One of Melbourne's earliest railway lines, the St Kilda line was opened by the Melbourne and Hobson's Bay Railway Company in 1857. It ran for 4.5 kilometres from the Melbourne (or City) Terminus (on the site of modern-day Flinders Street station), crossing the Yarra River via the Sandridge Bridge, to branch off from the Port Melbourne line and after stopping at three stations along the line — South Melbourne, Albert Park, Middle Park — ending at St Kilda. For a short time early in the line's history, there was a short connection provided to the then Brighton line at Windsor, however this link was removed shortly after the direct link was provided to Bay Street from Richmond.
St Kilda Station
St Kilda railway station is barely recognisable, though it’s the oldest surviving railway building in the state of Victoria, opened in 1857. It was the subject of a controversial redevelopment in the late 1990s, when the station building was converted to shops and an apartment block with a Woolworths supermarket built on the site of the goods yard.
St Kilda Station, C. 1885. Museums Victoria Collections
The line was originally to be closed in 1981, and replaced with buses. Plans were sufficiently advanced for Melbourne-Brighton Bus Lines to have taken delivery of six Volgren bodied Volvo B10M buses before it was decided to retain the rail service with light rail services after much opposition. Along with the Port Melbourne line, the conversion the line to light rail was first announced on 13 January 1983, by the Victorian state government. The last train service ran on 31 July 1987 with the light rail officially commissioned on 21 November in the same year as part of the Melbourne tram network.
Fitzroy Street
Melbourne tram route 96 now operates on the converted track. The section from Southbank Junction to St Kilda was converted to light rail, requiring the conversion from 1,600 mm (5 ft 3 in) broad gauge used by the Melbourne rail network to 1,435 mm (4 ft 8+1⁄2 in) standard gauge tram track as well as reducing the overhead voltage from 1,500 V DC to 600 V DC required for the trams. A simple junction into Fitzroy Street allows trams to continue along the Esplanade to a terminus at Acland Street, serving the beach, Luna Park and the shops. In the city, route 96 runs past Southern Cross Station, along Bourke Street and out to East Brunswick.
The former Albert Park railway station is located in the Melbourne suburb of Albert Park, Victoria (Australia). The station is located on Ferrars Street just to the north of Albert Road, just minutes walk from the Bob Jane Stadium, current home of the South Melbourne Soccer club and the former home of the South Melbourne Football Club. A pair of low level side platforms now serve route 96 trams on the light rail line.
The station was originally known as Butts, being renamed to Albert Park in 1872. It had a signal box on the citybound platform, which controlled the interlocked gates the Bridport Street level crossing, located at the Melbourne end of the station. An annett locked crossover also existed at the St Kilda end of the station between the two lines, being used by goods trains serving St Kilda station. The crossover was removed in 1959 when the goods service was withdrawn, and the signal box was abolished on 28 September 1960 when boom barriers were erected at the level crossing. The high level platforms used by trains and the station buildings have been fenced off from public access and the up platform is now a café and a Victorian Railways antiquities museum.
The former South Melbourne railway station is located on the corner of Ferrars and Dorcas Streets, just minutes from South Melbourne Market. It was originally known as Emerald Hill, and was renamed South Melbourne in 1884. To the south of the station are three road overpasses in quick succession, for Dorcas, Bank and Park streets. A pair of low level side platforms now serve route 96 trams on the light rail line, with a pedestrian crossing located in between.
The former Middle Park railway station is located on the corner of Canterbury Road and Armstrong Street, Middle Park. A pair of low level side platforms now serve route 96 trams on a light rail line. Other nearby light rail stops are the Fraser Street stop and the Wright Street stop. These and other stops were added after the line was converted to a light rail tram line.
The station building was redeveloped as a cafe in 2006 called Mart 130, but it was gutted by fire on 19 February 2018, and later demolished. It has since been rebuilt, and as of 2022 houses a cafe.
In 1859, a loop line was constructed from St Kilda to Windsor, the line being extended to Brighton Beach by 1861, on what is now the Sandringham line. Trains from the city travelled south to St Kilda terminus, and then "backed out" on to the loop line to Windsor. A possible reason for the construction of the loop line connecting through to St Kilda was the difficulty experienced by contractors in constructing a rail crossing -over the Yarra River at Cremorne, known in the mid-19th century as "Forrest Hill". In the mid-19th century the railway bisected a swamp.
The Windsor to St Kilda Railway Loop Bridge, spanning St Kilda Road, St Kilda. Royal Historical Society of Victoria (RHSV)
The loop line ran on a combination of wooden viaducts and earth embankments fifteen feet in height, crossing over St. Kilda and Punt Road by way of bridges and then gradually decreasing to a level crossing at Union Street and then on to Windsor station. No evidence of the bridge over St Kilda Road or embankments remain, although the alignment of the loop can be traced by the formation of two parklands, Gladstone Gardens and Windsor Siding and in some cases, oddly shaped property boundaries near Upton Road. Properties on the south side of Gladstone Street are on the former rail line's right-of-way.
The first train on the loop line from St Kilda was on 3 December 1859, and it opened to the public ten days later. There were no trains after 7 pm on the branch line; patrons simply walked to their homes in Prahran from St Kilda station in Fitzroy Street. A more direct route to the city between Windsor and Richmond stations was built 11 months later by the Melbourne and Suburban Railway Company, and the loop line was closed. The track, bridge and trestles between St Kilda Station and Punt Road were dismantled, probably less than five years after original construction. However, a siding from Windsor station to Hoddle Street remained. Due to the track alignments there were now two level crossings within 100 metres on Union Street, because the siding continued to be used for shunting trains from the Brighton line, and to carry screenings from the Richmond quarries to a commercial depot on Punt Road (then known as Hoddle Street).
The alignment of the line at Windsor station today, with the main line to the city at right
No evidence remains of the embankments or the bridge over St Kilda Road, although the alignment of the loop can be traced by residual parkland and some oddly-shaped property boundaries. A small park to the west of Windsor station is called "Windsor Siding", the site of a railway siding near the line's junction. Gladstone Street follows the alignment of the railway.
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