Casterton Line | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Overview | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Status | Closed | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Former connections | Portland | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Stations | 7 [1] | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Service | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Type | Victorian Railways passenger and goods service | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
History | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Opened | 1884 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Closed | 1977 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Technical | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Line length | 51 kilometres (32 mi) | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Number of tracks | 1 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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The Casterton Line was a branch line running north-west from the Portland Main Line, from the town of Branxholme to the town of Casterton, in Victoria, Australia. Opening in 1884, the line was 51 kilometres (32 mi) long and completely single track, apart from at stations.
The branch line was initially opened from Branxholme to Henty on 15 February 1884, with the rest of the line to Casterton opening later that year. When the line opened, it allowed for the efficient transport of passengers and local produce in the area to the larger town of Hamilton, as well as the port of Portland. Throughout the early-twentieth-century, traffic on the line grew to the extent that there was a daily goods train to and from Hamilton.
In 1927, the Victorian parliament authorised the construction of a 16.1-kilometre (10.0 mi) extension of the line to Nangeela, [2] largely to serve a soldier settler estate in the area. [3] With the onset of the Great Depression in the 1930s, the extension was never built.
Both passenger and freight traffic declined following World War II, and the line was eventually closed completely on 12 September 1977, along with a number of other lines in the south-west of Victoria. Since its closure, the track has been completely removed and the rail reserve mostly sold. The Casterton station building and the goods shed at Henty station remain, along with some traces of the other three stations on the line. [4]
The London and South Western Railway was a railway company in England from 1838 to 1922. Originating as the London and Southampton Railway, its network extended to Dorchester and Weymouth, to Salisbury, Exeter and Plymouth, and to Padstow, Ilfracombe and Bude. It developed a network of routes in Hampshire, Surrey and Berkshire, including Portsmouth and Reading.
Casterton is a town in Victoria, Australia, located on the Glenelg Highway, 42 kilometres east of the South Australian border, in the Shire of Glenelg. The Glenelg River passes through the town. Casterton is named after the village of Casterton in south-east Cumbria in England.
The Dunback and Makareao Branches were two connected branch line railways, part of New Zealand's national rail network. Located in the Otago region of the South Island, both lines were 15 km in length and shared the first 11 km. The Dunback Branch, also known as the Waihemo Branch, opened in 1885 and closed in 1968; the Makareao Branch, also known as the Inch Valley Railway or the Inch Valley Branch, opened in 1900 and operated for 89 years to 1989.
The Lanarkshire and Ayrshire Railway (L&AR) was an independent railway company built to provide the Caledonian Railway with a shorter route for mineral traffic from the coalfields of Lanarkshire to Ardrossan Harbour, in Scotland.
The Ely and St Ives Railway was a railway company that opened a line between those places in 1878. It was an extension of the privately promoted Ely, Haddenham & Sutton Railway that had opened in 1866. It was a standard gauge single track. The line was worked by the neighbouring Great Eastern Railway but it was never profitable. The development of road transport services in the 1920s caused a steep decline in use of the line, and the passenger service was withdrawn in 1931. A goods service continued, but the line closed completely in 1964. No railway activity takes place on the route now.
The Portland Branch railway refers to a group of lines on the Isle of Portland in the English county of Dorset. The first was the Portland Railway, in fact a tramway with a counterbalanced rope worked incline. It opened in 1826. It was followed by the Weymouth and Portland Railway, which connected to the main line of the Great Western Railway at Weymouth. It opened in 1865. From the late 1840s until 1872 Portland Breakwater was built, a prodigious construction task that created a very large safe harbour. It was decided to provide a railway connection to the breakwater, which was used as a pier for bunkering ships. This was constructed by the LSWR and the GWR jointly, and opened in 1876. The fourth line was the Easton and Church Hope Railway. This line was conceived as a simple descent to bring stone down from quarries to a new jetty at Church Hope, but after their line was authorised in 1867, the Company delayed useful construction, and a change of plan followed, with several Acts of Parliament authorising modifications to the route and extension of time. It finally opened in 1900.
The Tumut and Kunama railway lines are disused railway lines in the south of New South Wales, Australia. The Tumut line was a 104 kilometres (65 mi) long branch of the Main South line, branching southwards from it at Cootamundra and heading to the town of Tumut. The line served the towns of Tumut and Gundagai, where the line crosses the Murrumbidgee River with a large iron girder bridge and wooden viaduct. Villages on the line included Brawlin, Muttama, Coolac and Tumblong.
Henty is a town in southwestern Victoria, Australia. The town is located in the Shire of Glenelg local government area, 373 kilometres (232 mi) west of the state capital, Melbourne.
Branxholme is a township in the Shire of Southern Grampians in the Western District of Victoria, Australia on the Henty Highway between Heywood and Hamilton. At the 2016 census, Branxholme and the surrounding area had a population of 351.
The 1922 Border Railways Acts, were Acts passed by the Parliaments of both Victoria and New South Wales, which authorised the construction of cross border railways in the Riverina region of Australia. Despite being located in New South Wales, the region was closer economically to Victoria and its railway network, operated by Victorian Railways. Another complication was that Victorian Railways used the 1,600 mm broad gauge, while the New South Wales Government Railways used 1,435 mm standard gauge.
The Portland railway line is a railway line in south-western Victoria, Australia. It runs from the main Western standard gauge line at Maroona through Hamilton to the port town of Portland.
The Noojee railway line is a closed railway line in Victoria, Australia. Branching off from the Gippsland line at Warragul station, it was built to service the timber industry in the upper Latrobe River area, transporting timber as well as providing a general goods and passenger service to townships in the area. The final section of the line between Neerim South and Noojee traversed increasingly hilly terrain and featured a number of large timber trestle bridges. Extensively and repeatedly damaged by bushfires over the years, the line was closed in the 1950s and dismantled. The last remaining large trestle bridge on the line has been preserved and has become a popular local tourist attraction.
The Cambridge Branch is a rural railway line in the Waikato, New Zealand. The line stretchs from Ruakura Junction for 15.08 km to the settlement of Hautapu, having previously continued another 4.19km to the township of Cambridge. It had five stations along its length, at Newstead, Matangi (Tamahere), Bruntwood (Fencourt), Hautapu and the terminus at Cambridge.
The Ponteland Railway was a 7-mile (11 km) single-track branch line, which linked Gosforth in Tyne and Wear with Ponteland in Northumberland. A 1+1⁄4-mile (2 km) sub-branch line also ran between Ponteland and Darras Hall.
The Wrexham and Ellesmere Railway was a railway line that ran from Wrexham in North Wales, to Ellesmere in Shropshire, England. The line opened in 1895 and closed in 1962, except for a residual goods service which itself closed in 1981.
The Wooloongabba Branch railway line was a branch line off the South Coast railway line in the inner southern suburbs of Brisbane, Australia. It opened on 2 June 1884 to serve the wharves and industries along the Brisbane River at Woolloongabba and South Brisbane. Queensland Railways always referred to the line as the Wooloongabba Branch, despite the official spelling of the suburb it ran through being Woolloongabba.
The Mansfield Railway was an eleven-mile railway line in Nottinghamshire, England. It was built to serve collieries opening in the coalfield around Mansfield, and ran between junctions at Clipstone and Kirkby-in-Ashfield on the Great Central Railway. It opened in 1916 and was worked by the GCR. Passenger stations were opened on the line, although, at the date of opening, road bus competition was already dominant.
The Wemyss and Buckhaven Railway was a railway company that built a line in the county of Fife in Scotland, connecting Buckhaven with the main line railway network at Thornton, and linking with collieries.
Casterton railway station was a railway station on the Casterton railway line in Victoria, Australia. The station was built by A. C. Findley, and opened in 1886. A mixed Passenger–goods train continued to operate on the Casterton Line until 1949 when the passenger service was withdrawn. On 15 March 1954, a rail–car service between Branxholme and Casterton was started on a basis of seeing whether it would be profitable or not. This service was cancelled on 31 July 1954. However, the station was never demolished, and following a period of restoration, now operates as a tourist attraction.
The branch line from Branxholme to Casterton was opened throughout its fall length on Monday for both passengers and light goods traffic. There are five intervening stations, viz., Murndal, Grassdale, Merino, Henty and Sandford.