Yarra Valley Tourist Railway

The Yarra Valley Tourist Railway is a tourist railway operating on a section of the former Healesville railway which operated between Lilydale and Healesville in the Yarra Valley area northeast of Melbourne, Australia.

History

The Lilydale-Melbourne railway was extended from Lilydale to Yarra Flats (now known as Yarra Glen) on the 15th May 1888 with intermediate stations at Coldstream and Yering. Part of the structure included a long timber viaduct with 502 openings near Yarra Glen, spanning the Yarra River and the adjacent flood plains. The extension of the line from Yarra Glen to Healesville required a 1 in 40 (2.5%) climb into a 154.4 metre tunnel with a corresponding descent at nearly the same grade. The Healesville Station opened on March 1, 1889 with an intermediate station at Tarrawarra.

Traffic on the line included timber, livestock, milk and dairy products. Early timetables included regular goods services specifically for transporting milk.

The last regular steam passenger service was hauled in August, 1964. From this time until closure of the line in 1980 passenger services were run using Rail Motors. After December 9 1980 no services operated beyond Coldstream and the line was officially closed to all traffic on March 10, 1983. It was partially reopened as far as Yarra Glen for tourism purposes in 1986 following major bridgework. However, these services ceased by 1990.

Current operations

The railway is currently running a Walker Railmotor RM22 from...
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