Ebden is a closed railway station, located in the town of Ebden, on the Cudgewa line in Victoria,

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 ...

. All buildings were removed after the closure of the line, leaving only the platform mound remaining.Ebden
Vicsig

History

The station opened on 10 September 1889 as Bethanga Road. It was renamed Bethanga on 5 October 1904, and renamed Ebden on 2 May 1910. Ebden, along with other stations along the line, was erected according to the ''Act No. 821'' of the Victorian Parliament in 1884, authorising the building of a branch line from

Wodonga Wodonga (Pallanganmiddang language, Waywurru: ''Wordonga'') is a city on the Victoria (Australia), Victorian side of the border with New South Wales, north-east of Melbourne, Australia. It is located wholly within the boundaries of the City of ...

to Talangatta. This operation was reported to have some three hundred men engaged on the work, with the plan to have the section open by 31 March 1888. The station had featured a passenger platform consisting of three buildings,

goods shed A goods shed is a railway building designed for storing goods before or after carriage in a train. A typical goods shed will have a track running through it to allow goods wagons to be unloaded under cover, although sometimes they were built ...

and stock yards. This required three tracks, including two sidings. One of which was for the commonly used stock yards, along with a siding to Mitta Junction. Ebden's following station, Huon, was forced to relocate after the introduction of the Hume Wier, although Ebden was recognised to be in a location far enough from the large body of water. Heavy rail was installed in the Wodonga-Ebden section of the line due to numerous migrant special trains throughout the 1950s and 1960s, consisting usually of locomotives such as A2's, R's and, later, B class diesels.

Bonegilla Bonegilla is a bounded rural locality of the City of Wodonga local government area in north-east Victoria, Australia, east of Wodonga, and around north-east of Melbourne. At the , Bonegilla and the surrounding area had a population of 610. H ...

was the planned terminus for these special trains, although a

run-around loop A headshunt (or escape track in the United States) is a short length of track provided to release locomotives at terminal platforms, or to allow shunting to take place clear of main lines. Terminal headshunt A 'terminal headshunt' is a short l ...

was non existent. So the stopping place was pushed forward to the next station on the line, being Ebden. Ebden, along with other railway stations on the Cudgewa line, had seen a dramatic decline in services after the Snowy Hydro Electric Scheme (rail transport of goods for the creating of the Snowy Hydro Electricity Plant) by the early 1970s. By August 1975, the siding at the station was abolished. Services kept declining until there was only one goods train per week, commonly known to be hauled by dynamic brake locomotive T413. Stock trains on the line had also depleted, due to the rapid upgrading of road transport. On 1 March 1975, the station was closed to all traffic. The line itself officially closed on 1 March 1981,Cudgewa Line
Vicsig despite the last regular goods service ran on the 21 April 1978.

Today

In 2006, the Apex Club of

began rebuilding the passenger platform, as part of a project to restore the station area as an asset of the

High Country Rail Trail The High Country Rail Trail is a 35 kilometre, part-gravel part-sealed rail trail on the northern border of Victoria, Australia. It runs along the former Cudgewa railway line from Wodonga, along the edge of Lake Hume, to Shelley railway station i ...

. The platform itself was complete at the end of 2008. It was further upgraded during 2010-2012, which included a picnic shelter and table, station name board and a historic information signboard.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Ebden Railway Station, Victoria Disused railway stations in Victoria (state) Railway stations closed in 1975