Railways and Tramways of Australia

Flying to Geelong

Victoria’s first officially named train was introduced on 3 May 1926.

Victorian Railways improved county passenger train services during the 1920s by introducing several new express trains. The first of the new named express passenger trains was the Geelong Flier.

The Geelong Flier ran between Flinders Street in Melbourne and Geelong as a day return service. It departed from Flinders Street at 9.00 am, with the return journey departing from Geelong at 4.00 pm. It was introduced in recognition of Geelong’s increasing importance as an industrial city by providing business people and others with the opportunity travel to Geelong on a day return express service.

The inaugural run of the Geelong Flier consisted of A2 Class express passenger locomotive no. 906 hauling five carriages. It arrived in Geelong two minutes ahead of schedule. The initial timetable gave 70 minutes for the journey to Geelong, stopping at Spencer Street station before running nonstop to Geelong. The introduction of automatic staff exchangers soon afterwards reduced the time from Flinders Street to Geelong to an even one hour.

During October 1927 the train was extended to run to Port Fairy and was renamed The Flier. Now commencing at Spencer Street at 8.20 am, it arrived at Port Fairy at 2.54 pm. A Melbourne-bound service commenced at Camperdown at 2.20 pm. Motive power for the train was usually A2 Class locomotives, although other engines were used during the engine shortage of the Second World War. The R Class took over the service in 1951, and a few years later B Class diesel-electric locomotives began hauling The Flier.

From the mid-1960s the name The Flier was only shown in the Melbourne–Geelong timetable, although the train continued to Port Fairy. The name disappeared with the timetable introduced on 26 May 1975.

Bibliography

1926 - “The Flier” - 1966, Australian Railway Historical Society (Victorian Division), Melbourne, 1966.

JY Havey, ‘Named trains of the Victorian Railways’, Australian Railway Historical Society Bulletin, no. 283, May 1961, pp 69–79.

H Richards, ‘The Flier flies further’, The Victorian Railways Magazine, vol. 4, no. 11, November 1927, pp 10–11.

R Smith, ‘Named trains’, Rail News Victoria, no. 30, February 1992, pp 1–3.

‘The Geelong Flier: fast service to the city’, Geelong Advertiser, 4 May 1926, p 5.

‘The “Flier”’, The Victorian Railways Magazine, no. 234, March 1950, p 3.

Victorian Railways, Train times: country & interstate, Summer issue, 7 November 1966.

Victorian Railways, Report of the Victorian Railways Commissioners for the year ended 30th June 1926, Government Printer, Melbourne, 1926.

The inaugural run of the Geelong Flier departs from Flinders Street behind A2 Class locomotive no. 906, 3 May 1926. Photo: Public Record Office Victoria, VPRS 12800/P0001, H 1467; B/W.