Marree railway line

Marree railway line
Marree railway line
Overview
Termini	Stirling North ; Marree ;
Continues from	Trans-Australian Railway
Continues as	Central Australia Railway
Service
Operator(s)	Commonwealth Railways
History
Opened	27 July 1957
Closed	27 April 2016
Technical
Track gauge	1,435 mm (4 ft 8+1⁄2 in) standard gauge
Route map
Central Australia Railway
	Adelaide–Darwin railway
	to Darwin
	Adelaide–Darwin railway
	to Port Augusta
	Northern Territory
	South Australia
	Adelaide–Darwin railway
	to Alice Springs

Last updated April 16, 2023

The Marree railway line is located in the Australian state of South Australia.

History

As a result of the opening up of the Leigh Creek Coalfield in the late 1940s and capacity restrictions on the existing narrow gauge Central Australia Railway via the Flinders Ranges, Marree and Quorn, a new standard gauge line was built, opening on 17 May 1956 from Stirling North on the outskirts of Port Augusta to Telford Cut and on 27 July 1957 to Marree.^[1]^[2]^[3]^[4] The line was extended to Marree because of the volume of cattle traffic coming off the Birdsville Track.^[5]

As well as freight trains, the new line was served by CB railcar services and The Ghan . The CB class was pulled from service in 1976 by Australian National Railways (ANR), leaving the standard gauge Ghan and a mixed train as the only passenger rail services on the line. ^[6] Following the opening of a new line from Tarcoola to Alice Springs in 1980, the line became the only rail connection to Marree after the closure of the narrow gauge Central Australia Railway from Alice Springs, and The Ghan was rerouted to no longer go through Marree, leaving a mixed train as the only passenger service on the line. The mixed train was replaced with a goods only train in 1985, and the line was curtailed to its present terminus at Telford Cut on 10 June 1987.^[2]^[3] At Stirling North the line continues to the Northern Power Station via a balloon loop.^[7]^{[ failed verification ]} With the impending closure of the power station, the last train ran on the line on 27 April 2016.^[8]^{[ needs update ]}

In 2017, control of the Leigh Creek railway line was transferred from Flinders Power to the state government's Department of Planning, Transport and Infrastructure.^[9] In March 2018, Bowmans Rail established a new intermodal rail terminal adjacent to the construction site for the Bungala Solar Power Project about 12 km north of Port Augusta. As well as construction materials for the power station, the terminal was expected to handle about 2000 containers per year, though the terminal has not been used since completion of delivering materials to the Solar Power Project.^[10]

Stations

Stations included the following: (from south to north):^[7]

Related Research Articles

The Ghan is an experiential tourism oriented passenger train service that operates between the northern and southern coasts of Australia, through the cities of Adelaide, Alice Springs and Darwin on the Adelaide–Darwin rail corridor. Operated by Journey Beyond Rail Expeditions, its scheduled travelling time, including extended stops for passengers to do off-train tours, is 53 hours 15 minutes to travel the 2,979 kilometres (1,851 mi). The Ghan has been described as one of the world's great passenger trains.

The Adelaide–Darwin railway line is a railway line in Australia, between the South Australian town of Tarcoola and the Northern Territory city of Darwin. Preceded by a number of other shorter railways, a line through to Darwin was fully realised in 2004 when the final link from Alice Springs to Darwin was opened. Forming the main section of the 2,975 kilometres (1,849 mi) rail corridor between the cities of Adelaide and Darwin, the line is used by The Ghan passenger train and interstate freight trains operated by Aurizon.

Marree is a small town located in the north of South Australia. It lies 589 kilometres (366 mi) North of Adelaide at the junction of the Oodnadatta Track and the Birdsville Track, 49 metres (161 ft) above sea level. Marree is an important service centre for the large sheep and cattle stations in northeast South Australia as well as a stopover destination for tourists traveling along the Birdsville or Oodnadatta Tracks.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Quorn, South Australia</span> Town in South Australia

Quorn is a small town and railhead in the Flinders Ranges in the north of South Australia, 39 kilometres (24 mi) northeast of Port Augusta. At the 2016 census, the locality had a population of 1,230, of which 1,131 lived in its town centre.

The Pichi Richi Railway is a 39 kilometres narrow-gauge heritage railway in the southern Flinders Ranges of South Australia between Quorn and Port Augusta. For much of its length the line lies in the picturesque Pichi Richi Pass, where the line was completed in 1879 as work proceeded north to build a railway to the "Red Centre" of Australia – the Central Australia Railway.

The former Central Australia Railway, which was built between 1878 and 1929 and closed in 1980, was a 1,241 km (771 mi) 1067 mm narrow gauge railway between Port Augusta and Alice Springs. A standard gauge line duplicated the southern section from Port Augusta to Maree in 1957 on a new nearby alignment. The entire Central Australia Railway was superseded in 1980 after the standard gauge Tarcoola–Alice Springs Railway was opened, using a new route up to 200 km to the west. A small southern section of the original line between Port Augusta and Quorn has been preserved as the Pichi Richi Tourist Railway.

The first railway in colonial South Australia was a line from the port of Goolwa on the River Murray to an ocean harbour at Port Elliot, which first operated in December 1853, before its completion in May 1854.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gawler railway line</span> Commuter railway line in Adelaide, South Australia

The Gawler railway line is a suburban commuter railway line in the city of Adelaide, South Australia. It is the only rail route in Adelaide to have no interchange with another line at any station except Adelaide.

The Commonwealth Railways were established in 1917 by the Government of Australia with the Commonwealth Railways Act to administer the Trans-Australia and Port Augusta to Darwin railways. It was absorbed into Australian National in 1975.

Stirling North is a town located 8 kilometres east of Port Augusta in the Australian state of South Australia. The now abandoned Marree railway line forms the official border line separating the two towns. Primarily, Stirling North is a satellite town to Port Augusta, in part because the Stirling North railway station was a rail junction at various times for four railway lines. Married railway employees from the station and Port Augusta were accommodated in about 100 houses near the station, and facilities such as a recreation hall were built by the Commonwealth Railways. A junction of the Augusta Highway and the Flinders Ranges Way also adjoins the town. At the 2016 census, Stirling North had a population of 2,673.

Telford railway station was located on the Central Australia Railway, and later the Marree railway line serving the small South Australian outback mining town of Leigh Creek.

The Commonwealth Railways NSU class was a class of diesel-electric locomotives built in 1954 and 1955 by the Birmingham Railway Carriage and Wagon Company, England, for the Commonwealth Railways to be deployed on the narrow-gauge Central Australia Railway and North Australia Railway.

The Adelaide-Port Augusta railway line is the main route for northbound rail traffic out of Adelaide, South Australia. The line, 315 kilometres long, is part of the Adelaide–Darwin rail corridor and the Sydney–Perth rail corridor.

Telford Cut was an open-cut coal mine, now closed, in the Leigh Creek Coalfield in South Australia. For the 72 years between its opening in 1943 and its closure, the mine supplied sub-bituminous coal to fire power stations first in Adelaide then, from 1954, Port Augusta. Production ceased in November 2015 but stockpiled product was transported to Port Augusta until the last power station closed down in May 2016.

Port Augusta railway station is a rail station located on the Adelaide-Port Augusta railway line in Port Augusta, South Australia.

Terowie railway station was located on the Roseworthy–Peterborough line in the South Australian town of Terowie.

Marree railway station was located on the Central Australia Railway, and later the Marree railway line serving the small South Australian outback town of Marree.

The NDH class railcars are a class of self propelled diesel-hydraulic railcars designed by Commonwealth Engineering and built by the Gloucester Railway Carriage & Wagon Company in England for the Commonwealth Railways, Australia in 1954. They were known as Gloucester railcars.

Farina railway station was located on the Central Australia Railway, and later the Marree railway line serving the small South Australian outback town of Farina.

Copley railway station was located on the Central Australia Railway, and later the Marree railway line serving the small South Australian outback town of Copley.

References

↑ Gauge Change on Leigh Creek Line Soon Adelaide Advertiser 11 August 1950
1 2 Bromby, Robin (2004). The Railway Age in Australia. South Melbourne: Thomas Lothian. p. 64. ISBN 0 734407 15 7.
1 2 Newland, Andrew; Quinlan, Howard (2000). Australian Railway Routes 1854 - 2000. Redfern: Australian Railway Historical Society. p. 67. ISBN 0-909650-49-7.
↑ Port Augusta to Marree Chris' Commonwealth Railways
↑ "Remember When" Railway Digest February 1999 page 45
↑ "CB class Budd Railcars". Comrails. Chris Drymalik. Retrieved 16 June 2021.
1 2 "NRG Leigh Creek Coalfield Line" (PDF). SA Track and Signal. Graham Vincent. Retrieved 19 February 2018.
↑ Reid, Khama (29 April 2016). "Leigh Creek coal train completes final journey to Port Augusta ahead of power station closure". ABC News . Australian Broadcasting Commission. Retrieved 19 February 2018.
↑ "Leigh Creek Railway". Flinders Power. Retrieved 19 February 2018.
↑ Green, Amy (15 March 2018). "Port Augusta Intermodal open for business". The Transcontinental . Retrieved 15 March 2018.

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[1] Gauge Change on Leigh Creek Line Soon Adelaide Advertiser 11 August 1950

[RBromby-2] 1 2 Bromby, Robin (2004). The Railway Age in Australia. South Melbourne: Thomas Lothian. p. 64. ISBN 0 734407 15 7.

[NewlandQuinlan-3] 1 2 Newland, Andrew; Quinlan, Howard (2000). Australian Railway Routes 1854 - 2000. Redfern: Australian Railway Historical Society. p. 67. ISBN 0-909650-49-7.

[4] Port Augusta to Marree Chris' Commonwealth Railways

[5] "Remember When" Railway Digest February 1999 page 45

[Comrails_CB_Class-6] "CB class Budd Railcars". Comrails. Chris Drymalik. Retrieved 16 June 2021.

[SCXU1-7] 1 2 "NRG Leigh Creek Coalfield Line" (PDF). SA Track and Signal. Graham Vincent. Retrieved 19 February 2018.

[ABC-8] Reid, Khama (29 April 2016). "Leigh Creek coal train completes final journey to Port Augusta ahead of power station closure". ABC News . Australian Broadcasting Commission. Retrieved 19 February 2018.

[FlindersPower-9] "Leigh Creek Railway". Flinders Power. Retrieved 19 February 2018.

[10] Green, Amy (15 March 2018). "Port Augusta Intermodal open for business". The Transcontinental . Retrieved 15 March 2018.

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Marree railway line

Contents

History

Stations

Related Research Articles

References