North Melbourne Locomotive Depot was the main location for maintenance of the

Victorian Railways The Victorian Railways (VR), trading from 1974 as VicRail, was the state-owned operator of most rail transport in the Australian state of Victoria from 1859 to 1983. The first railways in Victoria were private companies, but when these companie ...

steam locomotive fleet based in

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 ...

. Located in the middle of the Melbourne Yard precinct in the suburb West Melbourne near North Melbourne station, the site is now occupied by the Melbourne Steel Terminal. The depot was described by railway employees as ''"the hub of the universe"'', ''"the VR's nearest approach to

Dante's Inferno ''Inferno'' (; Italian for "Hell") is the first part of Italian writer Dante Alighieri's 14th-century epic poem ''Divine Comedy''. It is followed by ''Purgatorio'' and '' Paradiso''. The ''Inferno'' describes Dante's journey through Hell, gui ...

"'', or ''"the Black Hole of Calcutta"'' depending on their disposition.

History

The depot was opened sometime in the 1880s by the

, replacing its first locomotive depot located in the Spencer Street station yard. It was located beside the Railway Canal, a section of

Moonee Ponds Creek Moonee is a coastal suburb of the Central Coast region of New South Wales, Australia. It is part of the local government area A local government area (LGA) is an administrative division of a country that a local government is responsible for ...

that enabled the direct unloading of coal transported by sea from

New South Wales ) , nickname = , image_map = New South Wales in Australia.svg , map_caption = Location of New South Wales in AustraliaCoordinates: , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name = Australia , established_title = Before federation , es ...

. The rectangular building was built of brick and iron with three

turntables 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 ...

located inside. There were six track entrances, two at the front from the main goods yard, three from the stabling roads, and one at the rear. A three road coal stage was located to the south of the depot, along with a number of open air stabling roads.Victorian Railways Signal Diagram: Melbourne Goods Yard 6'33 (1933) As late as the 1950s the depot housed 160 locomotives, but with

dieselisation Dieselisation (US: dieselization) is the process of equipping vehicles with a diesel engine or diesel engines. It can involve replacing an internal combustion engine powered by petrol (gasoline) fuel with an engine powered by diesel fuel, as o ...

from 1952 the end was near. The new

South Dynon Locomotive Depot South Dynon Locomotive Depot is an Australian locomotive depot in Melbourne, purpose built for the servicing of diesel and electric locomotives by the Victorian Railways opening in July 1961. It was built adjacent to the Freight railways in Melb ...

was opened across the creek for the new locomotives as part of the North East standard gauge project, with the last steam-hauled train leaving Melbourne on 18 May 1964 - R703 on the 18:05 to Geelong. The depot was ceremoniously demolished on 20 January 1965 when steam locomotive K188 pulled down the front wall of the depot with a steel rope in front of a crowd of onlookers.

References

External links

*Weston Langford's photos of the demolition

{{coord, 37, 48, 32, S, 144, 56, 20, E, region:AU-VIC_type:landmark, display=title Buildings and structures demolished in 1965 Railway workshops in Victoria (Australia) History of rail transport in Australia Demolished buildings and structures in Melbourne 1880s establishments in Australia Buildings and structures completed in the 1880s 1964 disestablishments in Australia