AN important part of Ararat\u2019s railway history has been restored with funding from the Victorian Government.<\/p>\n
Ararat A is over 100 years old and is the only remaining signal box from the once busy Ararat rail yards.<\/p>\n
Following the introduction of automated technology, the old signal box sat derelict for some years before being relocated to its current site next to Ararat Railway Station.<\/p>\n
It now forms part of the Ararat Rail Heritage Museum.<\/p>\n
Due to its age and a long period of inactivity, rail historians say the signal box had deteriorated significantly over the past 20 years.<\/p>\n
Earlier this year, the government body VicTrack stepped in, approving a maintenance program to restore the old signal box to its former glory.<\/p>\n
A VicTrack spokesperson confirmed to the Advocate this week, work is now complete.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have completed works to repair the heritage listed Ararat signal box, helping to preserve this important asset for the future,\u201d the spokesperson said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe works on the signal box included repainting it in its existing heritage colours, repairing damaged timber window frames, and replacing stair treads and handrails with like for like materials.\u201d they said.<\/p>\n
The works cost approximately $40,000.<\/p>\n
For safety reasons, workers had to be carried out after hours when trains weren\u2019t running, with the out of hours works contributing to the costs.<\/p>\n
The signal box is leased to Ararat Rural City Council, who sublease it to Ararat Rail Heritage Museum.<\/p>\n
President Laurie Harvey said he was delighted to see the \u201cold lady\u201d brought back to life.<\/p>\n
\u201cYes we\u2019re very happy. If the work hadn\u2019t been done, the water would have got into the box and the first two windows would have fallen out because they were rotted right off at the bottom,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cI got onto council and that girl from the Labor Party (Martha Haylett) she came here and I told her all about it and she took photos and stirred things up for us. It\u2019s a great outcome,\u201d Mr Harvey said.<\/p>\n
People wanting to tour the signal box can do so each Friday and Sunday between 1pm and 4pm at the Ararat Station.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
AN important part of Ararat\u2019s railway history has been restored with funding from the Victorian Government.
\nArarat A is over 100 years old and is the only remaining signal box from the once busy Ararat rail yards.
\nEarlier this year, the government body VicTrack stepped in, approving a maintenance program to restore the old signal box to its former glory.
\nA VicTrack spokesperson confirmed to the Advocate this week, work is now complete.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1591,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"none","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"coauthors":[31],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/theadvocate.net.au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/10\/IMG_1245-7-scaled.jpg?fit=2560%2C1707&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pdqUu4-pT","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/theadvocate.net.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1605"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/theadvocate.net.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/theadvocate.net.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theadvocate.net.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theadvocate.net.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1605"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/theadvocate.net.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1605\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theadvocate.net.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1591"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/theadvocate.net.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1605"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theadvocate.net.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1605"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theadvocate.net.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1605"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theadvocate.net.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=1605"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}