History of Rail on the Peninsula
The first railway line on the Mornington Peninsula opened from Frankston to Baxter on Monday October 1 1888 (including a spur line to the Moorooduc Quarry), and was then quickly extended to Mornington and Hastings on Tuesday September 10 1889, and then Hastings to Stony Point on Tuesday December 17 1889. Passenger services back then ran to and from Flinders Street in Melbourne, hauled by two steam locomotives. At Baxter, the train would split into two trains, each hauled by a single steam locomotive.
On Monday July 6 1914, a spur line was built outside Crib Point to serve the HMAS Cerberus Naval Base, with one regular passenger service each Saturday.
On Friday December 2 1921, a line was built from Bittern, via Balnarring and Merricks, to Red Hill. This line mainly carried goods, but once a week it carried goods and passengers in a "mixed" train. The Red Hill line was short-lived, being closed on Wednesday July 1 1953. The last train to run on the line was a railtour on Saturday February 25 1956. The line was dismantled shortly afterward, with much of the line, especially on Frankston-Flinders Road, built over.
During the 1950s, steam-hauled passenger trains largely ceased, being replaced by diesel railcars running shuttles to Frankston. However, one service each Sunday ran from Flinders Street to Stony Point, its carriages hauled by a Tait suburban set as far as Frankston, and then a steam locomotive would take them the rest of the way.
In 1961, Moorooduc Quarry was forced to close after it was flooded, causing the closure of the spur line. The quarry has since become the Mount Eliza Regional Park.
On Saturday March 29 1969, a new spur line was built between Tyabb and Hastings, serving the new steel mill at Long Island.
During the 1980s, the New Deal For Country Passengers served to completely reshape Victoria's regional network. Part of this included closing every branch line in the state. The Mornington and Stony Point lines were among the first to go, the Mornington line closing on Monday June 15 1981, and the Stony Point and Naval Base lines closing a week later.
A new preservation group called Mornington Railway Preservation Society was set up in 1984, running heritage steam trains between Crib Point and the HMAS Cerberus Naval Base. They later leased the Mornington line, and then moved their operations to Moorooduc, from which they run their tourist trains to this day.
On Thursday September 27 1984, the Stony Point line was reopened to revenue service, the only branch line in Victoria to do so to this day. Services were run as shuttles between Frankston and Stony Point, run by "DRC" railcars, usually hauling an "MTH" carriage as a trailer. However the railcars proved to be unreliable and breakdown-prone, and they were often replaced by locomotives.
During the early 1990s, locomotive-hauled trains permanently took over the role, hauling two or three MTH carriages. "A" class bulldog-nosed locomotives were the locomotive of choice for this role.
On Sunday April 27 2008, the locomotive-hauled trains were replaced by "Sprinter" railcars. The MTH carriages were retired, while the A class locomotives were reassigned to peak hour duties in Geelong, Sunbury and Bacchus Marsh.
Recently though, the Sprinters have been struggling to activate level crossings while running as single carriages, forcing them to always run in pairs. Since some services require the two Sprinters to split and run two consecutive 1-car services, some services have had to be replaced by buses.
On Monday March 2 2015, the Stony Point line was completely suspended as a result of a track fault, effectively ceasing all non-tourist rail services on the Mornington Peninsula. It was reopened on Tuesday June 30 with new exle counters installed along the line that allow solo Sprinters to once again run on the line safely.
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