In 1859, MHBRC paid St Kilda and Brighton Railway Company £5,000 to build a loop line from St Kilda to Windsor, the line being extended to Brighton Beach by 1861, on what is now the Sandringham line. However, a more direct route from Windsor to the city was built 11 months later by the Melbourne and Suburban Railway Company, and the loop line was dismantled in 1867. In 1878, the private operators of all these lines were taken over by the Victorian Railways.