An abandoned train station begs to be explored, don’t you think? When we spotted a Sunday market on the grounds of the Trentham Train Station we diverted our course to have a look.
Trentham is a little town nestled between Woodend and Daylesford, Victoria. It is approximately an hour from Melbourne, so perfect for a day trip with lots of weekend cafes, curiosity stores and some great gourmet delights.
The Trentham Train Station opened on Monday, 16 February 1880, and was closed on Monday, 3 July 1978. In its glory days, the station was one of the stops between the Carlsruhe / Daylesford run which is no longer used. The station has been abandoned for over 35 years. The tracks are now overgrown and many of the old train carriages are rotting although the site continues to be zoned for railway use and maintained for the occasional weekend market. This allows lots of exploration!
With no danger of incoming trains, Master R and Miss N were able to explore the area. They jumped down from the platform to the tracks to see how deep it was; checked the distance between the two tracks and confirmed they were consistent between the Eastbound and Westbound (thankfully!); and spent a great deal of time looking at the carriages. We then counted the tracks (there are 5) and the platforms (there are 2).
The carriages fascinated both kidlets. They poked the wheels and noted that they are quite hard and heavy. You certainly can’t turn them by hand. They looked at the connection points between carriages (we’re going to look up what they’re called) and then developed their own hypothesis about the use of the various carriages back when they were in working order. They wondered aloud why they are all a brown/red colour, theorising that it was so the Trentham red dirt doesn’t show up on them. I’m curious if this is the real reason! They also put their ears to the tracks to hear trains in the distance. With the tracks not working they didn’t hear much other than the vibrations of the wind!
The signal posts were something that also intrigued both kidlets. How are they used? What did they do when they were operational? Which led to further questions around the field of site and whether the train driver used binoculars. Obviously, we need to go on a trip to a working train museum!!!
Exciting! Abandoned train stations are lots of fun. My ballet school growing up was in an abandoned train station. It’s still there now. The local theatre group used one of the other old station buildings to store all their costumes. It’s only in hindsight that I realise how unique that was!