Beach. The arrival wasn't as bad, as it was just 38 minutes behind schedule at Adelaide. The 30 minute time difference between Melbourne and Adelaide reminded us to alter our phones and cameras to allow for this. We made our way to the bus park to await a shuttle bus (Toyota Hiace 1TS 5FD - a Melbourne reg plate) to bring us to the premises of Bargain Car Rentals. Eventually it turned up and we boarded, and after a wait for a missing passenger, we arrived at the car yard. Our allocated vehicle was a 2023 white coloured MG3, the very same model and colour we had hired on our 2022 trip to Yorkshire. However this car was an automatic, whereas the Leeds one had been a manual.

Settling into the driver's seat of S006 CUY, we set google maps to take us to Jamestown, some 135 miles north of Adelaide. Once out of the city we became accustomed to the wide straight roads with very little traffic. Welcome to rural Australia, not quite the outback, but close to it. We did see a couple of defunct railway lines en route, meandering across countryside to who knows where? This journey also provided sightings of the legendary road trains, thankfully heading in the opposite direction. On arrival in Jamestown (population 1,250) we found our accomodation, before meeting up with my cousin Kevin Conway and his wife, daughter and son-in-law who have been in the area for decades. The evening was taken up with a visit to Kevin's glass museum, with around 14,000 items in the collection, followed by a very relaxing home cooked dinner, and being educated in Australian rural self sufficiency. And seeing they had put up an Irish flag to mark our visit!!

13th OCTOBER 2024

One of the collections of classic vehicles seen in Jamestown, this being a variety of Ford cars and vans. The Transit seems to be a former ice cream van, while there's a pair of 105E Anglias and a 300E van also visible, among many others.

On the Sunday morning we did some exploration of the township, luckily finding a nice cafe open and serving breakfast. A brief walking and motoring tour of the town then followed, discovering that it has a rail line through it but no station, and a few collections of classic vehicles in yards on the edge of town, one being Ford based, another containing International trucks, and the third being a tractor collection. After this we checked out of our chalet and began the long drive back to Adelaide..... Knowing there was a tramway museum at Saint Kilda (the Adelaide one - there's another suburb of the same name near Melbourne), we set out to find it. Their website gave the opening hours as every Sunday, noon to 17.00. After a few hours drive through rural South Australia, our MG arrived at the museum entrance, around 14.00........But it was closed, gates firmly locked and nobody around..... A few miles journey then took us to our hotel for the night.

Our hired MG3 automatic, seen during a brief stop in Spalding for a change of drivers.

As we neared the freeway around Adelaide, I spotted this mighty machine at rest. These are similar to the ones I saw on the morning we arrived in Melbourne. Although I saw a couple of Roadtrains (with two trailers on tow) I wasn't able to get a photo of one.

One of Adelaide's 24 trams, 201 is the first of the batch built by Citadis in France. Again its visually similar to the sister vehicles in Dublin. This was one of six originally ordererd for a Metro line in Madrid, before the order was cancelled. They arrived in Australia through Port Melbourne.

Adelaide is a much smaller city than either of Melbourne or Sydney. Our hotel was directly opposite the impressive railway station which handles all the suburban trains. Built in 1856, the station was revamped in the late 1920s, and again in the mid 1980s. Up to 1984 it also catered for long distance services, but these largely ceased around that time. Like Melbourne and Sydney, Adelaide also has a tram service, but uses just 24 trams of two different types, on three routes. Most of the ones I saw had overall advert liveries, for a variety of customers. Most buses in the city are Scanias of various models, including bendi buses. After our long drive from Jamestown, we found a nice Italian restaurant and spent a couple of hours there before walking back to the hotel.

14th OCTOBER 2024

Busways South Australia 2712 is a 2002 MAN 18.280 with an ABM B47D body. Like all the local buses and trams we saw it looked very well presented, and certainly doesn't look 22 years old.

While waiting for the Adelaide tram, this mighty machine passed by. I am unsure what make it was.

Seen at the outer terminus of Grange, Adelaide Metro diesel 3116 (with 3115 at the back) awaits departure back to the city. Edith and the train driver seem to be having a deep conversation!!

Adelaide is known as the city of the churches, and while we were walking to see one of the cathedrals, we witnessed an incident which could have been very tragic. The driver of a bendi bus approaching a stop close to where we walking suddenly jammed on the brakes and blew the horn loudly. We looked behind us to see a pedestrian standing very close to the front of the bus. He was very lucky that he was still upright and able to walk away. Naturally the driver was shaken by the incident, but was able to continue on his journey. After a visit to the cathedral we boarded tram 110 (in the free tram zone), alighting at the stop for the railway station. Before leaving the city, we took a quick trip on a train as far as Grange, returning almost immmediately to the city centre. Two main types operate, 35 two car diesel sets and 34 three car electric sets. On the day in question we travelled on diesels 3115 and 3116. This was followed by returning the car to its owners, availing of their transfer to the airport, boarding Virgin's VH-VUW to Melbourne, then Skybus number 108 (BS 02 IT) to Southern Cross, ending the day's travel on a 109 tram, the number of which I omitted to record.

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