However, it is interesting to note that, unlike the Melbourne and Hobson’s Bay Railway Company, many of these were financial disasters. In the decade immediately after the Flinders Street to Sandridge line opened, many other rail companies emerged that built lines in Melbourne and surrounds, running services around the city and into the booming goldfields. The journey originally took about 10 minutes and two trains ran every half hour. The four English engines originally ordered (named Melbourne, Sandridge, Yarra and Victoria) were all in use by 1855. The locomotive was rapidly manufactured in ten weeks for about £2700. Instead, Robertson, Martin and Smith Engineering Works of Melbourne was commissioned to build the first steam engine produced in the Southern Hemisphere. However, work on the line progressed so quickly that the trains were not ready in time for the opening. Originally, steam engines for the service had been ordered from English manufacturers Robert Stephenson and Company. The track itself was broad gauge (around 1600mm) and ran from Flinders Street Station to its terminal stop at Sandridge pier, crossing the Yarra River over the original Sandridge bridge. He was replaced by another Englishman, James Moore, who completed the line in time for the 12 September opening. The line’s original engineer and designer, Englishman William Snell Chauncy, was forced to resign in March 1854 after producing substandard work on the railway pier at Sandridge.
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