The Imaginary History of Summerfield
The city of Summerfield is located approximately 55km north-west of Melbourne (about half way to Ballarat). It has a population of 67,427 people and an elevation of 289 meters and covers an area of approximately 68 km.
When gold was discovered in Ballarat in 1851 the small town of Summerfield was used as a overnight resting place by the many people travelling to the goldfields. It was during this time that Summerfield grew. After the gold rush period, many industries continued to locate themselves at Summerfield due to its location and today Summerfield has a large manufacturing base in a wide range of products including textiles, food products, engineering and automotive components. Small quantities of brown coal are still produced and a rock crushing plant also operates nearby. Of course all this is supported by a large retailing and hospitality industry.
Summerfield with its many European inspired buildings, open parks and gardens is an important outer region city, and tourist destination, with thousands of visitors each year.
The Railway
In the imaginary world of Summerfield, all railway lines in Victoria are standard gauge and private operators have always run alongside the government administered railway operators. The tracks and infrastructure are owned and administered by the Victorian Government, with accredited users paying an access fee.
The railway through Summerfield is part of the mainline to Adelaide and also part of the inland railway to Brisbane, which diverts off at Ballarat.
As can be imagined the railway through Summerfield is a busy one. Local commuter trains between Melbourne, Summerfield and Ballarat are intermixed with local and interstate traffic.
There are a number of operators based in Victoria and the principal ones and there main operations are detailed below.
Vline which is a government administered operator is responsible for most of the local commuter passenger trains with some extra services run by the privately owned West Coast Railways. Vline is currently expanding into the local freight business with the setting up of Vline Freight and is just introducing a new livery for its passenger fleet.
The privately owned Victorian Railways is primarily responsible for most interstate freight haulage, to Queensland and New South Wales, they also run a few local services. The Victorian Railways also run the states top interstate expresses, due to its interstate accreditation. These include the Spirit Of Progress, The Overland and the Southern Aurora, which now runs to Brisbane via the inland route. Locomotives from South Australia and New South Wales are often seen at the head of these trains, with a through running agreement. These "visitors" are sometimes pressed into local service when locomotive shortages occur.
Freight Australia is the other principle freight hauler, and mainly run interstate services to Adelaide and Perth. They also have a number of local contracts.
Most local freight is handled by the smaller operators such as Great Northern Railroad, West Coast Railways, Southern Shorthaul Railroad and Silverton. These operators also handle many of the infrastructure trains and quite often hire out locomotives to the bigger operators as required.
Interstate operators also pass through Summerfield on a regular basis and include Australian National Railways and National Rail, who predominantly haul freight from the west. The Ghan is a regular through Summerfield on its twice weekly visit to Melbourne and The Indian Pacific also makes an appearance once a week, when one service to Sydney is via Melbourne.
With the addition of restored steam locomotives and hired locomotives the variety of locomotives and colour schemes has made Summerfield a very popular location for railway enthusiasts.
