Yallourn Railway Line - History

History

The railway line was opened in January 1922 to transport briquettes from the briquette production operations at Yallourn to Melbourne, in addition to transport supplies to the power station located beside the coal mine. The line branched from the main line at Hernes Oak, initially with a staff locked set of points and a loop siding, being altered to include a crossing loop, siding, and signal box when traffic increased.

In later years outward traffic from the briquette works increased, and an electrification program for the Gippsland line was put into place as part of Operation Phoenix. A further complication was the 1 in 50 grades existed on the Gippsland line between Moe and Hernes Oak, so it was decided to rebuild the line to Yallourn along a new alignment. Work started in 1949 but was hampered by labour shortages, with the next 9.7 km long line on a 1 in 110 grade brought into service in September 1953. The electrification of the new line was not commissioned until September 1955, when the main line to Melbourne was complete. The old route via Hernes Oak was initially retained, with down empty to trains using it, with loaded trains using the new line to return to Melbourne. A new signal box at Yallourn marshalling yard was opened in December 1953, allowing two way operation on the new line, the old line falling into disuse but not removed until March 1957 when the SECV begun to expand the Yallourn open cut mine across the alignment. At the Hernes Oak end part of the former line was retained as a dead end siding.

Despite the expansion of the mine, briquette traffic begun to decline, with power generation at Yallourn growing in demand instead. Due to the decrease in railway traffic the signal box and interlocking at Yallourn was removed in May 1968, and in April 1974 the substation was taken out of use, overhead power being fed from Moe. In October 1978 electric trains were banned from the line, and in March 1979 work began on removing the overhead wiring. The line itself was closed in December 1986 which was, in effect, just a 'book date'.