What Remains of the Belmont Railway Spur?

hello I'm back thank you so much for sticking around and clicking on the video I know it's been a few months since I've released a video but long story short I was suffering some from some pretty bad burnout late last year but since retro gameon is now back in full production swing I figured I better do the same for Brendan's Odyssey and it's been a bit of a frustrating experience to say the least I've had a couple of false starts which hopefully turn into a video sooner or later but I figured to just get things started just ease myself over the line cuz the first videos you make on the return are always the hardest I was just going to combine my three loves which is basically making videos riding my bike and local history So today we're going to be checking out the remains of the Belmont Spur Line which was a train line that ran off the Midland line to Ascot race course and you know going over the river and all that uh long story short this was dismantled in the mid1 1950s but today on my bike we're going to retrace it retrace its steps enough of awkwardly standing around in my garage however let's hop on my bike and head down to where the line started the Belmont Railway spur also known as the perf race course Railway or the Belmont Branch ran from the baywater portion of the Eastern Railway over the Swan River and terminated at the per race in Ascot this operated from 1885 to 1956 and included two stations wetley which was near where it spurred from the Eastern Railway and another at its Terminus next to the race course this road line doesn't appear to be welln so I'm eager to discover what remains back in the 1850s even though it was only several decades after per was established horse riding was already very common because you know English people since this was 170 years ago transport was limited most jockeys rode their horses to the track While others would even swim across the river as there was no Bridge a section of the Riverside was known as horse Landing which one of my sources claims still exists the description of the location is vague though simply stating that it's just Downstream of where the spur lines Bridge was my educated guess is this little beach that juts out of the foliage it's close to where the bridge was and the river is ever so slightly Slimmer in that spot I can only go back in time as far as the 1950s but it appears the River Bank there hasn't changed that much later a pulley system was devised to transport horses across but finally a foot Bridge was built in 1881 this call coincided with the opening of the Guilford def free manal line and was intended as easy access for the residents of Belmont interestingly this structure included a drawbridge this was operated by the caretaker of the race course and incurred a toll to be lifted for River traffic supposedly this was situated approximately 1 km Upstream from the present day Garrett Road Bridge which is essentially where the Railway Bridge was built soon after proposals for the railway route went all the way back to 1874 and this included routes that loop back back around to per instead of terminating in Ascot this was continuously proposed over the years even when the line was built here's another proposition in a 1947 road map where it connects to the bwood station however these ideas would all eventually be squashed by funding issues several world wars and push back from whoever would be negatively affected by a new train line in an established area so a Spur Line at stayed until demolition the railway corridor from basw waterer to the river was actually originally surveyed for a railway line to the town of bumbrey 180 km south of Perth this was eventually changed to a different more dir route but it likely kickstarted the construction of our Belmont Line Construction started as a single track spur in 1885 but for now it would just be to the river as per the original survey for the bumbrey line the railway was terminated at the river and boats would FY punter as across back to the present day however this is where the line would have originally spurred off from the Eastern Railway today the location is home to a very different Railway Junction this original portion of the Eastern Railway is still commuter rail and runs from the suburb of Midland to the city of Perth however there is now a Spur Line heading from here to the airport all of which is underground and the nearest rail line to open on the trans per Network additionally heading north from here will soon be the Ellenbrook line which is due to open later this year this includes the construction of a massive fire duct that runs from tonen Highway to the newly built baywater station and I think it's pretty cool but regardless of all that the Belmont Spur Line deviated from the Midland line and cross the old alignment of Guilford Road by mik estimate the level crossing was more or less in line of this fence I've guessed that by switching between old and new aerial photographs on late's map viewer interestingly this stretch of newon street is still on the original alignment of Guilford Road although it has looked like this for a very long time Gilford Road had been altered to its much straighter current alignment by 1961 still this area would be unrecognizable to anyone from the 1950s three train lines Gilford Road and tonen Highway all currently converge in this spot I'm sure it would have been much quieter back then that's for sure the railway would have passed through the land something like this up to where Watley station was even from over here we can see that the area is still vacant land Watley railway station was just south of the intersection of hiin way and Wyatt Road the area around the station is completely different now except the alignment of Wyatt Road mostly remains unchanged that is of course except for the fact that it didn't appear to cross the railway line at all this is difficult to tell from this grainy aerial photograph and a bit ambiguous on this 1918 street directory but while I wasn't able to find any clear photos luckily I have this cartographic map from 1934 thank goodness for the state archive it's clear on this map that white Road didn't cross the railway it also shows how basic the station was it's hard to read but that text in the black says rail level Landing my guess is that means there was no platforms instead possibly something like compacted Earth let me know if you think otherwise I couldn't spot any structures on this Landing either but there was an instruments's cabin next to six levers I also wonder what EC stood for comparing old and new aerial imagery I think the station started about here and ended here seemed fairly long but it would be cool to find more information the closest photos I found were OB a sign for the station likely heading out considering the curves of the track and another showing a wooden shelter that shelter could be anywhere on the track but I do believe it's the same curve as before just the camera is facing in the opposite direction the topography makes sense too if you consider this Sandy Bank the purpose of the map is the old man's Camp to the east their words not mine they were otherwise known as the Watley Park pensioners who were for the most part ex- Railway workers who decided to live simple lives off the land in retirement this map shows the location of each dwelling and who occupied it a bunch of names have also been crossed off presumably when they died and their house was demolished if you would like to read more about the Watley Park pensioners I will link to a great article about them in the description on a Blog called the dusty box besides the Suburbia that skirts around it this area has remained quite Barren I'm surprised it's been kept vacant for so many years well let's hop back on the bike and head towards the one River continuing to retrace the route of the line now I couldn't find a reliable source for a date but sometime throughout the 1880s or 1890s the line was extended over the Swan River and a new railway station was built at the racecourse then in 1896 a survey was undertaken for the line to be duplicated including a parallel bridge for both safety and traffic reasons this cost 5,500 and was completed by 1898 they would have run parallel to where this temporary storage yard is the fact they would have been parallel makes sense when you check the boundaries those lots look like they may have been Market Gardens or something like that back then but the boundaries remain and are owned by the council now and can be used for the storage yard coincidentally the storage yard is used by Metronet who were building the Elmbrook line I referred to earlier further up the line would have run along right Cresent which did exist at the time but back then was called Belmont Road trains to the racehorse included special carriages to accommodate the horses apparently up to 60 horses could travel per train trickily jockeys and staple hands would hide in the horse compartments for a free ride several local brick works also used the line to transport products to the river where assume the journey continued by boat additionally there were picnic trains these transported passengers to the riverfront where they could have a nice picnic and I can confirm I've picniced there before it's very nice the train would then continue to the race course and turn back around to pick up the picnickers neither of these Services benefited the local residents that much besides the commercial runs trains for the picnics were ticketed events and the other trains only ran on Race days disgruntled residents formed the ascort progression Association in 1901 through lobbying and petitions they eventually received more regular rail service these were still never regular enough however and the petitioning continued throughout the early 1900s back to me and my bike we're now approaching the modernday Riverside Gardens this includes a massive dog park a bird sanctuary and plenty of otherwise open and green space like I said before it's a great place to have a picnic by the river the race course is still quite prominent on the other side too an interesting odity I found nearby was this an olive tree a park next to it says it was planted around 1850 and since there was no church in baywater yet the surfaces were held under its shade it's amazing it still stands considering how much development has gone on around it since the 18 ' 50s we're approaching the river now and I should be right online where the track was there really are no signs there was a railway here at all any sort of earthw works that might have existed is long gone let alone anything like ballast or sleepers but hold on what is that I can spot in the distance this unassuming mound of dirt is theorized to be for the bridges that once existed this was highlighted in an old flicker post by user purple worm in 2009 that post was how I originally learned about this Old Railway it's a bit hard to see but if you squint the outlines of the bank kind of line up between captures of historical imagery I wouldn't expect it to be an exact match after Decades of landscaping and development but the fury holds water these days however there's nothing up top except for weeds a power pole and a survey Mark what does remain on the River Bank however are portions of the bridge itself there's not too much to see granted but if you visit the river when the water is clear enough you can spot a few stumps and other pieces of wood also jellyfish lots of jellyfish there's also this notice board nearby that's mostly for marine safety since there is a boat ramp it does include some historical information but sadly there's no mention at all of the Railway that would have run straight past it oh well let's make our way along the river across the Garrett Road Bridge and continue our journey to where the Spur Line would have ended by 1930 there was a proposal that the city of Belmont should buy the Railway Bridge and convert it into a road bridge instead since there still wasn't a connection to bazat over the River apparently residents were walking along the Railway Bridge to cross since it was their only unsafe Choice without having to Tre kilometers up the River Bank in either direction thankfully for all involved the Garrett Road Bridge was instead built in 1935 sorry might squee faster excuse me excuse me after that ordal we can make our way up along the river again this time parallel to the race course which still operates to this day our destination is good Reserve to see what remains on that end it was obvious right away that there are way more remains here including more defined sections of wood and chunks of concrete I know it's still not the most exciting thing in the world but it's nice to see some sort of tangible evidence of a railway that's been so expertly wiped off the map plus more jellyfish and even though it's a lot more landscaped than the opposite side of the river I'm pretty sure the remains of the Bridge's Earth Mound is here too also highlighted in purple worms 2009 flicker post up here the railway would have run right down the guts of this trotting area traveling down this accessway I spotted this sign shunting trains no parking it says we can't know for sure it was from this Railway in particular but we're pretty far from any others let's continue down the old Route this proved difficult on a road bike however my thin tires are no match for the soft sand I ended up carrying my bike out of there because I was worried about the fine sand screwing up my gears and [Music] brakes it's here the line would have curved around to its Terminus I'm unable to follow the exact route here as it would have been on Race Course grounds behind a fence but there's a nice wide path along maon Road for my bike instead this feels way better than the unsealed accessway during the time of the Railway beon Road was instead called Cambridge cresant which would have led to the Racecourse train station we can head right to where the train station was because it's now a car park according to aerial photography the race course didn't muck around constructing it either this capture from early 1961 shows that the whole site has already being raised although it appears parts of the platform survived until the 1970s while there are no remains of the train station itself there is something I want to see a park commemorating the side of the station it's not much but it's the only physical recognition of the Railway spur that I know of and since I just explored the entire route on my bike I would like to think I would have spotted it so why is there just a plk here instead of a station in an active Railway well by 1955 both Bridges were in bad condition the state government decided to close one completely but did repair the other this was short lived however as that then caught on fire in 1956 this was believed to have been started by a spark from a locomotive with that it was decided that the whole structure would be demolished in 1957 shutting down the whole line This severely affected several local businesses who were utilizing it at the time including three Pottery factories and a produce store hardly anything remains of the bridge now because the piles were considered a hazard to River traffic the remaining Railway infrastructure including the stations was supposedly removed in 1965 I think my source was written before you could access historical imagery however as it appears to me that it was all gone by 1961 there was a section of line retained from basat Junction to where it spurred off at least this was used as a storage sing to store steam locomotives before that was scrapped even that is long G now however it was approximately where the bike path at the start of the video is now 70 years later there's hardly anything left it's just been completely wiped off the map and no one ever really talks about it so that's why I wanted to make this video and the whole area is actually quite historical we've got this uh hole in the ground where like a baseball field used to be there's this all weird small house on the side of gron highway I wonder what that could have been used for and there's also these old kills right next to it which are currently being restored so maybe I'll make videos about those maybe I won't we'll see but I have actually been on location to film my next video I plan to make which is none of those things I just mentioned so stay tuned for that I'm I'm really happy to be making videos again I'm I'm sorry there's been an absence but I'm back now hopefully to stay and I really want to thank you for just sticking around and coming back and if you're new to the Channel please remember to hit that subscribe button and hit the Bell yada yada you know the things YouTubers say every single time but I'll leave it there thank you for sticking all the way to the end of the video it's really hot in here I'm sweating especially with this light right up next to my face so hopefully I'll see you in the next video [Music]

Channel: Brendan's Odyssey

Views: 11,052

Keywords: belmont, ascot, bayswater, train, trainline, route, spur, branch, abandoned, demolished, racecourse

Id: viNrTsm47ug

Length: 16min 33sec (993 seconds)

Published: Sun Mar 17 2024