Yallourn Railway

From Link issue 51, Nov 2011:
FOND MEMORIES OF THE YALLOURN RAILWAY
The Yallourn railway was a branch line from Hernes Oak on the main Gippsland line when the Yallourn power station commenced operating in 1922. The railway was owned by the Victorian Railways. The railway serviced the power station with branch lines to deliver goods to the stores and workshop area.
Morwell resident, Jack Huxtable, has fond memories of the railway and the staff that operated it.
"The station master was Jack Collins and he was a real character in the community. His assistant was Charlie Barnard. The railway station in Yallourn was not a regular passenger line and was only used on special occasions and for school excursions.
"Trains would come in with empty wagons and be filled with briquettes to be delivered to customers around the state. There were 30 to 40 wagons at a time. It was a constant circuit.
"Originally, the trains were steam powered and eventually were replaced by electric ones in the mid-1950s. i remember that during the bad fires of 1944, some of the wagons in the station yard went up and the open cut burned for days. Amazingly, the line itself was largely unaffected.
"People would often walk the line collecting the briquettes that had fallen from the wagons. They would use the briquettes to heat their houses during the colder months," Jack recalled.
In the 1960s, a new Victorian Railways line was constructed from Moe as the old Hernes Oak line was taken out of service due to the expansion of the open cut mine.
One of Jack's fondest memories was when Queen Elizabeth II visited the Valley in 1954. She travelled by train on the original Hernes Oak loop line to the Yallourn Railway Station. Jack was the ABC radio correspondent at Yallourn at the time.
"It was my job to report on the event. The Queen arrived at 10.30am, toured the power station and the open cut, had lunch and then left at around 4pm. I had to provide a report to be broadcast by 7pm. Needless to say, I was very busy jotting down everything that happened. There were no mobile phones or computers to send instant reports to head office back then," Jack said.
The former Victorian railway branch line from Moe is now part of the Moe to Yallourn rail trail, constructed in the 1990s, which starts at the Botanic Gardens in Moe and takes a leisurely 8km trail to the Yallourn W Power Station.