Bacchus Marsh railway station is located on the Serviceton line in

Victoria Victoria most commonly refers to: * Victoria (Australia), a state of the Commonwealth of Australia * Victoria, British Columbia, provincial capital of British Columbia, Canada * Victoria (mythology), Roman goddess of Victory * Victoria, Seychelle ...

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...

. It serves the town of

Bacchus Marsh Bacchus Marsh (Wathawurrung: ''Pullerbopulloke'') is an urban centre and suburban locality in Victoria, Australia located approximately north west of the state capital Melbourne and west of Melton, Victoria, Melton at a near equidistance to th ...

, and it opened on 10 February 1887. A number of sidings once existed opposite the station and were used to stable trains. It also has an operational

turntable A phonograph, in its later forms also called a gramophone (as a trademark since 1887, as a generic name in the UK since 1910) or since the 1940s called a record player, or more recently a turntable, is a device for the mechanical and analogu ...

, that is mainly used for turning steam locomotives on special trains.

History

Bacchus Marsh opened as the temporary terminus of the line from

Melbourne Melbourne ( ; Boonwurrung/Woiwurrung: ''Narrm'' or ''Naarm'') is the capital and most populous city of the Australian state of Victoria, and the second-most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Its name generally refers to a met ...

. On 4 December 1889, the line was extended to Ballan, which completed the direct Melbourne to Ballarat line. The contract for the construction of the station building was awarded in 1889, for £1809/8/11. A 45 lever interlocking frame, in a

signal box In signal processing, a signal is a function that conveys information about a phenomenon. Any quantity that can vary over space or time can be used as a signal to share messages between observers. The ''IEEE Transactions on Signal Processing'' ...

, was brought into use in 1890. By this time, the station had a main platform, with a

dock platform In the United Kingdom and in Australia, a bay platform is a dead-end railway platform at a railway station that has through lines. It is normal for bay platforms to be shorter than their associated through platforms. Overview Bay and islan ...

at the eastern end, a main line and

crossing loop A passing loop (UK usage) or passing siding (North America) (also called a crossing loop, crossing place, refuge loop or, colloquially, a hole) is a place on a single line railway or tramway, often located at or near a station, where trains or ...

, turntable, and a number of sidings. The station was originally provided with a turntable. In 1957, it was replaced by a 70-foot unit. s In the late 1940s,

brown coal Lignite, often referred to as brown coal, is a soft, brown, combustible, sedimentary rock formed from naturally compressed peat. It has a carbon content around 25–35%, and is considered the lowest rank of coal due to its relatively low heat ...

, mined at nearby

Maddingley Maddingley is a suburb of Bacchus Marsh, a peri-urban town in central Victoria, Australia. The locality consists of the portion of the Bacchus Marsh urban area south of the Werribee River. It is in the Shire of Moorabool, west north west of t ...

, began to be transported in large quantities by rail, with dedicated trains running between Bacchus Marsh and the

APM Siding The APM Siding was a long private railway siding in the suburb of Alphington, Melbourne, Australia, that served the Australian Paper Manufacturers paper mill (later becoming the Amcor Fibre Packaging, before being closed in 2012). The sidin ...

, in the Melbourne suburb of Fairfield. The coal was used to fire the boilers at the

Australian Paper Manufacturers Amcor plc is a global packaging company. It develops and produces flexible packaging, rigid containers, specialty cartons, closures and services for food, beverage, pharmaceutical, medical-device, home and personal-care, and other products. The ...

paper mill, with 400 tonnes of coal per day transferred in two trains per day. This traffic continued until the late 1970s, when the boilers were converted to natural gas firing. Control of trains on the

single track Single may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media * Single (music), a song release Songs * "Single" (Natasha Bedingfield song), 2004 * "Single" (New Kids on the Block and Ne-Yo song), 2008 * "Single" (William Wei song), 2016 * "Single", by ...

was controlled with the

Electric Staff Electricity is the set of physical phenomena associated with the presence and motion of matter that has a property of electric charge. Electricity is related to magnetism, both being part of the phenomenon of electromagnetism, as described ...

system until 1967, when the Automatic and Track Control (ATC) system was provided. At the same time, boom barriers replaced hand gates at the Parwan Road

level crossing A level crossing is an intersection where a railway line crosses a road, Trail, path, or (in rare situations) airport runway, at the same level, as opposed to the railway line crossing over or under using an Overpass#Railway, overpass ...

, located nearby in the Down direction, and remote control of the

signals In signal processing, a signal is a function that conveys information about a phenomenon. Any quantity that can vary over space or time can be used as a signal to share messages between observers. The ''IEEE Transactions on Signal Processing'' ...

at Bank Box Loop was provided, with the same being done to the track towards Parwan Loop in 1987. Also around 1987, a number of changes to the station layout occurred, including the removal of a number of

points Point or points may refer to: Places * Point, Lewis, a peninsula in the Outer Hebrides, Scotland * Point, Texas, a city in Rains County, Texas, United States * Point, the NE tip and a ferry terminal of Lismore, Inner Hebrides, Scotland * Point ...

, signals and their relevant posts, and the sleeving of a number of levers. Control of the signals at

Rockbank Rockbank is a suburb in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, west of Melbourne's Central Business District, located within the City of Melton local government area. Rockbank recorded a population of 2,583 at the 2021 census. Rockbank Post Office o ...

were moved into the

in 1990. In 1993, No. 3 road was abolished, and in 1994, No. 3A road was abolished. As part of the

Regional Fast Rail project The Regional Fast Rail project (or RFR project) was a rail transport project undertaken by the State Government of Victoria, Australia, between 2000 and 2006 aimed at improving rail services on the Victorian regional railway network (operated by ...

in 2005, the control of signals was relocated to

Ballarat Ballarat ( ) is a city in the Central Highlands (Victoria), Central Highlands of Victoria (Australia), Victoria, Australia. At the 2021 Census, Ballarat had a population of 116,201, making it the third largest city in Victoria. Estimated resid ...

, and the platform was extended eastwards, in order to increase the speed of trains passing through the curve at the western end of the station. In addition, the curves over the Parwan Creek valley were realigned for higher speeds. In 2008, 160 additional car parks were opened at the station, for the use of rail commuters. At the 2016 Victorian State Budget, money was allocated for an additional platform and crossing loop, and to relocate the stabling facilities to nearby

Rowsley Rowsley () is a village on the A6 road in the English county of Derbyshire. The population as at the 2011 census was 507. It is at the point where the River Wye flows into the River Derwent and prospered from mills on both. The border of the P ...

. This was part of the larger $518 million Regional Rail Revival project along the Ballarat line, which included the duplication of the line between Deer Park West and Melton and between Warrenheip and

Ballarat East Ballarat East is a suburb of Ballarat in Victoria (Australia), Victoria, Australia. From 1857 until 1921 the suburb had its own council (see below). The suburb covers a large area east of the city centre. It is the oldest urban area in Ballara ...

, additional crossing loops at Ballan (which included an extra platform) and

Bungaree Bungaree, or Boongaree ( – 24 November 1830), was an Aboriginal Australian from the Guringai people of the Broken Bay north of Sydney, who was known as an explorer, entertainer, and Aboriginal community leader.Barani (2013)Significant Aborig ...

, and stabling facilities at

. The works along the line were completed by February 2021, when new services were introduced. Demolished station

Parwan Parwan (Dari: ), also spelled Parvan, is one of the 34 provinces of Afghanistan. It has a population of about 751,000. The province is multi-ethnic and mostly rural society. The province is divided into ten districts. The town of Imam Abu Hanif ...

was located between Bacchus Marsh and Melton, while demolished stations

and

Ingliston Ingliston (; sco, Inglistoun) is an area in the west of Edinburgh, near Maybury, South Gyle and Newbridge, and is home to Edinburgh Airport and The Royal Highland Showground. History The name Ingliston either means the "settlement of the Ing ...

were located between Bacchus Marsh and Ballan.

Platforms and services

Bacchus Marsh has two

side platform A side platform (also known as a marginal platform or a single-face platform) is a platform positioned to the side of one or more railway tracks or guideways at a railway station, tram stop, or transitway. A station having dual side platforms ...

s. It is serviced by

V/Line V/Line is a statutory authority that operates regional passenger train and coach services in Victoria, Australia. It provides passenger train services on five commuter lines and eight long-distance routes from its major hub at Southern Cross ...

and Ararat line services. In the peak hour periods, a number of services begin and terminate at the station. Platform 1: * services to

Southern Cross Crux () is a constellation of the southern sky that is centred on four bright stars in a cross-shaped asterism commonly known as the Southern Cross. It lies on the southern end of the Milky Way's visible band. The name ''Crux'' is Latin for c ...

* services to Southern Cross Platform 2: * services to

Wendouree Wendouree () is a large suburb on the north western rural-urban fringe of the city of Ballarat, in Victoria, Australia. It is the second most populated suburb in the City of Ballarat with a total of 10,376 inhabitants at the . It is named af ...

* services to Ararat

Transport links

Bacchus Marsh Coaches operates three routes via Bacchus Marsh station, under contract to

Public Transport Victoria Public Transport Victoria (PTV) is the brand name for public transport in the Australian state of Victoria, Australia, Victoria. It was the trading name of the Go Public Transport Development Authority (PTDA), a now-defunct statutory authorit ...

: *:

– Hillview Estate (

) *: to Telford Park ( Darley) *: to Darley

Gallery

File:Bacchus Marsh Station from the air.jpg, Aerial view of the station in June 2021 File:N-class locomotive at Bacchus Marsh station — August 2022.jpg, An N-class locomotive on Platform 1 in August 2022

References

External links & further reading

*Newsrail September 1984 pp. 260–263
Victorian Railway Stations galleryMelway map
at street-directory.com.au {{Public Transport Victoria railway stations, Western=y, state=collapsed Railway stations in Australia opened in 1887 Regional railway stations in Victoria (Australia) Bacchus Marsh