The Shelbourne railway line was a continuation of the branch line from Castlemaine to

Maldon Maldon (, locally ) is a town and civil parish on the Blackwater estuary in Essex, England. It is the seat of the Maldon District and starting point of the Chelmer and Blackwater Navigation. It is known for Maldon Sea Salt which is produced ...

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 ...

. Due to the facing junction of the Shelbourne extension, when services to Shelbourne reached Maldon, the locomotive had to change ends in order to run from there to Shelbourne.

History

The line from Maldon to Shelbourne was opened on 24 March 1891. The line was originally planned to extend about beyond Shelbourne to Laanecoorie, but work on that section was suspended in 1890. Almost of earthworks and two

trestle bridge A trestle bridge is a bridge composed of a number of short spans supported by closely spaced frames. A trestle (sometimes tressel) is a rigid frame used as a support, historically a tripod used to support a stool or a pair of isosceles triangl ...

s had been built before construction was abandoned. The one intermediate station on the line was called Bradford until May 1919, when its name was altered to Pollard. In late 1936, a proposal to close the Castlemaine-

- Shelbourne line was met with protests. Consequently, the line was not closed, but services were modified such that some rolling stock was allocated to the Echuca line.

Closure

A bushfire on 8 January 1969 destroyed a number of the wooden trestle bridges between Maldon and Shelbourne, which were deemed uneconomical to rebuild, forcing the closure of the line.

Line Guide

References

Railway lines closed in 1970 Railway lines in Victoria (state) Railway lines opened in 1891 {{VictoriaAU-rail-transport-stub