Spencer Street Yard
Rail yards have existed at Batman Hill / Spencer Street / Southern Cross since the first railways were opened. Bank Sidings. Centre Yard. Railmotor Depot. Through Suburbans. Layby Sidings. Sound like gibberish to you? Then this diagram will lay it all out for you.
Diagram
Red lines are electrified, blue is not. North is to the right hand side of the diagram.
Track layout based on 2008 after the resignalling and reworking was carried out. The mechanical signal box was decommissioned over the Queens Birthday long weekend June 2008.
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2007 diagram
An older diagram, based on the track layout post redevelopment but before the resignalling works.
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Usage
The Carriage yard at Dudley Street gets used to store V/Line rolling stock when not in use.
The dead end 'Bank Sidings' under Latrobe Street bridge usually see a D van or two stabled, as well as the shunter's float and a Y class plonked there.
The siding to the west of the yard office usually has a spare carriage stabled there (BCZ / BTN / BZN) and the PCJ / PCO power vans get plonked in the dead end roads on the the very east side when not in use.
Most of the through roads in that area have complete sets stabled in them. The north most bit of the Bank Sidings usually gets locos stabled, one or two Vlocity lashups offpeak, and push pull sets.
The Railcar Depot in the middle is as the name suggests, seeing Sprinters and VLocities stabled and serviced.
The Layby Sidings are used by Connex to stable trains between peaks and have two sidings each 6 cars long.