Eureka line

A branchline was constructed from Ballarat East to Buninyong in 1889. The 7.5 mile line ran parallel to the mainline from Ballarat East station for about a 1km and then turned to run in a southerly direction with stations or sidings to service gold mining settlements at Eureka, York St, Levy, Canadian, Mt Clear, Reid and Mt Helen before terminating at Buninyong.

The section beyond Eureka closed in 1947 leaving a short section of the to service oil depots and a tile works at Eureka. This section finally closed in December 1986.

I didn't have room to model the Eureka line although I have included the Junction just east of Ballarat East station and the section of line that ran parallel with the mainline past the locomotive depot and to the Queen Street bridge.

Just beyond the bridge is the backscene and hidden loops that represent the Serviceton Line, Mildura Line and Melbourne. The Eureka line continues behind the backscene and forms a loop with one of the Melbourne hidden sidings.

There was no regular scheduled trains on the Eureka line in the period that I model, with trains only running as required.

On the layout, Eureka trains usually use a Y or W class on yard pilot duties although occasionally a T class is used. Loading is usually one or two oil pots. The loco will haul this down the line to behind the backscene. Here it will sit for a while whilst I operate timetabled trains, to represent the time taken to run to Eureka and perform the shunting. The loco will then run around the wagons using the hidden loops and return to Ballarat back along the Eureka line. Below are some examples of Eureka workings.