Sale railway station is located on the Gippsland 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. It serves the town of Sale, and it opened on 4 December 1983.Sale
VicsigVictorian Station Histories: Sale station
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History

The original Sale station opened on 1 June 1877, as the terminus of the line from

Morwell Morwell is a town in the Latrobe Valley area of Gippsland, in South-Eastern Victoria, Australia approximately 152 km (94 mi) east of Melbourne. Morwell has a population of 14,389 people at the . It is both the seat of local governme ...

, before the line was extended to Stratford Junction on 8 May 1888. This original station was located in the town of Sale itself, east of Reeve Street. It was a dead-end terminus, with 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 ...

and the line to Stratford both entering from the west. Trains continuing along the line beyond Sale were required to reverse at the station, or use the Traralgon-Maffra-Stratford line, which avoided Sale altogether. At the peak of operations, the

yard The yard (symbol: yd) is an English unit of length in both the British imperial and US customary systems of measurement equalling 3 feet or 36 inches. Since 1959 it has been by international agreement standardized as exactly ...

had five roads, passenger and goods platforms, a

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 ...

, a 47-lever signal box, a cattle yard, an

engine shed The motive power depot (MPD) or locomotive depot, or traction maintenance depot (TMD), is the place where locomotives are usually housed, repaired and maintained when not being used. They were originally known as "running sheds", "engine shed ...

, a coal stage, and a

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 ...

. There was also a short branch line to the Sale Wharf, as well as a number of industrial sidings in the area, serving cool stores, fuel depots, a gas works, a flour mill, woollen mills, and stockyards. After many years of discussions between the local council and rail authorities, the station was relocated in 1983, to a site outside the town, on a new section of track which linked the Melbourne and Stratford lines, without the need to run in and out of the original station. This formed a rail triangle for a short period of time. The goods facilities were first to be moved, which occurred on 28 September 1983, using part of the Sale – Stratford line as the base of the yard. The last train ran to the old station on 12 November 1983, with the new station officially opening on 4 December of that year. The last remnant of the railway line arriving directly into Sale was abolished in 1985, when parts of the former Port of Sale

spur line A branch line is a phrase used in railway terminology to denote a secondary railway line which branches off a more important through route, usually a main line. A very short branch line may be called a spur line. Industrial spur An industr ...

were removed. Full

signalling 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 not provided until 1987. Station staff were withdrawn in 1993, but have since been restored. Rail traffic beyond Sale ceased in December 1995, with Sale becoming the terminus for all trains on the line. Road coach services continued to Stratford,

Bairnsdale Bairnsdale () ( Ganai: ''Wy-yung'') is a city in East Gippsland, Victoria, Australia in a region traditionally owned by the Tatungalung clan of the Gunaikurnai people. The estimated population of Bairnsdale urban area was 15,411 at Ju ...

, Lakes Entrance,

Orbost Orbost is a historic early settlers town in the Shire of East Gippsland, Victoria, east of Melbourne and south of Canberra where the Princes Highway crosses the Snowy River. It is about from the surf and fishing seaside town of Marlo on th ...

and further east, with some continuing into southern

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 ...

. However, in mid-1999, log trains began operating to Bairnsdale again, and the passenger service to

resumed on 3 May 2004. The original site of Sale station is now the Gippsland Centre Shopping Centre, although the signal box,

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

gates, and two semaphore signals are statically preserved in situ. To the west of the station, the Sale Industrial Sidings remain in place but unused, as do the goods sidings. The sidings across from the platform were regularly used to allow Bairnsdale to Geelong log trains to cross passenger services, but log trains have ceased running.

Platforms and services

Sale has one platform. 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 Cros ...

Bairnsdale line services. Platform 1: * services to

and

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 ...

Transport links

Little's Gippsland Coaches operates two routes via Sale station, under contract to Public Transport Victoria: *: to Sale (Gippsland Centre Shopping Centre) *: Sale – Loch Sport7 Sale - Loch Sport via Longford
Public Transport Victoria

Gallery

File:Sale_station_looking_towards_Melbourne.jpg, Southbound view, with a

707 Operations 707 Operations is a railway preservation group based in Melbourne, Australia. The volunteer organisation was established in 1980 to restore R class locomotive R707. The company has its own section of the Newport Workshops that is used for stori ...

heritage special stabled in the siding, in June 2018 File:Disused Sale signal box - June 2021.jpg, Disused signal box and semaphore signals, preserved in situ, pictured in June 2021

References

External links

Victorian Railway Stations GalleryMelway map
{{Public Transport Victoria railway stations, Eastern=y, state=collapsed Railway stations in Australia opened in 1877 Regional railway stations in Victoria (Australia) Sale, Victoria Transport in Gippsland (region) Shire of Wellington