Ararat railway station

Ararat railway station is a railway station located in the city of Ararat, Victoria, Australia. It is located where the Western standard gauge line intersects with the broad gauge Ararat line, and is also the junction for the Ararat - Maryborough line.FacilitiesArarat has two platform faces, set up in an island format. The standard gauge platform is to the north, with broad gauge trains using a dock platform on the south face. A grade crossing exists at the eastern end of the station to allow the broad gauge to continue east, while the standard gauge turns south.Control of signals is by the Australian Rail Track Corporation control centre at Mile End, South Australia and Centrol in Melbourne. A dead end siding is located to the east for broad gauge passenger trains, and across from the main platform are two loop and one dead end standard gauge sidings.HistoryThe railway first reached Ararat from Ballarat in 1875. The line south to Portland opened in 1877, and the mainline was extended west reaching the South Australian border at Serviceton in 1887. The line to Maryborough opened in 1890. Two signal boxes ('A' and 'B') were opened in 1891, and in 1914 the goods sidings were extended, with the locomotive depot built soon after. The locomotive depot was expanded in the late 1930s in conjunction with the massive new H class 4-8-4 steam locomotives intended for use on the Overland passenger train. An 85 feet (26 m) turntable was installed with 24 roads around it - the largest on the Victorian Railways system. Before this time Stawell was the major servicing facility in the region.