Gallery of images for this section.
The task of extracting the track details and converting them to text to provide the basis of a a mental picture of its progress through the countryside is quite complex and very time consuming. Please excuse what might be convoluted text in places and be prepared to see many changes as I try different ways of prsenting it, adding and subtracting information, before it finally settles. There will be some incidental notes here and there for my own positioning.
There is a lot do before I get comfortable with the presentation. The alternative would have been not to include it until it was completed but I did not want to do that.
Contract No. 2629 covered the task of leaving the North East line where it crossed The Great Dividing Range at what is now called Heathcote Junction, negotiating a path through the range to the 10M point, just beyond Kilmore. The contract plans are used as a reference for these track alignment notes and original dimensioning and terminology is used. These pages are a mixture of 1886 and modern day to provide a comparison of then and now.
Contract 2629 commences at the railway fence at a named Commencement of Contract No. 2629 point at a local mileage of 0M 7C 83L, or 33M 24C 34L from Melbourne. It is in a cutting with sides up to 16'3" high but only a little over 8' high where the contract commences. The physical connection to the main line at 33M 16C 51L was not included. On a 15.15C radius left curve, the line progresses through Cutting 1 on a slight up grade, passes under an unnamed (Epping-Kilmore Road) Bridge over Railway, straightens, and cuts a fence, enters a 20C radius left curve, and enters bank 1 where it crosses a culvert.
The line enters Cutting 2, with sides up to 24.3', commences a down grade and cuts through 2 garden fences, exiting to a long Bank 2, passes a diverted dam, levels, straightens, crosses a 3' barrel culvert, commences an up grade, enters Cutting 3 with sides up to 27.6', crosses an Occupation crossing and a culvert, cuts a log fence, enters a 20C radius left curve, exits at a diverted gully and continues into Bank 3 and crosses a culvert. The line straightens, and crosses an unnamed road (Arkell's Lane, first time) PCR Crossing with 13'6" gates.
The line continues, cuts a log fence, crosses a culvert, and continues along a diverted road, between John Yoakim Dow's and Thomas Nolan's properties, and reaches the 1M point - 34M 16C 51L from Melbourne.
It continues along Bank 4, passes a diverted gully, commences a 1 in 50 up grade, enters Cutting 5, exits to Bank 5, crosses a culvert, enters Cutting 6, followed by Bank 6 with a culvert, enters Cutting 7 on the level, enters a 20C radius right curve, enters a 1 in 50 up grade into Bank 7, passes a diverted log fence, crosses a culvert, enters Cutting 8, levels before its exit, enters Bank 8, enters a 1 in 50 grade, crosses a culvert, an Occupation crossing, straightens, crosses a culvert, and enters a surface formation, reaching the 2M point - 34M 16C 51L from Melbourne.
Continuing on the up grade, the line enters Cutting 9, cuts a log fence, enters a 70C radius left curve, enters a long Bank 9, crosses a culvert, runs through Cutting 10, enters Bank 10, crosses a culvert, straightens, enters Cutting 11, enters a 30C radius right curve, in the middle of which, it enters named Leslies Siding.
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