Melburnians young and old have been assembling under the clocks at the grand entrance of Flinders Street Station for generations.
Installed around 1910, the clocks have become just as much a designated meeting place as providing departure times for Melbourne’s 15 metropolitan train lines.
The clocks routinely get maintained every five years, line by line, with the ‘Werribee Line’ clock the most recent, undergoing a thorough service by Metro Trains crews.
Technical officer George Lekkas (above) started with the maintenance team in the mid-80s and has helped to service the clocks for the better part of the past 35 years.
His brother Jim is also part of the team and they have worked alongside one another for decades to maintain Metro’s passenger information systems across the network – from the older clocks to the newer, high-tech screens, PA and CCTV systems as well as building and access controls.
Originally, the mechanisms inside the clocks were fully mechanical and required manual adjustment for every train departure.
George remembers that when he was a young boy passing through Flinders Street Station, there was only one operator responsible for changing all of the train departure times manually throughout the day.
These days, the clocks are synced to Metro’s computer-based timetable system and update automatically.
“The Flinders Street Station clocks have a special place in all of our hearts, and it’s important that we maintain them with love and care so they can be enjoyed by Melburnians for years to come,” he said.
“We always keep a spare clock to ensure there’s never one missing when one is taken down for maintenance.”
