Sunshine railway station, Melbourne

The Melbourne & Murray River Railway (now named the Bendigo line), originating from Spencer Street station, was built in the late 1850s, from Footscray to Sunbury and Bendigo, however, no station was built at that time on the current site; the closest station was Albion and Darlington, on the site of the current Albion station.[5]

In 1885, the Serviceton line from Melbourne to Ballarat, via Bacchus Marsh, was provided, branching off from the Bendigo line, and a station at the junction of the two lines was built. The station opened on 7 September 1885 as Braybrook Junction, named such as it was at the junction of the two lines, and was within the Shire of Braybrook.

In 1887, the Sunshine – Newport line, connecting the new station at Braybrook Junction to Newport and Williamstown, Victoria's major cargo port at the time, was opened.

In 1907, Braybrook Junction station was renamed Sunshine, when Hugh McKay moved his Sunshine Harvester Works adjacent to the station.[4]

On 20 April 1908, Sunshine was the scene of the worst train crash in Victorian railway history, the Sunshine train disaster. 44 persons were killed and over 400 passengers were injured.

The Albion – Jacana line opened in 1929, connecting Sunshine with the North East line, allowing freight trains to avoid the steeper grades and suburban traffic on the suburban line between North Melbourne, Essendon and Broadmeadows.

The road level crossing at Sunshine was removed when grade separation was carried out in 1961.[6] The works took place as part of the project to construct a standard gauge line from Sydney to Melbourne.[7] In that same year, boom barriers were provided at the nearby former Anderson Road level crossing, on the Bendigo line.[8]

In January 1963, a fourth platform was provided on the adjacent Melbourne – Sydney standard gauge line, to enable passengers to transfer between the interstate Sydney and Adelaide expresses.[6] In 1965, control of signals at Albion was transferred to the signal box at Sunshine.[6] Also in that year, the Grain Elevator Board sidings, that serve the nearby grail silos, opened for traffic.[4] In 1976, a signal panel was provided to replace an existing panel[4] and, in 1977, boom barriers were provided at the nearby former Anderson Road level crossing, on the Serviceton line.[8]

Demolished station White City was located between Sunshine and Tottenham. It closed on 4 October 1981.[9]

On 5 February 1985, Harris trailer carriage 830T was destroyed by fire in a vandalism attack, whilst stabled in the former down end siding.[10][11]

In 1988, the sidings leading to Massey Ferguson were booked out of use. The lead to the sidings, which crossed the standard gauge line, was removed in February of that year.[12]

In 1994, the former station underpass, which connected the platforms to nearby City Place, was completed,[13] and replaced an earlier underpass.[14] It was removed during the station upgrades between 2012 and 2014. Also in that year, the track leading to the former goods shed was removed,[14] and a number of semaphore signals were replaced with automatic colour signals.[15]

On 26 July 1996, Sunshine was upgraded to a premium station.[16]

In mid 2004, the platform on the standard gauge line was removed.[17] The waiting room on the platform was demolished five years earlier, in 1999.[18]

From 2012 to 2014, the station was rebuilt as part of the Regional Rail Link project.[19] Works included:

• a new bus interchange, completed in September 2013;[20]
• construction of a new footbridge and concourse, completed in January 2014;[21]
• upgrading Platforms 1 and 2 with new canopies;
• rebuilding Platform 3 and a new Platform 4, both completed in April 2014;[22][23]

On 28 April 2014, the completed station was opened to the public.

The standalone signal box to the north of the station, commissioned in 1914, was closed in 2016, and its control of the Sunshine and Albion areas transferred to Metrol.[24] The former signal box is one of the largest surviving examples of a tappet and lever frame box on the Victorian network, having once housed 80 levers. Although mechanical signalling was replaced with electronic interlocking before the box was finally taken out of service, it remains relatively intact as an example of Victorian Railways signal box architecture.[25]

In early 2020, construction commenced on a new signal control centre south of the station, which will share control of the Sunshine–Dandenong corridor with an existing facility at Dandenong, after completion of the Metro Tunnel.[26]