Fogarty Avenue's video: Tracing the abandoned Katamatite railway line

Hello and welcome egg-clent railway enthusiasts. Today's video takes place in Australia. More specifically in Victoria, and even more specifically the small town Katamatite. The town is a bit quiet today with alot of closed down businesses littering the main street but over 100 years ago Katamatite and surrounds were a lot more of a hip hop happening place, to the point it required it’s own rail link. In 1886, the Parliament of Victoria passed the Country Tramways Act which gave shire councils access to loan money to allow them to construct tramways. In 1890, the Yarrawonga Shire Council received funding for the construction of a tramway from Dookie to Katamatite. The intention was that the shire would build and operate the tramway at its own expense, with some supervision from the VR. The new 27 kilometer long tramway to Katamatite would originate from Dookie where it would connect with the pre-existing Shepparton to Dookie railway line. The tramway was constructed using the same sleepers as those used by the VR, but only 16 km of the track used the same weight rails, the remainder being laid with a lighter 25 kg per meter steel rail. The lighter construction, which included using less track ballast, imposed restrictions on the weight of rolling stock used on the line and the speed at which it was allowed to travel. Starting from Dookie, the line had four stations, Yabba South, Yabba North, Youanmite and Katamatite. Each was able to handle passengers, agricultural produce, wheat and freight. The Yarrawonga Council ended its management of the tramway in August 1892, having lobbied the Victorian Government to take over the line, to relieve the council of the burden of debt and the loss that was being incurred. In 1892 when the tramway came under the control of the Victorian Railways it was reclassified as a railway and the track was upgraded. In 1905 the line was extended slightly to allow for shunting at Katamatite, but that also brought to a head an argument that was to continue for another decade. At Katamatite the track ended almost 1.6 km south of the town center, possibly to save money by avoiding the need to build a bridge over Boosey Creek. Lobbying for an extension was fierce and ongoing but the extension never eventuated. Meetings were held in 1926 in support of a proposed rail link between the Katamatite line and the Benalla to Yarrawonga railway to the east. It was hoped that such an extension would open up more markets for local produce and reduce transport times to Sydney. Ultimately the proposal was rejected on the grounds of costs versus revenue. Owing to road competition and ever dwindling populations of the towns it served, rail services gradually declined. The last passenger train ran in April 1953,[11] and in the last decade before closure, the line was only used as required for transporting grain. Yabba South station closed in March 1969. All the others closed with the line in 1987. Soon after the closure, all the rails and sleepers were ripped up and the line was completely abandoned. Dookie now once again became the terminus of the Shepparton to Dookie railway line like it was back in 1890 before the tramway's existence. Due to severe drought and track degradation the rest of the Shepparton to Dookie railway line was closed in 2007. With the whole railway line now closed things were looking bleak until 2011 when a 5 km section of the former railway alignment from Dookie to Yabba South became a rail trail. With dookie now being flooded by outdoorsy tourists, future extensions to the rail trail are in the works. In recent years there has been bumper wheat crops all along the former railway line and there have been cries to re-open the railway line and its many silos to help farmers get their gain to market easier and cheaper via rail. so far the line still lays abandoned but who knows what the future holds. This is what remained of the former Katamatie railway line as of the 6th of may 2018. Enjoy! The photo of the steam train in the thumbnail is a photo of VR 1 which was one of the locomotives that ran on the line back in the day. The photo is of when the locomotive while it was in service in South Australia. Source: https://collections.slsa.sa.gov.au/resource/PRG+280/1/7/242 FOGARTY AVENUE Merch: https://shop.spreadshirt.com.au/fogartyavenue Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/FogartyAvenue Flickr: https://www.flickr.com/photos/134435163@N06/ Insta: https://www.instagram.com/fogartyavenue/?hl=en Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/fogartyavenue/ SQUAD Floyd Bromley's channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC1ClZznXiPS7W0l3Ut6fX0A DISCLAMERS WARNING: Exploring abandoned buildings is dangerous and most-times ILLEGAL. Fogarty Avenue do not endorse these activities. FOGARTY AVENUE ARE NOT RESPONSIBLE FOR YOUR ACTIONS. Fogarty Avenue takes only pictures and leaves only footprints and breaks nothing but silence. So should you!!!