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Ravenswood Siding - Melbourne/Echuca Railway Line

Location RAVENSWOOD VIC 3453 - Property No B6506 File Number B6506 Level National

[1/2] B6506 Ravenswood Siding [2/2] B6506 Ravenswood Siding

Statement of Significance

The remaining section of this siding is significant at the State and National levels in that it demonstrates the use of chaired rail by the Victorian Railways Department for the Trunk Lines and, more particularly, the following stages in the evolution of this long obsolete method of permanent way construction:
a) The use of joint chairs and intermediate chairs at regular intervals inferring that the original wrought iron rail lengths were 12 feet, as is known through documentary sources to have been the case. The survival of chairs in this sequence is unique and almost certainly demonstrates that they have remained in continuous use at the same location and in the same sequence from 1862 to 1988 .
b) The use of joint chairs and intermediate chairs designed for use with trenails.
c) The use of later intermediate chairs designed for use with steel pins and the use of fished joints with steel double head chaired rail, representing a second method of constructing the permanent way using chaired rail technology.
The site also has regional significance for its association with the Bendigo Sunday School Picnic. Held on Melbourne Cup Day and involving the use of chartered passenger trains to Ravenswood which were stabled on this siding whilst passengers enjoyed the picnic ground immediately to the west. The surviving Departmental gates in the railway reserve fence alongside the siding remain as evidence of this event, which was socially important for Bendigo for the greater part of its history.
Classified: 18/05/1994