Future Expansion Plans
The WGR is planning to extend the line to Erica, where the railway's permanent workshop complex will be built. Engineering assessments and a business plan have now been completed.
The first stage would extend through Platina to the site of O'Shea & Bennett's Siding at the junction of Boola Rd and the Walhalla Tourist Rd. This section will require the reconstruction of two trestle bridges between Thomson and Platina, one of which has already been disassembled in preparation for this.
Completing the extension from O'Shea & Bennett's Siding to Erica will require the re-excavation of the former cutting where Boola Rd crossed the railway on a bridge; from 1975 the cutting was used as a municipal garbage dump by the Narracan Shire Council, then entirely filled in and the road rebuilt across the top. There is also a large trestle bridge which requires reconstruction across Jacobs Creek, shortly before Erica station.
The Baw Baw Shire Council considered in late 2007 selling a large section of the Erica station site to the caravan park operators currently leasing the site, which would retain only an 18 metre-wide easement for the eventual reconstruction of the station by the Walhalla Goldfields Railway. The in-principle decision was later revoked.
Reconstruction of the line from Erica to Moe would likely be impractical and uneconomical, as the original right of way was sold in many places, and is partly covered by the waters of the Moondarra Reservoir.
Read more about this topic: Walhalla Goldfields Railway
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