By Tanya Steele
Yarra Valley Railway volunteers have recently undertaken a huge group effort in June this year to relocate a 21 metre turntable from Korumburra to Yarra Glen.
Yarra Valley Railway President, Brett Morton said the group have been looking for a turntable for their railway for a long time.
“A goal of ours has been to be able to run a steam engine between Yarra Glen and Healesville,” he said.
The relocation involved hard work by the volunteers to dismantle components, load them onto trucks and transport the turntable to Yarra Glen, with local crane and truck hauling services required for the immense effort.
The newly arrived turntable was originally installed at Foster in 1957 and in 1994 it was moved to Korumburra where it was used for many years by the now former South Gippsland Railway.
Yarra Valley Railway will give the turntable a new lease on life and once installed it will allow the heritage railway to be able to turn locomotives at the Yarra Glen location.
Mr Morton said the turntable’s arrival is a large milestone in the process of reconstructing the train line.
“It’s pretty gratifying to see it coming to fruition,” he said.
The Yarra Valley Railway has a dedicated volunteer group and Mr Morton said that they ultimately aim to completely restore the 12km line between Healesville and Yarra Glen.
“It’s been a bit by bit process and but once the railway started to improve and get better, we got more volunteers and around 2000, we had an influx of people that were very interested and we got the track up to standard on the 4km stretch we did have,” he said.
The Yarra Valley Railway began passenger train services from Healesville Station to Tarrawarra Estate on 17 July 2010 — making it the first passenger train service in 30 years on the line.
“After 2010 when we got the train running, we then started work on the next part of the process, we also set about trying to get assistance through grants but we were set back by the Black Saturday fires.”
Mr Morton said it has been a lot of work and the group has a long way to go, but with recent government projects separating level crossings, the railway has also received some materials towards their ongoing restoration efforts.
“A lot of materials are being cascaded to the tourists, railways, including us,” he said.
The process to complete track and station restoration between Healesville and Yarra Glen has been a lengthy one and Mr Morton said it is good to see things moving along.
“Things are starting to occur and it’s pretty exciting,” he said.
The turntable will be installed in the coming months with earthworks and construction to be planned to assist in getting it into place.
Mr Morton and his team have a passion for their work and Mr Morton said they are always happy to get more volunteers on board.
“What we’re doing is such a high standard, it’s going to be beautiful,” he said.
