Transport | fyansford

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The Cementies ~ Limestone transportation system

The Cementies ~ Trestle Rail Bridge

The Cementies ~ Footsteps through time

J. Flatt

Remains of the overhead conveyor belt which replaced the railway line in 1966

The remains of the overhead conveyor that replaced the railway

See Andreas Makarewitsch
Fyansford Facebook Collection

The Fyansford Main-Line...

Rail Geelong

For everything you ever wanted to know

about the history of the railways of Geelong and District...

The Fyansford line

"The Fyansford line was opened in 1918 to serve the Cement Works located at Fyansford. The line branches from main line at North Geelong Yard, weaving it's way uphill through the suburbs of Geelong until reaching Herne Hill where the plant was located. The cement works themselves are located at the bottom of the hill, with a conveyor system bringing the finished cement to the silos located atop the hill.

At the Cement Works loading silos were provided, as was a substantial yard for the marshalling of wagons. Services along the line were mainly shunt moves from North Geelong Yard and return. .... Usage of the line declined by the 1990s as road haulage took over. A bike path and linear park was provided beside the tracks in the early 1980s. The plant closed in the early 2000s and was demolished, however the line itself remains and being baulked off at the main line sometime before 2003…...."

Geoff Winkler 1978

Y110 shunts at the Fyansford Cement works. The RY/GY wagons, I seem to recall, were normally loaded with gypsum, brought down from Nowingi and used in the manufacture of the cement. However, this loading was not normally tarped. 1978

Geoff Winkler 1979

Flickr

Southern end of the cement works sidings

Geoff Winkler 1978

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Along the Fyansford line

A collection of 67 photos along the Fyansford cement works branch

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Former Geelong Cement Transport System

Railway & Belt Conveyor

50 Hyland Street, Fyansford

"The Limestone quarry and former railway and Limestone Belt Conveyor are scientifically significant at a Regional level for its potential to yield evidence of particularly appropriate solutions, over a period of 100 years, to a technical problem of extracting and transporting quarry material to the manufacturing plant at Fyansford. ..... its archaeological deposits which are likely to contain evidence of technological value with particular regard to the former railway, tunnel and ventilation shafts. The quarry has essentially been part of one of Geelong's most pioneering industrial families, the McCann family business, since they purchased it in 1888....".

Source: On My Doorstep

"In 1926 the Australian Portland Cement Company opened a private 3'6" railway, replacing an older aerial ropeway to their quarry. There were two routes from the cement plant: the top line that went to the old quarry and works depot, and a longer branch that descended via a tunnel to the open cut quarry.... The grade on the line to the old quarry was 1 in 25, with the line to the new open cut quarry being on a 1 in 37 grade and running through a 4,376 ft (1.3 kilometre) long tunnel, the longest in Victoria. The total length of the main line from quarry to the works was 5.6km."

Source: Rail Geelong

"THE official opening of the AustralianPortland Cement Company's extensive works at Fyansford, with an aerial rope way to the quarries at Batesford, took place on 12th inst. The Melbourne party, numbering close on 150, arrived by special train, and were conveyed to the works in motors and drags...".

Source: TROVE - The Geelong Advertiser (1912)

"The operation was akin to that of a miniature main line, running from the quarry at Batesford, some 3½ miles to the north-west, to a balloon loop with wagon tippler at the works. The locomotive roster ranged from diminutive 0-4-2STs built in the Edwardian era, to a mighty war-time Australian Standard Garratt, supplemented in 1956 by a Bo-Bo Diesel Electric...".

Source: Fyansford Cement Works Railway

"Looking east back towards the former cement works - the 3.67km long Limestone Belt Conveyor System ran inside a protective concrete structure, supported by concrete pylons, replacing the previous narrow gauge railway in 1966. After the cement works closed in the early 2000s, the concrete structure was removed, with the pylons being removed by the late 2000s."

Source: Marcus Wong

"The next major step was the erection of the limestone conveyor system from quarry to works in 1966, involving the installation of the larger No 3 crusher at the quarry, seven sections of belt conveyor in a concrete support and protective structure across country for 3.67 kilometres...".

Source: Light Railways, 1993