History
The station opened as Mount Atkinson on 2 April 1884, at the same time as the line though it, and renamed Rockbank in 1889. Being on a single track railway, it served as a crossing loop for trains through it. By 1914 it had a three road yard, passenger platform on the southern track, a goods platform on the northern track, and an interlocked signal box. The station served the local farming community. With a chaff mill established in the 1890s and the recreation reserve and tennis club located nearby, the station became the focus of the Rockbank community.
In 1960 the crossing loop was extended for longer trains of up to 2,400 feet (730 m) and a short platform was provided on the loop road, then in 1976 centralised traffic control was provided on the line from Sunshine to Rockbank. By the 1970s, the mill was disused and the station building was demolished circa 1985. In 1986 the yard was rationalised to main line and crossing loop, and in 1990 the mechanical signals and points were removed and replaced by remotely controlled signalling operated from Bacchus Marsh signal box. The current northern platform was not added until more recently, replacing the former short platform. As part of the Regional Fast Rail project, control of the signals was transferred to Ballarat signal box in 2005.
Read more about this topic: Rockbank Railway Station
Famous quotes containing the word history:
“So in accepting the leading of the sentiments, it is not what we believe concerning the immortality of the soul, or the like, but the universal impulse to believe, that is the material circumstance, and is the principal fact in this history of the globe.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“The second day of July 1776, will be the most memorable epoch in the history of America. I am apt to believe that it will be celebrated by succeeding generations as the great anniversary festival. It ought to be commemorated, as the day of deliverance, by solemn acts of devotion to God Almighty. It ought to be solemnized with pomp and parade, with shows, games, sports, guns, bells, bonfires and illuminations, from one end of this continent to the other, from this time forward forever more”
—John Adams (1735–1826)
“There is one great fact, characteristic of this our nineteenth century, a fact which no party dares deny. On the one hand, there have started into life industrial and scientific forces which no epoch of former human history had ever suspected. On the other hand, there exist symptoms of decay, far surpassing the horrors recorded of the latter times of the Roman empire. In our days everything seems pregnant with its contrary.”
—Karl Marx (1818–1883)