The Flinders Street Viaduct // Melbourne's Elevated City Railway!

The Flinders Street Viaduct is a ~730m long section of elevated railway running between Melbourne's two biggest and busiest stations, Southern Cross and Flinders Street, built in three stages between 1891 and 1978.

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All photographs and video not otherwise credited on screen are taken by Martin Bennet (me).
This video also features some footage (and a short cameo) by ‪@Rheilffordd‬, please check out his channel for some great Australian transport content!

Historic still images were sourced from the State Library Victoria archive: https://www.slv.vic.gov.au/
And the late Victorian rail photographer Weston Langford's collection: https://www.westonlangford.com/

The credit music is by my brother Cian, who also provided equipment and expertise in recording my voice-over, and assisted with some camera work on this video (most of the hand-held shots under the viaduct were shot by Cian). Check out his music here: https://hyperfollow.com/cianbennetmusic

Steam on the viaduct
-Watch the full video on the steam whistle shows here:    • Steam Over the Viaduct - Steamrail's Snow ...  
-If you'd like to see it yourself, you can check for upcoming heritage train operations here: https://www.steamrail.com.au/tours
-Anything going east of the city will use the viaduct. Trains from the Hurstbridge and Mernda lines will generally operate over the 'old' viaduct, so not clearly visible from across the river. All other eastern steam specials use the 'new' viaduct with the best view.

Chapters:

00:00 - Arguably, the most important piece of rail infrastructure in the entire state
00:42 - Tramming along at 4mph
00:59 - The early days, the wiggly bits
02:35 - 20th century evolution
04:58 - Thousands of fish/The Whale Days
06:04 - Something actually useful/A bit noisy
06:38 - Operations in 2024
08:42 - Trams too
09:10 - A close look at the Old Viaduct
14:06 - Banana Alley
14:50 - Some early concept art
15:32 - The viaduct whistle show
16:24 - A turtle

#melbourne #railway #train #history