Hamilton is a

railway station Rail transport (also known as train transport) is a means of transport using wheeled vehicles running in railway track, tracks, which usually consist of two parallel steel railway track, rails. Rail transport is one of the two primary means of ...

located on the Ararat - Portland railway in the city of

Hamilton, Victoria Hamilton is a city in south-western Victoria, Australia, Victoria, Australia, at the intersection of the Glenelg Highway and the Henty Highway. The Hamilton Highway connects it to Geelong. Hamilton is in the Australian House of Representatives, ...

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country comprising mainland Australia, the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania and list of islands of Australia, numerous smaller isl ...

. Today the station is now used only for through trains, and the large station building is used only to serve bus passengers, although the disused platform remains in reasonable condition.

History

The railway to Hamilton opened in October 1877, in December that year the line was extended south to the final terminus of Portland. Hamilton became a major railway station with extensive freight facilities and was the junction for several branch lines: * To

Coleraine Coleraine ( ; from , 'nook of the ferns'Flanaghan, Deirdre & Laurence; ''Irish Place Names'', page 194. Gill & Macmillan, 2002. ) is a town and Civil parishes in Ireland, civil parish near the mouth of the River Bann in County Londonderry, No ...

opened in 1888. * To

Penshurst Penshurst is a historic village and civil parishes in England, civil parish located in a valley upon the northern slopes of the Weald, Kentish Weald, at the confluence of the River Medway and the River Eden, Kent, River Eden, within the Seveno ...

and

Koroit Koroit is a small rural town in western Victoria (Australia), Victoria, Australia a few kilometres north of the Princes Highway, north-west of Warrnambool, Victoria, Warrnambool and west of Melbourne. It is in the Shire of Moyne local govern ...

in 1890. * To

Cavendish Cavendish may refer to: People * The House of Cavendish, a British aristocratic family * Margaret Cavendish (1623–1673), British poet, philosopher, and scientist * Cavendish (author) (1831–1899), pen name of Henry Jones, English auth ...

in 1915, extended to Balmoral in 1920. The first two branch lines left the main line at Coleraine Junction, located a short distance south of Hamilton station itself. By 1934 the station had a main platform facing the main line, opposite a crossing loop, and a dock platform at each end of the main platform. The goods yard had six roads opposite the platform, servicing a goods shed and stock yards. At the down end of the platform was a number of additional sidings, along with a

turntable A phonograph, later called a gramophone, and since the 1940s a record player, or more recently a turntable, is a device for the mechanical and analogue reproduction of sound. The sound vibration waveforms are recorded as corresponding phys ...

. A

signal box A signal is both the process and the result of transmission of data over some media accomplished by embedding some variation. Signals are important in multiple subject fields including signal processing, information theory and biology. In ...

and auxiliary frame controlled the signals in the area. By 1958 the yard had been expanded to 10 roads with a larger goods shed, a

weighbridge A truck scale (US), weighbridge (non-US) or railroad scale is a large set of Weighing scale, scales, usually mounted permanently on a concrete foundation, that is used to weigh entire Railroad car#Freight cars, rail or road vehicles and their co ...

also being provided. Rationalisation of the station began in 1967 where the signal box was removed; the branch lines to Coleraine and Koroit were closed in 1977, the branch to Balmoral following suit in 1979. The last passenger train between Ararat and Portland was on 12 September 1981, operated by a

DRC railcar The DRC (Diesel Rail Car) is a class of railmotor operated by the Victorian Railways on its country rail network in Victoria, Australia. The cars were built by Tulloch Limited in New South Wales, and featured aluminium and steel construction, ...

. In 1987 a large number of sidings were removed including the carriage docks, in 1988 all signals were removed leaving a minimum of sidings in the yard. The line from Maroona to Portland was closed for conversion from broad to standard gauge in March 1995, being reopened to traffic two months later. Today the station has a platform facing the main line, with two goods sidings opposite the platform. In March 2010 the State Government announced a $3.97 million grant for the construction of a rail loading facility alongside the

Iluka Resources Iluka Resources is an Australian resources company, specialising in mineral sands exploration, project development, operations and marketing. Iluka is the largest producer of zircon and titanium dioxidederived rutile and synthetic rutile global ...

mineral sand separation plant (some distance south of the railway station) for the transport of heavy mineral concentrate extracted from the Iluka mine site at

Ouyen Ouyen is a town in Victoria, Australia, located in the Rural City of Mildura at the junction of the Calder Highway and Mallee Highway, south of Mildura, and northwest of Melbourne. At the 2016 census, the town had a population of 1,045. Hi ...

and transported via the standard gauge Murtoa - Hopetoun railway. The facility may also be used by the existing El Zorro service carrying containerised processed mineral sands from

Portland Portland most commonly refers to: *Portland, Oregon, the most populous city in the U.S. state of Oregon *Portland, Maine, the most populous city in the U.S. state of Maine *Isle of Portland, a tied island in the English Channel Portland may also r ...

to Melbourne. A

Victorian Railways K class The K class is a branch line steam locomotive that ran on Victorian Railways in Australia from 1922 to 1979. Although its design was entirely conventional and its specifications unremarkable, the K class was in practice a remarkably versatile a ...

steam locomotive is plinthed in a nearby park: it is made up of K177's frames and coupled wheels, K174's pony truck and boiler, and K159's tender.

References

External links

Hamilton station
Vicrail {{DEFAULTSORT:Hamilton Railway Station, Victoria Disused railway stations in Victoria (state) Railway stations in Australia opened in 1877 Hamilton, Victoria Railway stations in Australia closed in 1981