MURTOA CHANGE FOR HOPETOUN LINE

Background

The idea for the Murtoa layout began way back in 1979 when I first saw Graham Brown’s prototype Woodend layout at the Australian Model Railway Association’s (AMRA) exhibition at the Camberwell Town Hall. I had never seen anything with such detail and realism up to that time and decided there and then that I had to build a prototype layout like this for myself.

The location I chose to build my prototype model of was Murtoa, situated on the main western line between Melbourne and Adelaide; Murtoa is the branch line terminus for the Warracknabeal–Hopetoun line. It had almost one of everything you could find at a country station at that time. It is on a main line with a branch line terminus, had an island platform, footbridge, railmotor dock, station building with verandahs front and back, 70-lever signal box, stand-alone verandah, cool room, refreshment rooms, three different types of water towers, engine shed, coal stage, way and works yard, and two goods sheds. There was also a flour mill and silo, freezing works siding and Marmalake, one of the largest wheat storage facilities in the state.

Having lived in Murtoa until the early 1960s, I spent many happy hours down at the station watching the arrival and departure of mainline and branchline trains. There was