Celebrate 200 Years of Railway History!
In 1825, the Stockton & Darlington Railway opened the world’s first passenger railway station on Tuesday 27th September — a milestone that transformed travel forever. Steam locomotives carried passengers and goods at unprecedented speed, sparking a transport revolution that connected towns, boosted industry, and shaped modern Britain and the world. This special SideTracked Railway 200 event at West Melbourne is part of a worldwide celebration running from Wednesday 24th to Tuesday 30th September 2025.
If your passion for railways matches your passion for geocaching, you would think that such a significant anniversary warrants a gala dinner... but there is another event in town that trumps even this for the passion of Victorians... the AFL Grand Final... so a more restrained event has been planned.
We return to the location of the recent SideTracked Day 2025 event but this time at a more amenable time... 10:00am... chosen so that those with tickets to the Grand Final or going to Grand Final parties can get there in plenty of time... and those that are ambivalent to the whole thing can get out of the city and go geocaching!
In case you didn't make the SideTracked Day 2025 event, this event is being held at the Railway Viewing Platform located in Railway Place, West Melbourne... a few minutes walk from North Melbourne railway station. This is a simple gathering so BYO food and drink, seats and shelter if the weather is not great.
We will be too late to see the Sydney XPT this time, but we should see plenty of Velocities coming and going from Geelong, Ballarat and Bendigo.
