Railways of the Central Highlands: Fern Hill

From Fern Hill the railway travels through private property and is largely unaccessible until the outskirts of Trentham, where it crosses Trentham Road. This photo shows the view from the road towards Fern Hill:

The embankment the line was on to cross the road is visible from Newton's Lane:

The railway is hard to track on the other side of the road due to Trentham Falls Road being partly built over the old line. In this photo I am standing on the former right-of-way:

The line continues to Trentham, inaccessible due to blackberries, viewed from Trentham Falls Road:

The next photo shows an embankment a little closer to Trentham, viewed from Gunyah Drive:

The line crosses a short trestle and enters Trentham station a short time later. Unfortunately the trestle is hard to see from nearby road (Victoria Street) and is hard to access via the former right-of-way due to blackberries and gauze growing across the line.

This photo shows the trestle bridge in 1968, when the line was still in operation:

http://www.brownfam.com.au/ROLL52/ROLL52_files/image019.jpg

On the day I tried to access it the weather was horrible and by the time I took this photo I had soaked feet, and I decided not to continue. If you can bear walking through prickle bushes then it should be accessible on a dry day. In the photo below, the posts across the line indicate the location of the trestle.

Trentham station is definately worth a look, as it contains an interesting collection of old rollingstock, including a derelict RT rail tractor. The station building is still intact, and from memory is used as the tourist information centre.