COPYRIGHT NOTICE

Increasingly, photos from this website are being used in both commercial situations as well as being uploaded onto social media websites. 

Australian Copyright law is very clear. The person who took the photo, or scanned the material, owns the copyright to that image.  That digital image cannot be used in any way without the permission of the copyright holder. 

Lately, commercial sites have been increasingly using photos from this website. Our position is this. To use a photo for commercial situations requires permission from the copyright holder as well as an offer to provide a sample of the work (book) that the photo appears in. If the photo is used to promote a model, an offer to provide a model needs to be made or an offer to provide financial remuneration.

ABOUT

This website was started in 2002 as a place for me to throw a few of my photos of the Victorian Railways onto. A few photos led to photos of wagons and then locos and then signal diagrams and before I knew it the website was on the way to becomming a repository for all things VR. I never dreamt that when I started this page it would be getting 1,000 unique visitors per week. At the bottom of this page I list all of the people who have contributed to this website. 

WANTED

A website like this is only possible by the generous contributions of many fellow railfans who share their photos and information. Maybe you have material that can be shared with fellow lovers of the Victorian Railways?    

This website places a premium on good quality photos. My rule of thumb is this. Generally high quality photos are the norm, but as we go back in time, the quality requirement diminishes. For example. No known photos exist of the Kilmore to Lancefield line so ANY photos of trains or stations on that line would be used. Conversely, many photos exist at the well worn railfan location like Heathcote Jct. or West Footscray in the 70s or 80s. So a photo from there needs to be of high quality unless it is of a very rare event. This website has a nominal cut off date of 1983 although some photos after 1983 do appear.  BELOW are subjects I currently would welcome photos of:

Any track and/or signal diagrams of old Portland (the station by the sea) 

Any photo, pre 1983 of the Yanac, and in particular, Jeparit to Yaapeet line.  

Any good quality photos of stations (or trains showing infrastructure) on the Mt Gambier line 

ANY photos of the Kilmore to Lancefield line, before or just after closure.

Pre 1960 photos of any facet of the VR 

Photos at Benalla and Wangaratta, particularly photos that show signals,signalboxes, infrastructure. 

Hamilton B box, Coleraine junction signal box and signals.

Thanks to the following people for making this website possible.

First and foremost, any student of the Victorian Railways owes a huge debt of gratitude to my good friend Peter Vincent. I first met Peter in 1977 and he simply said, "all the old stuff is getting cut up, photograph everything NOW" Due to his work over many years, the Victorian Railways is the best documented railway, as far as rolling stock is concerned, of any railway in the world. 

Other people worthy of special mention are Phil Dunn who saved so many rolling stock records from oblivion and freely makes them available to serious students of the VR and always answers my incessant questions on early VR locos and rollingstock. 

Chris Wurr, an almost lifelong friend (we met way back in 1981) and former workmate who constantly provides his outstanding images for us to enjoy as well as his safeworking knowledge.

David Langley, the President of the Victorian Signal Record Society who I have had the privilege of being good friends with for more years than I care to remember and can always be counted on to provide signal diagrams/timetables and answer questions at all hours of the day. 

Des Jowett, another fellow workmate and noted VR historian who never fails to answer my most obscure questions.

Keith Lambert and the late Alan Jungwirth who combed through every Weekly Notice and produced an amazing book known as the Weekly Notice Extracts 1894-1994 which is invaluable in dating photos and writing captions 

Trevor Penn who has become a modern day Charles Gavan Duffy with his deep knowledge of all things VR.  

A special thank you to Colin Rutledge who has made available so many ancient infrastructure and safeworking plans and drawings.

Rob O'Regan, Geoff Winkler, Tony Smith, Warren Banfield, Neville Gee, Doug Miles, John Ward, Brian McClure, Bob Wilson, Ross Gorman, Stuart Lodington, the late Rod Williams, Barry Cooper, Noel Bamford, Ron Woods, Laurie Boyle, Lance Cross, Kent Smiley, John McPhee, Rick Eberle, Paul Davis, the late Sean Kelly, Matthew Davis, Geoff Baxter, Robin Rodgers, Tony Petterson, Bill Perusich, Andrew Hennell, the late Frank Kelly, John Gilbert, Greg Dixon, Tony Tuchio.

A special mention to the crew that have continued to produce Newsrail, THE definitive record of the Victorian Railways. If you don't already, please consider subscribing to this wonderful magazine.  

And lastly, my good mate Ross Jepson, a workmate and fellow spark driver for many years, who has recently come on board to do much of the grunt work on this website.