page_title: Narrow-gauge lines of the Victorian Railways
section_title: Right of way and safeworking
hierarchical_section_title: Narrow-gauge lines of the Victorian Railways / Right of way and safeworking
caption_attribution_description: English: Embankment on the narrow gauge w:Crowes railway line, Victoria
context_page_description: The former Victorian Railways, the state railway authority in Victoria, Australia, built a number of experimental 2 ft 6 in narrow-gauge lines around the beginning of the 20th century. Although all were closed by the early 1960s, parts of two have been reopened as heritage railways.
context_section_description: A number of studies were made of overseas narrow-gauge railways such as the Darjeeling Himalayan Railway in India and the Ffestiniog railway in Wales. An initial decision to build the lines in 2 ft (610 mm) gauge was changed to 2 ft 6 in (762 mm) gauge for the Victorian lines. This gauge was being adopted on other lines in the British Empire at this time, such as the Kalka-Shimla Railway and the Sierra Leone Government Railway. The railways were constructed using 60 lb/yd (29.8 kg/m) rail, initially obtained from broad-gauge lines that were being upgraded. A maximum grade of 1 in 30 (3.33%) was adopted, while the minimum radius of curves was 2 chains i.e. 132 feet (40 m).
  Apart from a couple of experiments with other systems, all lines were operated by the Staff and Ticket method of safeworking, as was standard Victorian Railways practice for this system.
caption: Embankment on the Colac – Beech Forest line
exif: {"Image Make": "Canon", "Image Model": "Canon EOS 350D DIGITAL", "Image Orientation": "Horizontal (normal)", "Image XResolution": "72", "Image YResolution": "72", "Image ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Image DateTime": "2008:06:19 12:19:56", "Image YCbCrPositioning": "Co-sited", "Image ExifOffset": "196", "Thumbnail Compression": "JPEG (old-style)", "Thumbnail XResolution": "72", "Thumbnail YResolution": "72", "Thumbnail ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormat": "9716", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormatLength": "8732", "EXIF ExposureTime": "1/80", "EXIF FNumber": "28/5", "EXIF ExposureProgram": "Program Normal", "EXIF ISOSpeedRatings": "400", "EXIF ExifVersion": "0221", "EXIF DateTimeOriginal": "2008:06:19 12:19:56", "EXIF DateTimeDigitized": "2008:06:19 12:19:56", "EXIF ComponentsConfiguration": "YCbCr", "EXIF ShutterSpeedValue": "207157/32768", "EXIF ApertureValue": "162885/32768", "EXIF ExposureBiasValue": "0", "EXIF MeteringMode": "Pattern", "EXIF Flash": "Flash did not fire, compulsory flash mode", "EXIF FocalLength": "18", "EXIF FlashPixVersion": "0100", "EXIF ColorSpace": "sRGB", "EXIF ExifImageWidth": "1024", "EXIF ExifImageLength": "683", "Interoperability InteroperabilityIndex": "R98", "Interoperability InteroperabilityVersion": "[48, 49, 48, 48]", "EXIF InteroperabilityOffset": "9230", "EXIF FocalPlaneXResolution": "1728000/437", "EXIF FocalPlaneYResolution": "384000/97", "EXIF FocalPlaneResolutionUnit": "2", "EXIF CustomRendered": "Normal", "EXIF ExposureMode": "Auto Exposure", "EXIF WhiteBalance": "Auto", "EXIF SceneCaptureType": "Standard"}