Oakleigh railway station

Oakleigh railway station is a railway station on the Gippsland line in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. It serves the south-eastern suburbs of Oakleigh and Hughesdale, opening on 8 October 1877.

Today, the station is served by commuter rail services between the city and Pakenham, Cranbourne. Trains will bypass Flinders Street and the City Loop and go to West Footscray and Sunbury after the Metro Tunnel opens in 2025.

History
In 1877 a separate station was constructed as the city end of the railway from Gippsland, with the current station site developed by 1879 when the line from South Yarra was completed. The station later served as the eastern end of both the Outer Circle line and the Rosstown Railway.

Since 1989, the station has featured over 40 plywood cut-outs on its walls and surrounding the station. These illustrate the life-stories of Oakleigh residents, who were aged between 15 and 70, when the murals were unveiled in September 1989. They underwent restoration in 2002. About half of these have since been restored, and glue can still be seen on the walls of the station building where the remainder had previously been placed.

It was upgraded to a premium station on 12 December 1995.

Signalling, interlocking and track layouts
The track was duplicated from Caulfield to Oakleigh in 1883, and to Dandenong in 1891.

Circa 1910 the station featured two side platforms with an additional centre track. By 1915 a new station building had been constructed to the same style as Box Hill, Essendon, Spotswood and Heidelberg, and a new platform provided on the south side plus a fifth track for engines to run around their consists. 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 March 1922 electrification was extended from Caulfield to Oakleigh, and this was extended to Dandenong during December of the same year. The Hanover Street bridge was built across the Dandenong end of the goods yard in 1925, and by 1928 the fifth track (along the south side of the station) had been lifted.

Three-position signalling was extended from Caulfield to the city end of Oakleigh (exclusive) in December 1940.

Around 1966 the Warrigal Road level crossing was closed and, in conjunction with 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. The road bridge piers were spaced to allow extension of the track from the southernmost platform in the citybound direction.

In 1975 the track layout was drastically simplified and both signal boxes were abolished and demolished, being replaced with a new, experimental route-setting power interlocking system situated in the middle of the southern station building. In lieu of the older system with individual buttons for each signal and turnout or crossover, the panel used custom circuit boards 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 relay interlocking if available.

The new signal panel included a "switch out" feature allowing the station's signalling to operate automatically in lesser-traffic periods. To facilitate this the island platform was used for most trains, with high-speed (65 km/h) turnouts provided either end to avoid trains slowing down significantly for the diverging movements. In busier periods the signal panel was switched in by station staff, to permit access to or from the goods yard, terminating moves from the city, or overtaking moves in either direction.

The goods yard was officially closed to traffic in May 1984 with the exception of briquette traffic, which was still being received. Way and Works wagon HD205, which had been parked at the city end of the through siding for years, was transferred to the Caulfield depot on Friday 22 June 1984. By October that year the briquette traffic had also shifted to Westall. The overhead in Siding A was removed by December of the same year, along with the points and the majority of the sidings.

In March of 1987 a guards' indicator light was provided for signal post 16, controlling citybound moves from Platform 1.

As of April 1988, suburban timetables specified an overtaking move between outbound suburban and country trains, where the 16:53 and 17:36 departures from Flinders Street to Dandenong were each scheduled to wait 3 minutes at Oakleigh for a Traralgon and Warragul service respectively.

When the Cranbourne line was electrified in 1995, trains that had previously terminated at Oakleigh were extended and the passenger sidings fell into disuse. The extended goods siding was along the north side fell out of use and was abolished around the same time, although the shell of the citybound dwarf signal at the down end remained in situ until 2018. As a result, the signal panel was generally only used when the underpass flooded, as all trains in both directions could be diverted to the north-side platform (by then renamed Platform 3). The suburban sidings were restored to service in late 2004, but only used occasionally after that with further periods out of service.

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 selection had to be made manually. After the Siemens trains experienced braking issues in the mid-2000s, all trains were required to be sent through as express trains. This gave additional boom barrier downtime, but provided a safety margin in case of brake failure.

The signal panel was abolished on 29 May 2018, with the last train passing through by 9:02pm. From that point the panel power supply was severed, and all tracks and signals removed. New tracks were laid approaching platforms 2 and 3 (renamed 1 and 2), but the former Platform 1 had temporary fencing erected along the edge and track has not been reinstated. A few months later the tracks in the platform pit were replaced. Signalling is now controlled from Dandenong. The signal panel was removed on Thursday 27 June 2019 and transported to the Australian Railway Historical Society for preservation.

Incidents
On 8 May 1981 a train entering service from Oakleigh sidings derailed, blocking the morning peak hour services. This trapped the following school train from Moe, so a Harris train was run "wrong line" (backwards relative to normal procedures) and parked parallel, with students transferring carefully between the two. A similar incident occurred on 26 Jan 1982, as a train exiting Siding C passed signal 38 at Clear Low Speed but 30 at Danger, derailing on the catch points and obstructing the citybound track from around 9am. The train was rerailed by 5:30pm, but one of the cranes used in the operation became bogged while exiting the worksite.

Due to an industrial dispute, the Overland train was stabled in Oakleigh on Friday 4 December 1981.

Platforms & services
On the northern side of the railway line on Portman St, there is a bus interchange. This interchange contains the bus stops for the 800, 802, 804, 862, 624, 693, 704, and 742 bus services, as well as the 900 and 903 SmartBus services. The stops for the 625, 701 and 733 bus services are on the southern side of the railway line, on Haughton Rd and Johnson St. There is a southern car park located on Johnson St.

The station has a small coffee kiosk located on the island platform. As a premium station, the station is staffed around the clock and has toilet facilities. There are enclosed waiting areas on all platforms.

Oakleigh railway station has two side platforms. Platform 1 was previously an island platform before the south-westernmost track was removed in June 2018; the platform accessible via an underpass from Haughton Rd and Portman St. Platform 2, extended in June 2018 for the introduction of High Capacity Metro Trains, is accessible from Portman St. It is serviced by Metro Trains' Pakenham and Cranbourne line services.

Former Platform 1:
 * Inaccessible to passengers due to being fenced-off and tracks removed in June 2018

Platform 1 (previously platform 2):
 * Pakenham line: all stations and limited express services to Flinders Street
 * Cranbourne line: all stations and limited express services to Flinders Street

Platform 2 (previously platform 3):
 * Pakenham line: all stations and limited express services to Pakenham
 * Cranbourne line: all stations services to Cranbourne

It is planned to connect the Pakenham and Cranbourne lines to the Sunbury line through the new Metro Tunnel in late 2025.

Transport links
CDC Melbourne operate three routes via Oakleigh station:
 * 624: to Kew
 * 625: Elsternwick station – Chadstone Shopping Centre
 * SmartBus 900: Rowville – Caulfield station (shared with Ventura).

Transdev Melbourne operates one SmartBus route via Oakleigh station:


 * SmartBus 903: Altona station – Mordialloc station

Ventura Bus Lines operate ten routes via Oakleigh station:
 * 693: to Belgrave station
 * 701: to Bentleigh station
 * 704: to East Clayton
 * 733: to Box Hill Central Shopping Centre
 * 742: Eastland Shopping Centre – Chadstone Shopping Centre
 * 800: Chadstone Shopping Centre – Dandenong station
 * 802: Chadstone Shopping Centre – Dandenong station
 * 804: Chadstone Shopping Centre – Dandenong station
 * 862: Chadstone Shopping Centre – Dandenong station
 * SmartBus 900: Rowville – Caulfield station (shared with CDC Melbourne).