Operation Phoenix (railway) - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

Operation Phoenix was a post World War II

World War II

World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...

rehabilitation program carried out by the Victorian Railways

Victorian Railways

The Victorian Railways operated railways in the Australian state of Victoria from 1859 to 1983. The first railways in Victoria were private companies, but when these companies failed or defaulted, the Victorian Railways was established to take over their operations...

(VR) in Australia

Australia

Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...

. The program commenced in 1950 and was originally planned to take 10 years and cost £80 million pounds

Australian pound

The pound was the currency of Australia from 1910 until 13 February 1966, when it was replaced by the Australian dollar. It was subdivided into 20 shillings, each of 12 pence.- Earlier Australian currencies :...

. Operation Phoenix was named after the bird from Egyptian mythology

Phoenix (mythology)

The phoenix or phenix is a mythical sacred firebird that can be found in the mythologies of the Arabian, Persians, Greeks, Romans, Egyptians, Chinese, Indian and Phoenicians....

Background

The Victorian Railways of the 1930s and 1940s had become run down, with years of economic depression, the war effort, and material shortages resulting in a general decline. At the time it was expected that a railway the size of VR should have been building 25 locomotives, 30 to 40 carriages, and 500 wagons per year, as well as relaying 60 miles of track. In reality VR were only able to build an average of 4 locomotives and 200 wagons per year, and these gains had been counteracted by long overdue scrappings.

When World War II hit, the VR had no chance to rebuild, with resources being directed towards the war effort, only patch up work and essential maintenance was possible. Furthermore, passenger travel had been restricted by government, then cut even further due to fuel shortages, with trains taking longer and buffet carriages removed. Despite this, in 1948-49 country passenger business was up 76 percent on that of 1938-39, which were considered the best pre war years, and suburban traffic was up 22 percent. In addition goods traffic was up by 53 percent, with more goods being handled than any of the war years.

After the end of the war, rebuilding work begun in a small way, with new steel, air conditioned carriages built, as well as new sleeping cars for The Overland. However, the growth in patronage was due to a lack of alternate transport, with wartime petrol rationing still in force. Passengers were unimpressed with the service provided, and were looking for someone to blame. In 1949 a review of the Victorian Railways was commissioned by transport minister Kent Hughes, and was carried out by British Railways Chief Executive John Elliot. The report found much to admire in the management and staff, but criticised the run down locomotives, rolling stock, and track and predicted a 'final breakdown of rail transport' in ten years if nothing was done. The ideas of the report were not new, the Victorian Railways had been making plans for modernisation of their operations, but did not have the money or political will to implement them.

Works

Operation Phoenix was conceived to address these issues, and took 18 months of planning before it was publicly released. As a whole the program would cost £83 million pounds, with £40 million pounds to be spent on rolling stock, including:

350 steam and diesel locomotives
30 railcars
290 steel passenger cars
280 suburban passenger carriages
9000 goods wagons
300 goods vans

Capital works took up the other 43 million, and were planned to cover:

An underground railway between a new Richmond station
Richmond railway station, Melbourne
Richmond is a railway station in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, located in the suburb of Richmond. It is classed as a Premium Station and is in Metcard Zone 1.-Facilities:...

and North Melbourne
North Melbourne railway station
North Melbourne is a railway station located on the northern edge of the central business district of Melbourne, Australia. The station is the point through which pass the west and north-west bound Craigieburn, Flemington Racecourse, Sydenham, Upfield, Werribee and Williamstown suburban railway...

via the north of the Melbourne CBD. (not realised until the City Loop of the 1980s)
track modernisation, rebuilding, regrading and duplication
Double track
A double track railway usually involves running one track in each direction, compared to a single track railway where trains in both directions share the same track.- Overview :...

of existing lines
replacement of timber bridges to permit heavier trains
modernisation of locomotives depots and workshops
reconstruction and expending Melbourne Yard and associated goods sheds

Initial projects included:

100 steam locomotives
17 diesel electric locomotives
10 diesel electric shunting locomotives
30 self propelled railcars
1000 goods wagons

Electrification
Railway electrification system
A railway electrification system supplies electrical energy to railway locomotives and multiple units as well as trams so that they can operate without having an on-board prime mover. There are several different electrification systems in use throughout the world...

, regrading and duplication
Double track
A double track railway usually involves running one track in each direction, compared to a single track railway where trains in both directions share the same track.- Overview :...

of the main Gippsland line
Orbost railway line
The Orbost railway line is a railway serving the Latrobe Valley and Gippsland regions of Victoria, Australia...

from Dandenong to Traralgon, to cope with demand for Morwell brown coal and to reduce the dependence on New South Wales coal
Energy in Victoria
The primary energy source for the generation of electricity in the State of Victoria is brown coal - one of the largest contributors to Australia's total domestic greenhouse gas emissions. Brown coal is used for the generation of approximately 85 percent of Victoria's household, commercial and...

.
importation of electric locos
new substation
Electrical substation
A substation is a part of an electrical generation, transmission, and distribution system. Substations transform voltage from high to low, or the reverse, or perform any of several other important functions...

s on the suburban railway lines

To ensure the earliest possible delivery, the construction of the steam locomotives, railcars, and half of the wagons was contracted to British firms, with 18 of the railcars had already been completed by 1950. The major components for the mainline diesel electric locomotives were to be imported from the United States, dependent on the allocation of foreign exchange funds

Foreign exchange market

The foreign exchange market is a global, worldwide decentralized financial market for trading currencies. Financial centers around the world function as anchors of trading between a wide range of different types of buyers and sellers around the clock, with the exception of weekends...

from the federal government.

The remainder of the new rolling stock was constructed by the VR's own workshops, including 20 of the 'N class

Victorian Railways N class

The N class was a branch line steam locomotive that ran on Victorian Railways from 1925 to 1966. A development of the successful K class 2-8-0, it was the first VR locomotive class designed for possible conversion from 5 ft 3 in broad gauge to 4 ft 8½ in standard gauge.-History:In 1923, in...

' steam engines, 14 new air conditioned passenger cars, and 2 new suburban trains.

Funding difficulties

After the 1951-52 financial year, the Victorian Railways were almost £6 million pounds

Australian pound

in deficit. Freight rates and passenger fares were increased, but the VR still did not expect to make ends meet. The program of works for 1952-53 was intended to be £12.5 million pounds, and was intended to cover the duplication of the Alamein line between Camberwell and Ashburton, track amplification between Flinders Street and South Yarra, a new Richmond station

Richmond railway station, Melbourne

Richmond is a railway station in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, located in the suburb of Richmond. It is classed as a Premium Station and is in Metcard Zone 1.-Facilities:...

, importation of 1500 precut houses from England for railway staff, and the purchase of equipment for the use of pulverised brown coal in steam locomotives.

However loans became difficult to negotiate due to money market issues, and so the budget for Operation Phoenix was cut back to £6.8 million pounds. Capital works were slowed, with the loss of employment for many men, and hundreds of thousands of pounds of material were held in storage. Works on the Gippsland electrification was to be completed to Warragul station by 1953, but due to the funding cuts the time line was revised to 1954. 500 of the precut houses were cancelled, the Victorian contribution to joint carriage stock for use on the The Overland was cut to 6 sitting cars, and work at Newport Railway Workshops

Newport Railway Workshops

The Newport Railway Workshops is a facility in the Melbourne suburb of Newport, Victoria, Australia, that builds, maintains and refurbishes railway rollingstock. It is located between the Williamstown and Werribee railway lines.-History:...

building locomotives, carriages and livestock trucks was suspended. Outside rolling stock contractors were also told to slow down, and to defer claims for progress payments until the 1953-54 financial year.

By June 1952 the rolling stock situation was:

All 50 of the N class
Victorian Railways N class
The N class was a branch line steam locomotive that ran on Victorian Railways from 1925 to 1966. A development of the successful K class 2-8-0, it was the first VR locomotive class designed for possible conversion from 5 ft 3 in broad gauge to 4 ft 8½ in standard gauge.-History:In 1923, in...

steam locomotive order in service
64 of the 70 strong R class
Victorian Railways R class
The R class was an express passenger steam locomotive that ran on Australia's Victorian Railways from 1951 to 1974. A long overdue replacement for the 1907-era A2 class 4-6-0, their development and construction was repeatedly delayed due to financial constraints caused by the Great Depression and...

steam locomotive order in service
60 J class
Victorian Railways J class
The J class was a branch line steam locomotive that ran on Victorian Railways from 1954 to 1972. A development of the successful Victorian Railways K class 2-8-0, it was the last new class of steam locomotive introduced on the VR...

steam locomotives on order
10 F class diesel shunting locomotives delivered
26 B class main line diesels on order
25 L class
Victorian Railways L class (electric)
The Victorian Railways L class was a class of mainline electric locomotive that ran on the Victorian Railways and its successor V/Line from 1953 until 1987...

electrics on order
All 30 of the Walker railcars in service
DERM
Diesel Electric railmotor (VR)
The Diesel Electric Rail Motor was a railmotor operated by the Victorian Railways of Australia.-History:...

fleet refurbished
137 goods wagons built by the VR workshops
1825 open wagons built by outside contractors

By the end of that year five of the B class diesels and five more R classes were in service.

Outcomes

By 1953 the new mainline diesels were running 3000 miles (4,828 km) a week, four times as far as the best steam locomotives. An hour had been cut from long distance passenger trains to Adelaide, Bairnsdale, Warrnambool, Mildura, and other were also sped up with the delivery of further locomotives. Electrification of the Gippsland line was completed to Warragul in 1954 and to Traralgon in 1956 at a total cost of £6.3 million pounds, but electrification did not spread to the other country railways as originally intended by Operation Phoenix, as the new diesel locomotives were more cost effective than the electrics. Dieselisation

Dieselisation

Dieselisation or dieselization is a term generally used for the increasingly common use of diesel fuel in vehicles, as opposed to gasoline or steam engines.-Water Transport:...

of the Victorian Railways continued, with the T class

Victorian Railways T class (diesel)

The Victorian Railways T class diesel electric locomotive are a small branch line and shunting unit built by Clyde Engineering . They were the most numerous class of diesel locomotives in the state....

branchline locomotives delivered from 1955. Operation Phoenix was also the peak of capital spending on the Victorian railways, the expenditure during 1950-51 was not exceeded until 1984-85.

Background

Works

Funding difficulties

Outcomes

See also