Hartwell railway station

Hartwell
Station statistics
Coordinates	37°50′39″S 145°04′32″E / 37.8441°S 145.0756°E / -37.8441; 145.0756Coordinates: 37°50′39″S 145°04′32″E / 37.8441°S 145.0756°E / -37.8441; 145.0756
Platforms	2
Tracks	2
Other information
Station code	HWL
Owned by	VicTrack
Myki zone	1
Station status	Unmanned station
Melway map	Link
Website	Link, includes timetables
Services
Preceding station   Metro Trains   Following station Willison toward Flinders Street Alamein line Burwood toward Alamein
Location
Link

Hartwell is a railway station on the Alamein railway line in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. It lies between the Fordham Avenue, Glyndon Road and Kalang Road intersection and Culliton Road on the Western side of the station in Camberwell. Between the Fordham Avenue, Glyndon Road and Kalang Road intersection and the station is a medium-sized park, stretching the length of the Station, and including children's play equipment. Access to Hartwell Station is through the park or via the Tyrone Street end. It is located 12 kilometres (7.5 mi) from Flinders Street Station in the centre of Melbourne and is in Metlink Zone 1. The station has limited car parking but few other facilities.

Station overview

Facilities

Hartwell station contains a large weatherboard building with a disused booking office and toilets. A myki ticket vending machine is located at the entrance to the platforms. A Telstra payphone was located near the gate to platform 2, which has since being removed.

History

Hartwell station opened on 7 May 1906, under the name of Hartwell Hill.^[1] Confusingly, Burwood was named Hartwell at the time. On 1 August 1909, Hartwell Hill was renamed Hartwell, and Hartwell was renamed Burwood. Hartwell was originally part of the Deepdene Dasher service that connected Ashburton with Deepdene. After the closure of the Deepdene service in 1927, Hartwell became part of the Ashburton line, which in turn became the Alamein line in 1948.

Hartwell is named after one of the early estates in the area, "Hartwell House", which was the residence of James Irwin, who owned and operated Irwin's Hotel in the mid-1850s which was located on lot 149a the corner of Norwood Road (now Toorak Road) and Wattle Valley Road, subsequently demolished about the time the railway line was built. In the 1850s, Hartwell was a small hamlet known as "Back Creek" named after the creek nearby. Irwins Hotel in the Boorandarra Roads Board minutes of meetings noted that c/- Irwin Hotel "Back Creek" was used as a Polling Station.

The station has two platforms arranged in an island configuration (where trains arrive either side of a central shared platform). The station building is historically significant, as it was originally built as Walhalla station on the Walhalla line, but was moved to Hartwell in December 1938, six years before the Walhalla line closed in 1944. Hartwell is the only station on the Alamein branch to have an island platform. Until the Alamein line was converted from single line to double line in the 1950s, Hartwell was the only crossing loop on the line. This meant that nearly every train met a service going in the opposite direction, at Hartwell. Thus, Hartwell was an important Staff and Ticket safeworking station.

Platforms and services

Platform 1:

• Alamein line - all stations and limited stops services to Flinders Street

Platform 2:

• Alamein line - all stations and limited stops services to Alamein

References