Alongside the Wimmera Highway where it crosses the Wimmera River at Quantong, this bridge is in fairly good condition. It is of approximately 138 Metres in length, all wooden construction over a large and fairly full river.
Robert Redman advises that the nearby bridges over the river flats were dismantled by the Victorian Goldfields Railway, with the blessing of Victrack, in order to provide timbers for the repair of a bridge on their line near Castlemaine.
This photo shows D3 641 approaching the Wimmera River bridge
on 11-11-1957 with the weekly Balmoral to Horsham goods. It was very
rare to get a D3 on this train which normally was a J, K or N.
Robert Redman advises that the nearby bridges over the river flats were dismantled by the Victorian Goldfields Railway, with the blessing of Victrack, in order to provide timbers for the repair of a bridge on their line near Castlemaine.
Yet timbers on the bridge indicate that sections were replaced in 1984, not long before the line closed in late 1986. There was a proposal in the early
80's to relay the line with heavier rail as far as East Natimuk so bigger
diesels could haul GJX type hopper wagons to service the large grain facility
at East Natimuk, and this could explain the repairs.
An oldie but goodie from Des Jowett, showing J503 on an Up Goroke to Horsham goods on January 6th. 1962. It is shown crossing Natimuk Creek just west of the town of Natimuk.
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| Photo by Des Jowett |
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| Photo by Des Jowett |
Video Clip
This clip is best viewed in full screen and high definition 1080p.
This time Ian captured a takeoff with the Phantom in slo-mo at 1/10 speed.
Hi Geoff, thanks for your very interesting videos - I was amazed to see the condition of this bridge so many years after closure. With regards to the other nearby trestles being demolished I think they were removed by Vicroads or another government agency as a public safety thing at the same time as the nearby Wimmera Highway was straightened to remove the S-bend created by a level crossing as the line skews south towards East Natimuk. I believe the authorities also want to demolish the Wimmera River crossing but because it's a local landmark and tourist attraction they haven't been able to follow though... yet.
ReplyDeleteHi Ivan, I just got an email from Robert Redman advising me that the bridges over the river flats were dismantled by the Victorian Goldfields Railway with the blessing of Victrack to provide timbers to repair a trestle bridge on their line near Castlemaine. AS I was told by the homewstead owner at Kanagulk, they tried to demolish that bridge as well but were stopped by a heritage order.
ReplyDeleteOkay thanks interesting story, I did recall correctly that those low-level flood plain trestles had been demolished on purpose but the actual Wimmera crossing has some degree of protection; it's a popular local photo spot apparently. Perhaps like Nimon's Bridge it might be restored as a Rail Trail bridge one day.
DeleteI have edited the text to incorporate the information received.
ReplyDeleteThank-you again for the additional photos from when the line was operational -
ReplyDeleteThere were several low-level trestles no longer there but good to see that this and Kanagulk are still intact, probably the most spectacular bridges on the old line. Greg Walcott's story about saving the bridge from demolition also v.good, we would have had nothing to show future generations in the district.
Greg seems very interested in preserving our heritage, as witness the excellent work he has done on his own homestead. But unfortunately highlights the issue that drives me to document these bridges, that some officious fool can decide to destroy something which in reality is no threat to anyone.
ReplyDeleteThe Des Jowett picture of the J class crossing Natimuk creek says that the bridge is east of Natimuk. this bridge is actually West of Natimuk.
ReplyDeleteThanks Lance, I* will amend the photo caption. That was my mistake actually.
Deletefurther to above the bridge over the flood plain west of the river bridge had all of the horizontal timbers taken off and away by VGR. this was used to complete the bridge at Winters flat, Unfortunately they also removed the 12 span section and the 5 span section of the original river bridge. In between these spans the bridge had been filled in with earth after WW1. VGR claim that they did not touch the river bridge which is only true if you count the remaining 29 spans across the actual river. They would have known that what they removed was part of the original bridge by the pier numbers starting at 1 on the 5 span section.Their heritage gain becomes someone else's heritage loss.The seperate bridge section over the floodplain was at least half a mile from the rail crossing and its removal had nothing at all to do with the removal of the S bend there.
ReplyDeleteThank you for that information.
ReplyDelete