ABOUT US
How it all started
The town of Seymour has always been a ‘railway town’. The large and imposing station is even today evidence of its importance as part of the once vast Victorian Railways network. It was once a major junction and busy train marshalling yard for the Goulburn Vally Lines and North Eastern Victoria – which in turn served the many rural branch lines.
Seymour was also once home to the mighty ‘S’ class steam locomotives which were exclusively used on the ‘Spirit of Progress’ between Melbourne and Albury.
Following the Victorian Governments rationalisation of rail lines and train services, the Seymour Locomotive Depot was closed and no longer served as a marshalling or maintenance depot. A group of local railwaymen were determined that Seymour should retain its historic connection to the network – and the Seymour Locomotive Steam Preservation Group was formed.
The group had the initial aim of restoring and operating steam locomotive J515. At the same time a small collection of passenger carriages were also transferred to Seymour. The loco itself was transferred from Newport to Seymour in January 1984 requiring an extensive overhaul. This work took some four years to complete following thousands of hours of work by dedicated volunteers.
Today
We are dedicated to preserving our growing fleet of Victorian Railways rollingstock and maintaining it in operating condition. Our depot is adjacent to the former Seymour Loco.
The land upon which the depot is located has been purchased from various owners over the years as it became available. Currently we have about 4 hectares within the boundary fence.
Large sheds for undercover storage and restoration works have been erected along with workshop facilities. In addition we have about 3 kilometres of sidings built to accommodate out expanding fleet.
The locomotive roundhouse at Seymour circa. 1909. Much of the roundhouse was removed in 1961 in conjunction with the construction of the standard gauge line. The rest of it was demolished in 1971 leaving only the turntable and a couple of sheds.