This is logical.  keeps it in the station precinct and keeps the roads clear for traffic from the north.

It was planned that the new Shepparton stabling would be complete by Christmas, and I can share that it seems that it is so:

taking up from the previous photography, there has been rain, eyeball frying heat in October and November, and more rain. Nonetheless, the intrepid crew wearing Vline train repellent did work on:

The work crew are down the other end of Shep yard doing something to the points,
(later on I found out it was sleeper replacement at the points)



the foundation has been cleared for the footpath and fencing to go in



lamps to illuminate 3 road have been added to the poles:



preparation for a new post to go in at the Fryers St crossing:



I did spy this post on the back of a truck wearing the legend
A380 suggesting this is second-hand from somewhere:



the lamps are in, the footpath is laid, the rain is coming down:



here is me fighting with the light settings in the camera. There
was nowhere near this amount of light. Nonetheless, the 05:15 has
departed (just missed it) and the 06:28 waits for passengers at
Shepparton, on 24 December. The new stabling is complete ...



Shepparton Home Departure at High Street showing the new Post
SHN 36 at Fryers St in the background



Limit of Shunt: Fryers St with new post SHN 36

Some more of your great photography 574M, thanks for the update.

And as you have said, the job was to be completed by christmas, which you have said, seems to be the case, well done to the work crew.

Plenty on here, more than likely me, have been fairly quick to Bash V/Line for not doing this, not maintaining that, not doing what ever, it seems there is a solid work crew building momentum, within the ranks, at the minute. Would appear they have now been given the funds and equipment, to have a red hot crack at doing some serious work / maintenance.

Government support and some, obviously decent leadership, makes a big difference, it was stated in another thread, that the was a ' Frightening' level of workman ship / knowledge or similar to those words, in the work force out on the rails, currently, which I must say is very pleasing to see, well done.

BigShunter.

Hopefully, we see works start on the crossing loop soon!

Nothing wrong with the loop at Murchison East:

I noticed timber sleepers here. Will the upgrade to the line involver re sleepering with concrete? I was thinking of the low profile replacement concrete sleepers and either 47 or 50 kg rail.

I noticed timber sleepers here. Will the upgrade to the line involver re sleepering with concrete? I was thinking of the low profile replacement concrete sleepers and either 47 or 50 kg rail.

Probably not though one can dream. Probably due to the nut jobs calling for standardisation

I noticed timber sleepers here. Will the upgrade to the line involver re sleepering with concrete? I was thinking of the low profile replacement concrete sleepers and either 47 or 50 kg rail.

Probably not though one can dream. Probably due to the nut jobs calling for standardisation

Its a mix of aged rail along there . So for upgrade to Class 2 track will probably get as a minimum relay with re-calimed 47kg rail or new 50kg rail on low profile concrete sleepers then CWR too .

Probably not though one can dream. Probably due to the nut jobs calling for standardisation

Oi, you calling me a Nut Job, watch ya self Ding-a-Ling, still got your one way ticket, back to Bali, so Behave Yourself.

Dual Gauge Sleepers, may simplify the transition..................

BigShunter.

Probably not though one can dream. Probably due to the nut jobs calling for standardisation

Oi, you calling me a Nut Job, watch ya self Ding-a-Ling, still got your one way ticket, back to Bali, so Behave Yourself.

Dual Gauge Sleepers, may simplify the transition..................

BigShunter.

One word is needed to describe why, Money.

I noticed timber sleepers here. Will the upgrade to the line involver re sleepering with concrete? I was thinking of the low profile replacement concrete sleepers and either 47 or 50 kg rail.

Probably not though one can dream. Probably due to the nut jobs calling for standardisation

Its a mix of aged rail along there . So for upgrade to Class 2 track will probably get as a minimum relay with re-calimed 47kg rail or new 50kg rail on low profile concrete sleepers then CWR too .

That makes good sense. Frankly I would relegate the 47 kg to sidings

All the LX right down to Mangalore are dual gauge.

Probably not though one can dream. Probably due to the nut jobs calling for standardisation

Oi, you calling me a Nut Job, watch ya self Ding-a-Ling, still got your one way ticket, back to Bali, so Behave Yourself.

Dual Gauge Sleepers, may simplify the transition..................

BigShunter.

The correct term is a gauge convertible sleeper .
Wooden broad gauge sleepers are gauge convertible by simply moving one rail inwards.

With concrete sleepers currently approved types in Victoria are  full profile broad and standard gauge, and low profile broad gauge concrete  and a gauge convertible full profile sleeper.

With a wooden sleepered track one can only mix wooden sleepers with low profile concrete sleepers.

Victoria has not as yet strangely had Austrak at Avalon develop a design for an approved low profile gauge convertible
concrete sleeper type .

(gauge convertible steel sleepers are also used on some railways , typically on goods only lines.)

With the Seymour -  Shepparton track upgrade to Class - 2 track re rail it will either be new 50kg CWR or  re-claimed 47kg rail, cropped and CWR .

Sleeper wise could be any of these options  1.  Full re-sleeper with low profile bg concrete 2. Partial re-sleeper with low profile bg concrete sleepers 3. Full re-sleeper with gauge convertible full profile concrete sleepers or  4. Full re-sleeper with gauge convertible low profile concrete or 5 . Partial re-sleeper with gauge convertible low profile concrete sleepers .

With options 4 & 5 this would require VLP to develop an approved low profile gauge convertible concrete sleeper . One would expect that it would be a matter of calling tenders for the design and supply of such sleepers .

Will the loop be CTC from Seymour box ?

I noticed timber sleepers here. Will the upgrade to the line involver re sleepering with concrete? I was thinking of the low profile replacement concrete sleepers and either 47 or 50 kg rail.

Probably not though one can dream. Probably due to the nut jobs calling for standardisation

Its a mix of aged rail along there . So for upgrade to Class 2 track will probably get as a minimum relay with re-calimed 47kg rail or new 50kg rail on low profile concrete sleepers then CWR too .

That makes good sense. Frankly I would relegate the 47 kg to sidings

No reason to do that - there's Buckley's of the Seymour line going Class 1 in the near future so why waste money on an overspec Class 2 in the Shepp-Seymour section?

Because Craigiburn to Shepparton needs to be class 2 all the way.

Out of interest, in the Victorian system what is the ARTC track equivalent to, say south of Seymour and north of it to Albury?

Out of interest, in the Victorian system what is the ARTC track equivalent to, say south of Seymour and north of it to Albury?Fo

For rail weight and sleeper depth probably close if not exceeding RFR. The old bg line got rerailed to 60kg.

Out of interest, in the Victorian system what is the ARTC track equivalent to, say south of Seymour and north of it to Albury?

For rail weight and sleeper depth probably close if not exceeding RFR. The old bg line got rerailed to 60kg.

The aim of the ARTC/Rail Projects Victoria North East Line Upgrade project is to upgrade the whole track to Class 2 standards (115kph intermodal/pass, 130kph DMU). The rail and sleepers on the line support this standard already, but the track geometry is compromised due to the ballast quality and poor track drainage in many sections (read: mud holes).

Will the loop be CTC from Seymour box ?

Would think not . Shepparton is controlled from Centrol now.  So with the line upgrade Merchison East Loop, Toolamba Junction and any other loops would most likely be remote controlled from Centraol ; as at  Warncoort Loop on the Warrnambool Line .

I noticed timber sleepers here. Will the upgrade to the line involver re sleepering with concrete? I was thinking of the low profile replacement concrete sleepers and either 47 or 50 kg rail.

Probably not though one can dream. Probably due to the nut jobs calling for standardisation

Its a mix of aged rail along there . So for upgrade to Class 2 track will probably get as a minimum relay with re-calimed 47kg rail or new 50kg rail on low profile concrete sleepers then CWR too .

That makes good sense. Frankly I would relegate the 47 kg to sidings

No reason to do that - there's Buckley's of the Seymour line going Class 1 in the near future so why waste money on an overspec Class 2 in the Shepp-Seymour section?

Class 2 track is required for 115kmh loco hauled and 130 kmh DMU operation .
Broad gauge both tracks Craigieburn - Dysart and single track Dysart - Seymour - Mangalore are Class - 2.
There are no announced upgrade plans announced so far to upgrade Craigieburn - Dysart to Class - 1 allowing DMU 160kmh.
The first priority for this section would be to install a modern CTC signalling system on this section .
The gradients and curvature North of Wallan would require detailed analysis as to a cost / benefit basis if the extra $ involved in upgrading to Class - 1 would be worth it for what would probably be not a great time saving .
E;G;  Increasing allowable speed from 115 to 130kmh is a 13 % increase in speed, but the impact on track is like 33 %  which costs more to mainatin the train , as the impact on the track is higher than the speed increase .

Mangalore -  Mooroopna is going to Class - 2 to allow V/Locity at 130kmh .  A 130kmh speed is rqeuired to achive a 2 hour travel  time  Melbourne to Shepparton so as to be competitive with private car .

QED

Craigieburn to Lightwood would be easy to get to 160km/h, also past Broadford to Dysart, fairly straight tracks etc. Lightwood to McDougal has lots of curves, high cost for low benefit to gain much. Realistically, 130 to 160 for that only saves a minute or so, only to be lost on the up side of Craigieburn. Any increase of speeds north of Mangalore would need curves at Nagambie and Murchison East to be eased, they cost us plenty.

https://www.premier.vic.gov.au/more-trains-and-better-services-on-the-shepparton-line

New timetable begins 1 April. (yes, really!)

The 0612 Down Seymour is extended to Shepp by my reading, and returns as a mid-morning service.

An additional afternoon Seymour service is also on the cards.

Also interesting to see they have said 20 min travel time reduction when VLos are introduced. That's pretty significant given current time Seymour-Shepp is about 60 mins. Will also bring time to Melbourne under 2h30.

EDIT: original link was to the Premier's website and was changed by @bevans to a RP news link.

Does this new service require the commissioning of the loop at Murchison?

Hi there.

The 06:12 Southern Cross to Seymour service has been retimed to depart at 05:53 and is extended to Shepparton from 01/04/2019.

The return working is 09:53 off Shepparton all stations except Tallarook, Heathcote Jct & Donnybrook.

Extra Southern Cross to Seymour at 16:02 stopping all stations except Heathcote Jct & Tallarook.

Some Seymour train journey times will increase by up to three minutes and Shepparton train journey times will increase by up to five minutes to reflect actual running times, incorporating permanent speed restrictions on the line.

A weekday, Saturday and Sunday service on the Seymour line will now be scheduled to run as sprinter trains, reducing journey times by 5-7 minutes on those services.

The 6:50am weekday coach from Tocumwal to Shepparton will depart at 6:30am, connecting with the retimed 10:14am train from Seymour to Southern Cross Station. – The 7:55am coach from Seymour to Shepparton will no longer run because of the new train service.

Cheers
allthestations