Editing Rail transport in Victoria (section)

===First lines===
[[File:Old Flinders Street Station.jpg|thumb|Pre 1910 [[Flinders Street railway station|Flinders Street station]] building]]
Australia's first steam-operated railway was a {{convert|4|km|mi|abbr=on}} [[5 ft 3 in gauge railways#Installations|broad gauge]] line between the [[Melbourne]] (or City) Terminus (on the site of modern-day [[Flinders Street railway station|Flinders Street station]]) and Sandridge (now [[Port Melbourne]]). It was constructed by the [[Melbourne and Hobson's Bay Railway Company]] and opened in September 1854.<ref name="arhs1">{{cite web | title = ARHS Railway Museum: History 1839–1900 | work = ARHS Railway Museum | url = http://www.railwaymuseum.org.au/history.html | access-date = 5 February 2008 | url-status = dead | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20090929200801/http://www.railwaymuseum.org.au/history.html | archive-date = 29 September 2009}}</ref> The first country line in Victoria was from Melbourne to [[Geelong railway station|Geelong]],<ref>'''''The Greenwich Railway – 1857''''' Clark, Allan [[Australian Railway History]], June/July/August 2007 pp. 234–245; 260–279; 308–323</ref> which was opened in 1857 by the [[Geelong and Melbourne Railway Company]].<ref name="rg">{{cite web | title = Geelong Line | work = Rail Geelong | publisher = Marcus Wong | url = http://www.railgeelong.com/lineguide.php?line=geelong | access-date = 5 February 2008 | archive-date = 11 February 2008 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20080211201225/http://www.railgeelong.com/lineguide.php?line=geelong | url-status = live }}</ref> In the early years, the lines were constructed by private companies.

The suburban network expanded to the east from [[Princes Bridge railway station|Princes Bridge]] to [[Richmond railway station, Melbourne|Richmond]] in 1859, then later to [[Brighton, Victoria|Brighton]] and [[Hawthorn railway station, Melbourne|Hawthorn]] by the early 1860s. The initial suburban lines were all built by different private companies centred on Flinders Street, which amalgamated into the [[Melbourne and Hobson's Bay Railway Company|Melbourne and Hobson's Bay United Railway Company]] by 1865;<ref name="awaugh" /> public ownership did not occur until 1878.<ref name="vrhist">{{cite web|title=VR timeline |work=victorianrailways.net/ |publisher=Mark Bau |url=http://www.victorianrailways.net/vr%20history/history.html |access-date=5 February 2008 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080530050949/http://www.victorianrailways.net/vr%20history/history.html |archive-date=30 May 2008}}</ref> In 1862, [[Victorian Railways]] lines had reached the great [[Victorian gold rush|gold rush]] towns of [[Bendigo]] and [[Ballarat]], and in 1864, railways were extended to the [[Murray River]] port of [[Echuca]].<ref name="vrhist" /> In the 1870s, the Government Railway Department ([[Victorian Railways]]) started to build its own lines.<ref name="awaugh"/>

In 1883, the first connection to another colony's rail system was made, when the [[North East railway line|Albury-Wodonga line]] was completed to join the [[New South Wales Government Railways]] network at [[Albury railway station|Albury]], requiring a [[break-of-gauge]] to New South Wales' {{RailGauge|1435mm}} ([[standard gauge]]).<ref name="newsrail-line">{{Victorian Rail-Newsrail|title=Tracks Across the State|author=Sid Brown|month=3|year=1990|pages=71–76}}</ref> It was then followed in 1887 by a connection with the broad gauge [[South Australian Railways]] at [[Serviceton railway station|Serviceton]], with the ''Intercolonial Express'' (now ''[[The Overland]]'') to Adelaide running between the capitals.<ref name="arhs1" /> Additional trunk lines were also built though the 1870s, with rails extended to [[Sale railway station, Victoria|Sale]], [[Portland, Victoria|Portland]] and [[Colac railway station|Colac]]; and the first branch lines built.<ref name="awaugh" /> It was a time of improved train safety, with the first [[interlocking]] of [[railway signalling]] to protect trains provided in 1874,<ref name="vrhist" /> and tests of [[Brake (railway)|continuous train brakes]] carried out in 1884.<ref name="vrhist" />

In 1884, [[Parliament of Victoria|Colonial Parliament]] passed ''[[Railway Construction Act 1884|The Railway Construction Act]]'', which authorised fifty-nine new lines to almost every corner of the colony, and thus became known as the ''Octopus Act''. The proposed lines would serve both new agricultural towns and support suburban land speculation.<ref name="awaugh" /><ref name=Speight>{{Australian Dictionary of Biography|last= Venn |first= Michael|year= 1976|id= A060189b|title= Speight, Richard (1838–1901) |access-date= 17 February 2008 }}</ref> It was also this decade that the first [[Narrow gauge lines of the Victorian Railways|narrow gauge line]] was opened from Wangaratta to Whitfield, with three other lines following by 1910.<ref name="vrhist" /> The [[South Gippsland railway line|South Gippsland line]] was also opened from Dandenong to [[Leongatha, Victoria|Leongatha]] by 1891.<ref name="newsrail-line" /> However, by the late 1890s, the majority of the colony was now covered in railways, with the exception of the [[The Mallee|Mallee country]] in the north west of the colony which saw further line openings,<ref name="awaugh" /> such as the [[Mildura railway line|Mildura line]] in 1903.<ref name="newsrail-line" />