The Flinders Street Viaduct // Melbourne's Elevated City Railway!

The Flinders Street Viaduct is a ~730m long section of elevated railway running between Melbourne's two biggest and busiest stations, Southern Cross and Flinders Street, built in three stages between 1891 and 1978.

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All photographs and video not otherwise credited on screen are taken by Martin Bennet (me).
This video also features some footage (and a short cameo) by ‪@Rheilffordd‬, please check out his channel for some great Australian transport content!

Historic still images were sourced from the State Library Victoria archive: https://www.slv.vic.gov.au/
And the late Victorian rail photographer Weston Langford's collection: https://www.westonlangford.com/

The credit music is by my brother Cian, who also provided equipment and expertise in recording my voice-over, and assisted with some camera work on this video (most of the hand-held shots under the viaduct were shot by Cian). Check out his music here: https://hyperfollow.com/cianbennetmusic

Chapters:

00:00 - Arguably, the most important piece of rail infrastructure in the entire state
00:42 - Tramming along at 4mph
00:59 - The early days, the wiggly bits
02:35 - 20th century evolution
04:58 - Thousands of fish/The Whale Days
06:04 - Something actually useful/A bit noisy
06:38 - Operations in 2024
08:42 - Trams too
09:10 - A close look at the Old Viaduct
14:06 - Banana Alley
14:50 - Some early concept art
15:32 - The viaduct whistle show
16:24 - A turtle

#melbourne #railway #train #history