Oakleigh station is a railway station operated by Metro Trains Melbourne on the Pakenham and Cranbourne lines, both part of the Melbourne rail network. It serves the suburb of Oakleigh in the south-east of Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. The station opened in 1877 as the up end of the Gippsland line, with the station being electrified in 1922.
Oakleigh is a ground-level premium station, consisting of two sides that are connected to each other via the adjacent roads, and both platforms are connected to each other via a pedestrian subway.
The station is served by 11 bus routes, including two SmartBus services. The station is approximately 15 kilometres (9.4 mi) or around a 27-minute train ride away from Flinders Street.
Description
Oakleigh station is the main railway station in the suburb of Oakleigh. On the north side of the station is Portman Street, and Haughton Road is on the south. The station is owned by VicTrack, a state government agency, and is operated by Metro Trains Melbourne. The station is approximately 15 kilometres (9.4 mi) or around a 27-minute train ride away from Flinders Street.
Oakleigh station consists of two side platforms that are connected by a pedestrian subway, previously, platform 1 was an island platform, and the station consisted of three platforms. The two platforms have direct station entrances on their adjacent roads, with platform 1 having an entrance on Haughton Road and platform 2 having an entrance on Portman Street.
There are three car parks at the station. Oakleigh station is fully accessible as the subway features lift access and both platform entrances feature ramps.
History
19th century In 1877, the station opened as the western end of the Gippsland railway line, it received its current location in 1879, when the line was extended to South Yarra railway station.
In 1883, the track was duplicated from Caulfield to Oakleigh, and in 1891, the line was duplicated to Dandenong.
In 1888, the Rosstown line opened, with Oakleigh being the eastern terminus. Two years later, the Outer Circle line opened from Oakleigh to Waverley Road station.
20th century
In , the station featured two side platforms with an additional centre track. By this time, the station was controlled by two signal boxes; "A" at the city end, controlling the Warrigal Road level crossing and interlocked gates, and "B", between the station and yard, controlling the latter. In 1915, a new station building had been constructed to the same style as Box Hill, Caulfield, Essendon, Heidelberg and Spotswood in the Melbourne area, and Castlemaine and Warragul in the country. A new platform was provided on the south side, plus a fifth track for engines to run around their consists.
In March 1922, electrification was extended from Caulfield to Oakleigh, and this was extended to Dandenong during December of that same year. Around the same time, the Hanover Street bridge was built across the Dandenong end of the goods yard, with alterations to the passenger sidings and the run-around loop south of the station was abolished.Victorian Railways diagram 4'22
Three-position signalling was extended from Carnegie to the city end of Oakleigh (exclusive) in December 1940. Extension of the signalling to Huntingdale and Clayton, in lieu of Winters Double Line Block safeworking, did not occur until 1970, in conjunction with the North Road (Huntingdale) grade separation project.
Warrigal Road grade separation In 1968, the Warrigal Road level crossing was closed, and, in conjunction with the demolition of shops, a new road overpass was provided. The original Warrigal Road surface was partially retained as a slip lane to serve a handful of shops along the western boundary, and now provides access to Carlisle Crescent, Haughton Road, and limited car parking under the bridge. The road bridge piers were spaced to allow extension of the track from the southernmost platform in the citybound direction.
In May 1972, a van that was on the 18:40 Traralgon goods train, which was shunting in the goods yard, derailed. This necessitated single line working on the Up line between Oakleigh and Caulfield, with buses used to convey passengers around the derailment site.
1975 resignalling with hybrid relay and electronic interlocking In 1975, the track layout was drastically simplified. Both mechanical signal boxes were abolished and demolished, being replaced with a new, experimental route-setting power interlocking system with a signalling control panel located in the middle of the southern station building. In lieu of the older system with individual levers, switches or buttons for each signal and turnout or crossover, the new panel used custom circuit boards loaded with CMOS boolean logic chips (AND, NOR and JK Flip-Flop), and a button arrangement where the operator would select a route between any two signals, and that route would be requested, set and locked by the interlocking if available. A 1972 report by BITRE indicated that the project would cost $330,000, and save $26,000 per year in staffing costs, plus avoiding $10,000 expected in upcoming overhaul costs for the existing mechanical systems, with a total benefit/cost ratio over 40 years of 1.7:1 at 7% discount rates or 1.3 at 10% discount rates. In practice, the new interlocking lasted 43 years.
The new signal panel included a "switch out" feature, allowing the station's signalling to operate automatically during periods of reduced traffic. To facilitate this, the island platform was used for most trains, with high-speed () turnouts provided at either end to avoid trains slowing down significantly for the diverging movements. Station staff operated the signal panel during busier times to allow access to or from the goods yard, terminating trains, or overtaking moves in either direction. While the panel was switched out, express trains through Oakleigh were assumed to run express through Hughesdale, Murrumbeena and Carnegie as well, and given altered level crossing timings. While the panel was switched in this express/stopping selection had to be made manually.
The panel was designed over a span of two years, combining a series of different interlocking and system techniques as a testing ground for later use in the City Loop control systems then being planned out. The new features being implemented included the use of Geographic Relay Interlocking for vital controls only, CMOS integrated circuits for non-vital route setting controls and indications and provision of LEDs instead of filament lamps for the control panel indications, mated with B.R.B. style clamp-lock point machines worked by compressed air, Westinghouse electro-pneumatic Train stops, and high voltage Jeumont impulse track circuits to avoid compatibility problems with then-future trains which would have used Thyristor controls.
The panel was designed to work Oakleigh primarily, but futureproofed to absorb Huntingdale (with a possible junction and branch line to Rowville), as well as yards at Westall and Springvale; noting that at the time the latter two each had a handful of goods sidings, well pre-dating the concept of providing an extensive maintenance facility at Westall.
A number of geographic circuit-based interlockings were studied in advance of the project but none were entirely suited to the Victorian Railways' use case, so a new system had to be developed in-house. Geographic relay interlockings used a series of modules, e.g. one for a signal, one for a set of points or a crossover, which were then wired together to form a replica of the track arrangements. The relays and other electronic components could be placed haphazardly around the control rooms so long as the wiring and logic followed the required pattern. However, having all functions use relays was more expensive, maintenance intensive and required more space to lay out all the equipment needed. For this reason, devolving the non-critical functions to integrated circuit logic was deemed appropriate. The standardised components and modules could be tested off-site, including building whole or part of a combined sequence, then moved to the field and installed fairly rapidly. This also meant far fewer instances of custom arrangements. For example, a pair of crossovers between three tracks is (more or less) functionally identical to a double compound with single turnouts either side, so the same wiring arrangement could be used for both. Single compound turnouts could be laid out similarly, with the handful of impossible routes patched out by use of free-wired inhibiting connections (e.g. points A always requiring points B, thus disabling the option of A only).
Individual geographic modules were linked together by cables. Each module had plugs from a series labelled A-H, J-N, P-S and Z, depending on the specific module. Plugs A-F inclusive, where provided, assembled adjacent modules to form the track layout. These were 20-way plugs, but only 10 wires would be used in cases of single-direction traffic (for example, Plug B pins 11-20 could link to Plug A pins 1-10 of the next module). Plug G was for the feed to and from the signal control panel and H to the field, e.g. signals and points. J was the power supply and some repeating functions. 20-way plugs K, L and M, and 50-way plugs N, P, R and S, were used for circuit modification, enabling or disabling features of a given module based on adjacent modules' settings. J and K were reserved for internal circuit variation. M allowed control of relay coils, N, P and S were relay changeover contacts. Finally, 20-way plug Z was to attach a monitoring unit to the relay interlocking, allowing review of the functions from the interlocking room without having to go back and forth to the panel in the main station building. Plug couplers used were AMP series M pin and socket connectors.
Within the two sets of ten wires between module plugs A-F inclusive, wires were allocated to specific tasks: Pin number Code Circuit 1 or 11 BRR Block require relay 2 or 12 RR Route proving relay 3 or 13 H Stick path of route locking relay 4 or 14 H Pick up path of route locking relay 5 or 15 GR Signal control relay 7 or 17 cGR Low speed signal control relay 8 or 18 cPBS Low speed push button stick 9 or 19 ASR Approach locking relay for signal plus one in advance 10 or 20 ASR Approach locking relay for signal Note wires 6 and 16 were not used.
Each module was fitted with all relays, even if some went unused. This was to allow modules to be swapped or replaced at short notice in case of a failure. An example of a disused relay is a signal without a low-speed indication, in which case the cPBS relay would be fitted but permanently de-energised. This would retain the circuit testing for that light, but in a default position; in some cases a "dummy unit" would be fitted instead. Another example would be a relay always energised, which would be achieved by feeding 50 volts DC directly to the power supply for that relay; this would be used to modify crossover boards, for example, to reflect the intended operations.
As with previous geographic relay interlockings, the Victorian Railways maintained the standard of electromechanical points being worked from the control panel via the NLPR and RLPR relays for Normal and Reverse operation respectively (typically, but not always, the straight and curved route respectively), including testing that the opposite route was not simultaneously set. Signal controls were worked by the AOR relay, and low speed signal controls by the cPBS "stick" relay, which depending on the context may only cancel if manually overridden.