Hartwell railway station

Hartwell railway station is located on the Alamein line in Victoria, Australia. It serves the eastern Melbourne suburb of Camberwell, and it opened as Hartwell Hill on 7 May 1906. It was renamed Hartwell on 1 August 1909.[1]

Hartwell
Station entrance in March 2019
Location	Georgina Parade, Camberwell Australia
Coordinates	37°50′39″S 145°04′32″E
Owned by	VicTrack
Operated by	Metro Trains
Line(s)	Alamein
Distance	13.30 kilometres from Southern Cross
Platforms	2 (1 island)
Tracks	2
Construction
Structure type	Ground
Bicycle facilities	Yes
Disabled access	Yes
Other information
Status	Unstaffed
Station code	HWL
Fare zone	Myki Zone 1
Website	Public Transport Victoria
History
Opened	7 May 1906
Electrified	Yes
Previous names	Hartwell Hill
Services
Preceding station Metro Trains Following station Willison towards Flinders Street Alamein line Burwood towards Alamein

Hartwell was originally served by a train consisting of a locomotive and one or two carriages, dubbed the Deepdene Dasher, which shuttled between Ashburton and Deepdene stations. After the line from Camberwell to Ashburton was electrified in 1924, Hartwell was served by electric trains on the Ashburton line, which was extended to Alamein in 1948.[2]

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

The station building was originally at Walhalla station, the terminus of the Walhalla line, but was moved to Hartwell in December 1938, six years before the Walhalla line closed in 1944.[1] Hartwell is the only station on the Alamein branch to have an island platform. Until the Alamein line was converted from single to double track in the 1950s, Hartwell was the only crossing loop on the line.

On 27 December 1948, a derailment occurred on the Flinders Street (Up) side of the station, when the two front bogies of an Alamein bound train derailed near a set of points.[3]