Bacchus Marsh railway station

Bacchus Marsh railway station is located on the Serviceton line in Victoria, Australia. It opened on 10 February 1887, and serves the town of the same name, although the station is in the southern suburb of Maddingley.

There used to be a number of sidings opposite the station which were used to stable trains that ran to and from Bacchus Marsh. It also has an operational 70 ft turntable, used mainly for turning steam locomotives on special trains.

History
Bacchus Marsh opened as a temporary terminus of the line from Melbourne. On 4 December 1889, the line further west to Ballan was opened, which completed the direct Melbourne to Ballarat railway. Like Bacchus Marsh itself, the station was named after an early European settler, Captain William Henry Bacchus.

The contract for the construction of the station building was awarded in 1889, for £1809/8/11. A signal box, with a 45-lever interlocking frame, was brought into use in 1890. By that time, the station had a main platform, with a dock platform at the eastern end, as well as a crossing loop, turntable, and a number of sidings. The station was originally provided with a 53 ft turntable. In 1957, it was replaced by the 70 ft unit.

In the late 1940s, brown coal, mined at the nearby Maddingley Mine, began to be transported in large quantities by rail, with dedicated trains operating between Bacchus Marsh and the APM Siding in the Melbourne suburb of Fairfield. The coal was used to fire the boilers at the Australian Paper Manufacturers paper mill, with 400 tonnes of coal carried in two trains per day. That traffic continued until the late 1970s, when the boilers at the mill were converted to natural gas firing.

Trains on the single track line were controlled with the Electric Staff system until 1967, when the Automatic and Track Control (ATC) system was provided. At the same time, boom barriers replaced hand-operated gates at the Parwan Road level crossing, located nearby in the down direction, and remote control of the signals at Bank Box crossing loop was provided, with the same being done to the track towards the Parwan Loop in 1987.

During 1987, a number of changes to the station layout occurred, including the removal of a number of points and signals, and the sleeving of a number of levers in the signal box. In 1990, control of the signals at Rockbank was moved into the signal box. In 1993, the No. 3 road was abolished and, in 1994, No. 3A road was abolished.

In 2005, as part of the Regional Fast Rail project, the control of signals was relocated to Ballarat, and the platform was extended eastwards, in order to increase the speed of trains passing through the curve at the western end of the station. In addition, the curves in the Parwan Creek valley were eased to allow for higher speeds. In 2008, 160 additional car parks were provided at the station.

At the 2016/2017 Victorian State Budget, money was allocated for an additional platform and crossing loop, and he relocation of the stabling facilities to nearby Rowsley. Those works were part of the $518 million Regional Rail Revival project along the Ballarat line, which included the duplication of the line between Deer Park West and Melton, and between Warrenheip and Ballarat East, additional crossing loops at Bungaree, and at Ballan (including an extra platform), and stabling facilities at Maddingley. By February 2021, work along the line was completed and new services were introduced.

A now-demolished station Parwan was located between Bacchus Marsh and Melton, while former stations at Rowsley and Ingliston, located between Bacchus Marsh and Ballan, have also been closed and demolished.

Platforms and services
Bacchus Marsh has two side platforms and is served by V/Line Ballarat and Ararat line trains. During peak periods, a number of services begin and terminate at the station.

Platform 1:
 * services to Southern Cross
 * services to Southern Cross
 * one daily service to Southern Cross

Platform 2:
 * services to Wendouree
 * services to Ararat

Transport links
Bacchus Marsh Coaches operates three routes via Bacchus Marsh station, under contract to Public Transport Victoria:
 * : Bacchus Marsh – Hillview Estate (Maddingley)
 * : to Telford Park (Darley)
 * : to Darley

External links & further reading

 * Newsrail September 1984 pp. 260–263
 * Victorian Railway Stations gallery
 * Melway map at street-directory.com.au