After one hundred and eleven years, the last regularly scheduled passenger train service out of Dimboola departed early in the morning of Saturday, 21 August 1993, thirty years ago this week.

The last train was to depart at 13.15 for Melbourne, but due to protest fears sparked by the actions of some who stopped the final service from Bairnsdale, this service was replaced by road coaches, disappointing many who planned to be a part of history by riding the last train.

History recorded the last train as the 6.30 departure that morning, hauled by locomotives N454 and X52.

Due to significant roadworks on the adjacent Western Highway that would delay road coaches and play havoc with timetables, the trains were initially only cut back to Ararat, but on 27 May 1994, Ballarat became the terminus for V/Line train services to the west of the state, and the line between Ballarat and Ararat effectively closed.

Since 1993, the only regular rail passenger service through the Wimmera has been The Overland service linking Melbourne and Adelaide twice weekly in each direction.

The discontinuation of the Dimboola services was part of a rationalisation that saw rail services on the lines to Dimboola, Mildura, Leongatha, Cobram, and Bairnsdale cut back or removed altogether, and the Warrnambool and Shepparton services privatised.

In the last months of operation, two trains were run in each direction during the week, with one departing Dimboola at 6.30 am for Melbourne, while an opposing service would arrive at 12.35 pm before leaving for the return journey at 1.15 pm. A down evening service would arrive in Dimboola at 9.50 pm that would stable for the night opposite the station, beside the old goods shed, which would then form the first up service the following day.

These trains usually consisted of three passenger carriages and a van, and the most common motive power was a V/Line N class locomotive, although the A, X, and even S classes also appeared occasionally.

The Victorian Railways first cut back their passenger services on this line on 2 December 1978 when the railmotor service between Horsham and Serviceton was discontinued. However, Dimboola still had a once-daily passenger train in each direction, along with a daily in each direction train service to Horsham that offered a coach connection to Dimboola and locations further west.

At this time, the Overland provided an overnight service between Melbourne and Adelaide in each direction.

From the introduction of the New Deal for Country Passengers in October 1981, not much changed for Dimboola initially, with the town continuing to be served by one train in each direction on weekdays and Saturdays, plus the daily coach service. It was not until April 1984, when operational requirements allowed, that the second train servicing the Wimmera was extended from Horsham to Dimboola, from where the coach connections to other destinations originated and terminated.

The last dedicated passenger service on the branch north of Dimboola to Rainbow ran on 30 January 1954.

While the V/Line service was restored to Ararat on 11 July 2004, the change of the railway gauge of the mainline from broad- to standard-gauge in 1995 has made a return of regular intra-state passenger trains to Dimboola more challenging, requiring either a change of trains at Ararat, or for the train to operate from Melbourne, via North Shore in Geelong, Cressy, and Ararat.

While agitation began even before the trains stopped running in 1993 with protest meetings and petitions to retain the service that became a fight to have them returned, nothing has yet come of it.

After 136 years and several threats to discontinue, Australia’s oldest interstate passenger train continues to run, albeit as a shadow of its former glory.

At its peak, The Overland operated overnight seven days per week in each direction, with the provision in the timetable for a second Adelaide/Melbourne Express to follow it to cater for additional passengers when necessary.

Since the 1990s, the service has gradually been reduced, and in 2007 it moved from overnight to daylight, and in 2013 it was reduced to twice weekly in each direction, as it continues to do today. Originally operated jointly by the Victorian and South Australian Railways, it was privatised in 1997 when Great Southern Rail took over, and Journey Beyond now runs it.

The only other scheduled passenger trains likely to be sighted through the Wimmera are the cruise trains, the Great Southern, which operates sixteen departures between Adelaide and Brisbane via Melbourne between December and February each year, and occasionally the Indian Pacific that runs between Sydney and Perth and return when line closures on its usual route dictate that it be diverted through Melbourne.

Last month was also forty years since the creation of V/Line to operate country Victorian passenger trains and rail freight, replacing the Victorian Railways, known at the time as VicRail, on 12 July 1983, while the iconic orange livery unveiled to the public for the first time thirty years ago today.