By Tanya Steele
Locals along the Belgrave and Lilydale line may have spotted an unusual train while travelling on the weekend of Sunday 5 May.
John Weeks from Upwey posted a photo to social media and speculation began as to the purpose of the large bright yellow train.
Mr Weeks said he had heard a large rumbling on the tracks and stopped to get a picture.
“I was waiting for the bus and there was a rumbling sound and I thought, what is that,” he said.
“All of sudden this big monstrosity of a train came by and I didn’t know the purpose of it, but it was quite impressive,” Mr Weeks said
The mystery was gladly solved by the Metro Trains department who dished on the special locomotive – a vehicle known affectionately as ‘Evie’.
The Metro’s EV120 vehicle – or ‘Evie’ for short is a special train that uses special sensors and cameras to examine the condition of track, overhead lines and other rail infrastructure in real-time.
Evie travelled the full length of the Lilydale and Belgrave lines Monday, 6 May as part of Metro’s proactive maintenance checks, especially after recent heavy rain.
The crew on board were looking for any track deviations or overhead faults and all was functioning as it should be.
The technology on Evie includes ground-penetrating radar to check the stability of the ballast under the track.
Evie can go anywhere – with specially trained operators helping it run the full length of Metro’s network which spans 16 suburban lines and more than 1,000 kilometres of track.
The vehicle is about 20 metres long, weighs about 50 tonnes, and can travel at up to 120 kilometres an hour, hauled between two trains.
The train supports Metro Trains’ $300 million annual maintenance program.
A representative from Metro Trains said track evaluation train Evie helps to identify key sections of the network for proactive maintenance to keep the network running smoothly.
“It will be back inspecting the Belgrave and Lilydale lines around August,” they said.
