Re: Maps

[G.Lambert@unsw.edu.au (Geoff Lambert)]

Here's another one.

At Deer Park, on the north and west side of the line, one used to be
able to see what looked like the remains of a roadbed heading off at
45 degrees through the stony wasteland for about a kilometre to what
looked like the remains of a quarry.  It was visible in the 1960's but
was built over by houses in the 1970s and 1980s.

Note that I am not confusing this with the old ICI siding (which was
north  and east of Deer Park), nor with what was eventually known as
Ravenhall, which was south and west.  Nor, of course, with the Boral
siding at Deer Park West Junction.  Nor even the Federal Manure Siding
(aka Ardeer Siding), which was at what is known as Ardeer.  Nor even
Ardeer itself, in its earlier incarnation.  This was separate from all
of those.  Was it, perhaps, the Sandringham Quarry Trust Siding which
appears briefly in VR publications relating to Deer Park in about
1929?, although this may have been what was later to be called
Ravenhall.  Was it, perhaps, a construction siding for ballast
(therefore circa 1883 - 1890)?  For the record, the doyen of old
sidings and expert on "The Straight", Jack Maclean, is not able to say
whether such a siding existed.  Andrew Waugh's signalling history of
the line makes no mention of it either.

The reason I raise it here is because it was always my intention to
use old maps or aerial photos to try for some sort of documentary
evidence to support what I thought I saw with my eyes.  I can say that
no map post-1950 that I have seen has any road-bed marked.  A pre
1960's aerial photo would be confirmatory, I reckon.

Geoff Lambert