Passengers will have the rare opportunity to travel to Rainbow by rail when the Seymour Railway Heritage Centre’s ‘Shiraz and Jazz’ train visits the Wimmera next weekend.

Operating from its home base on Friday 9 October, via Melbourne and Geelong, the full tour includes visits to the Seppelt Great Western winery for the ‘Shiraz’, and the Stick Shed at Murtoa, before spending the night in Horsham.

On Saturday, the train continues west to Nhill for the Jazz of the tour, with locals able to join the train at Dimboola. At the destination, patrons will visit the Silo Heritage Project based at the town’s imposing Noske silo complex and the Nhill Aviation Heritage Centre. Over lunch in the Memorial Hall, guests will be addressed by local guest speakers John and Margaret Millington and will enjoy live jazz music. The overnight stay will be back in Horsham.

Pictured - The last passenger special to visit Rainbow branch was two years ago and was photographed approaching Jeparit on the afternoon of 6 October 2024.

The train will make a rare visit to the branch line north of Dimboola on Sunday. This line normally only sees a limited number of grain trains each year, and an annual visit by the ARTC ‘AK Cars’, which look like a short passenger service but are actually a track evaluation train, so the appearance of a train full of passengers will add some variety.

Several lunch options are available in Rainbow, and the return trip includes a stop to view the Arkona silo art.
In the first half of last century, this line boasted regular passenger services several times per week to both Yaapeet and Yanac and special trains were regularly chartered for significant events, such as football matches, horse race meets, regattas, and local shows.

Passenger service on the Yanac line was withdrawn by April 1941, and the last scheduled passenger service north of Dimboola ran as far as Rainbow, with a Diesel Rail Car, on Wednesday, 30 January, 1954.
The train departs Horsham on the Monday morning to retrace its outward journey back to Seymour.

Various legs of the overall tour can also be booked independently, including the return trip from Horsham to Nhill on the Saturday and to Rainbow on the Sunday, with passengers able to join the train in Horsham, Dimboola, or Jeparit. Several one-way fares are also available on Friday 9 October between Southern Cross and Ararat, Southern Cross and Stawell, Ararat and Stawell, and Ararat and Horsham.