November 1975: In 1975, Ballan was a quiet country station located on the down after what was often a gruelling climb up Ingliston Bank.  "Back in the days", steam would often pause here to take water.  

Note the infrastructure that seemed to be part and parcel of the railways in those days: stiff leg derrick, diamond crossover (leading to cattle loading race behind left of the photographer), points indicator (complete with protective bar), somersault semaphore signals, deeply ballastedand well maintained high speed mainline track (not!) and water tanks on both down and up sides of station.

{1,600 x 900 pixels; 890k: Ilford FP4 @ 200ASA / Acutol}