Review of Mornington Railways Well, what did we expect? We’d caught a period in between lockdowns and the Peninsula was there to be explored. It was mid-week and we’d enjoyed half-a-day in Dromana before heading north with the Regional Gallery and the Mornington Railway in Mornington on our bucket list for that afternoon. Sure, the trains would not be running – it’s a difficult time for keeping to schedules with Covid-19 off-the-leash in NSW and over-the-border issues of exposure sites and more in Victoria. We had thought, however, to capture the images of the railway from the stations, perhaps along the line and, crucially, take in any marshalling yards that may be accessible. It didn’t quite work out as expected. The gallery was easy - there was a friendly custodian at the desk who invited us into what was a spectacularly new building with a raft of pictures to explore. The modern town station used by the Preservation Society railway was little more than a kilometre from the gallery, but there was little to see – a platform with empty rail lines stretching towards Moorooduc Station which, we subsequently learned, is the main operational centre for the heritage railway. This is about 10 km out-of-town. The original town station had been in the centre of Mornington and had survived for just on 100 years before closing with the demise of rural rail across the state during the latter part of the 20th century – transport networks that were unable to sustain competition from modern roads, trucking and personal car ownership. The local rail line was closed in 1981 and the central town station and its rail hub immediately became prime commercial building land. Buses replaced the trains – much to the dismay of the travelling public and notwithstanding their naivety/limited vision/nostalgia for times passed. According to contemporary reporting, the Railway Preservation Society was established three years after the demise of the public railway and, by 1991, had a functioning heritage line; providing fun runs at weekends and during school holidays. Development of the original station and central town rail yard resulted in a new shopping complex, service roads, paving and urban gentrification that completely obliterated the 19th historical railway images that once were. Fortuitously, you can still catch a glimpse of those early structures and semi-industrial images courtesy of a couple of information boards, an original name plate from the station and a commemorative plaque (with a photo image c1916 of a building looking much like your local post-office) to one side of the pavement in front of the shopping centre. What would those 19th century engineers/train managers/town citizen time travellers make of the modern cityscape? Historical images, however, are valuable as a reminder of where the settlement started and how the town developed; of the people who once lived and worked there and called the place home. Steam rail is always an attraction – there is something alive about a steam locomotive (that you can’t capture with diesel or electric; it’s a local/people-level technology) and there’s always scope for enhancing this kind of image/memorabilia. For example, what about replacing the information boards with some real street furniture, and update the information boards? Say, with a non-runner locomotive linked to a truck/wagon standing on 20 m of rail - linking the past with the present, boosting civic pride and providing the basis for all manner of school projects. (Check out the photo.) Then it was time to look for Moorooduc Station. It was not the easiest of places to find - hidden in the bush opposite the Coolstores Shopping Centre on the corner of the Moorooduc Hwy and Eramosa Road. We only found it after a circuit of the shopping centre and then returning to the roundabout on the Hwy – there was the signboard in front of us, and directions; head 500 m north on the Hwy and turn left into Mt Eliza Regional Park. Here there’s a gravel road that takes you directly to the station. It was gated - but it’s presumably open when the trains are running. You can also walk through the park to the station, which is what we did. Ten minutes on foot and you arrive at a large open space running parallel to the rail lines, buildings (station, train sheds, etc.), footbridge, tank and peripherals. Everything, crucially, is behind a high wire mesh fence. What you see is what you get: rolling stock - carriages and trucks on rail - parked one behind the other – lots of them. Equipment and structures looked to be in fair condition from the other side of the fence. It was a bright day with good visuals – a pity that the footbridge was not open to Joe Public – it would have provided that view of the entire station and the marshalling yard from above. The railway has four steam and two diesel-powered locomotives (and a rail tractor) according to contemporary reporting, but none were visible through the security fence. Presumably they were stored under cover in the imposing 10x70 m2 train shed/train services/workshop/store building that straddled a couple of rail tracks in the centre of the yard; or elsewhere, perhaps off site? There was no one in attendance, no parked cars and no open gates in the fence. That said, however, (and given the difficulty of finding the place) we considered the afternoon a successful one. It was a pleasure to explore the yard from the side-line and to consider the entire railway in context – forty years after the closure of the public line – living transport history providing interest and entertainment to local communities. Peter Steele 23 August 21

Was great seeing the old trains, my 2 year old daughter loved it. The staff are all very helpful and extremely polite