Melbourne–Adelaide railway

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Melbourne–Adelaide railway
Locale Victoria and South Australia
Predecessor Victorian Railways and South Australian Railways
Track gauge 1,435 mm (4 ft 8 1⁄2 in) standard gauge
Previous gauge converted from 1,600 mm (5 ft 3 in)
Melbourne-Adelaide railway
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Melbourne
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Melbourne–Sydney railway
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Western SG line
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Vic–SA border
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Adelaide–Wolseley railway
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Adelaide
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to Crystal Brook and the East–West
and Adelaide–Darwin railways

The Melbourne–Adelaide railway is a standard gauge railway corridor that runs between the cities of Melbourne, Victoria and Adelaide, South Australia. [1] Most of the current traffic is freight, though the only named and perhaps best known regular train is the twice-weekly passenger service The Overland , operated by Great Southern Rail.

Melbourne City in Victoria, Australia

Melbourne is the capital and most populous city of the Australian state of Victoria, and the second most populous city in Australia and Oceania. Its name refers to an urban agglomeration of 9,992.5 km2 (3,858.1 sq mi), comprising a metropolitan area with 31 municipalities, and is also the common name for its city centre. The city occupies much of the coastline of Port Phillip bay and spreads into the hinterlands towards the Dandenong and Macedon ranges, Mornington Peninsula and Yarra Valley. It has a population of approximately 5 million, and its inhabitants are referred to as "Melburnians".

Victoria (Australia) State in Australia

Victoria is a state in south-eastern Australia. Victoria is Australia's smallest mainland state and its second-most populous state overall, making it the most densely populated state overall. Most of its population lives concentrated in the area surrounding Port Phillip Bay, which includes the metropolitan area of its state capital and largest city, Melbourne, Australia's second-largest city. Victoria is bordered by Bass Strait and Tasmania to the south, New South Wales to the north, the Tasman Sea to the east, and South Australia to the west.

Adelaide City in South Australia

Adelaide is the capital city of the state of South Australia, and the fifth-most populous city of Australia. In June 2017, Adelaide had an estimated resident population of 1,333,927. Adelaide is home to more than 75 percent of the South Australian population, making it the most centralised population of any state in Australia.

Contents

History

In the second half of the nineteenth century, the Victorian Railways and South Australian Railways broad gauge networks were extended. The South Australian main line, the Adelaide-Wolseley line, was connected to the Victorian system at Serviceton in 1887. This was the first single gauge inter-colonial link in Australia. [2]

Victorian Railways transport company

The Victorian Railways (VR), trading from 1974 as VicRail, was the state-owned operator of most rail transport in the Australian state of Victoria from 1859 to 1983. The first railways in Victoria were private companies, but when these companies failed or defaulted, the Victorian Railways was established to take over their operations. Most of the lines operated by the Victorian Railways were of 5 ft 3 in. However, the railways also operated up to five 2 ft 6 in narrow gauge lines between 1898 and 1962, and a 4 ft 8 1⁄2 instandard gauge line between Albury and Melbourne from 1961.

South Australian Railways

South Australian Railways was the statutory corporation through which the Government of South Australia built and operated railways in South Australia from 1854 until March 1978, when its non-urban railways were incorporated into Australian National, and its Adelaide urban lines were transferred to the State Transport Authority.

The Adelaide-Wolseley railway line is a 313 kilometre line running from Adelaide to Wolseley on the Australian Rail Track Corporation network. It is the South Australian section of the Melbourne–Adelaide railway.

Conversion to standard gauge and rerouting

In 1995, the line was converted to standard gauge, under the One Nation program and rerouted between Melbourne and Ararat in Victoria, to run on the line via North Shore and Cressy. [3]

One Nation was an Australian Government program of infrastructure development carried out under the Keating Government from 1991 to 1996. Much of the program was implemented as a means of stimulating the economy in the aftermath of the early 1990s recession.

Ararat railway station railway station in Ararat, Victoria, Australia

Ararat railway station is located on the Serviceton and Western standard gauge lines, in Victoria, Australia. It serves the town of Ararat, and opened on 7 April 1875. It is also the junction for the Ararat – Maryborough line.

North Shore railway station railway station in North Shore/Norlane, Victoria, Australia

North Shore railway station is located on the Warrnambool line, in Victoria, Australia, and serves the northern Geelong suburbs of North Shore and Norlane.

Calls for a standard gauge line between Melbourne and Adelaide were made as early as 1983, with studies between VicRail and Australian National at the time suggesting figures of around $400 million to construct, and various routes, including via Serviceton and Ararat, or via Pinnaroo, Ouyen and Maryborough. [4]

Australian National Railways Commission transport company

The Australian National Railways Commission was an agency of the Government of Australia that was a railway operator between 1975 and 1998. It was known as Australian National Railways in its early years, before being rebranded as Australian National.

The Pinnaroo Line serviced the agricultural districts of the Mallee for the freight of grain, although there were periods of passenger travel on the line in previous years.

Ouyen railway station

Ouyen is a closed railway station in Ouyen, on the Mildura railway line, in Victoria, Australia. The station is the junction for the Pinnaroo line westward to Panitya and Pinnaroo.

Track and gauge

The line is single track the entire route with the exception of a short dual gauge section near Melbourne, and a number of 1,500–1,600 m (4,900–5,200 ft) passing loops every 15–45 km (9.3–28.0 mi).

Dual gauge line of track for trains of two separate track gauges

A dual gauge railway is a track that allows the passage of trains of two different track gauges. It is sometimes called a "mixed gauge" track. A dual gauge track consists of three rails. There will be two vital rails, one for each gauge close together and a third rail, a "common" rail further away. Sometimes, four rails are required using two outer and two inner rails to create the dual gauge. Dual gauge is not to be confused with a "third rail" or "check or guard rails".

Passing loop

A passing loop or passing siding is a place on a single line railway or tramway, often located at a station, where trains or trams travelling in opposite directions can pass each other. Trains/trams going in the same direction can also overtake, provided that the signalling arrangement allows it. A passing loop is double-ended and connected to the main track at both ends, though a dead end siding known as a refuge siding, which is much less convenient, can be used. A similar arrangement is used on the gauntlet track of cable railways and funiculars, and in passing places on single-track roads.

Some branches have also been converted to standard gauge.

Branch line Minor railway line

A branch line is a secondary railway line which branches off a more important through route, usually a main line. A very short branch line may be called a spur line. David Blyth Hanna, the first president of the Canadian National Railway, said that although most branch lines cannot pay for themselves, they are essential to make main lines pay.

Related Research Articles

Rail transport in Australia railway transport in Australia

Rail transport in Australia is a crucial aspect of the Australian transport network. Rail in Australia is to a large extent state-based. As at 2018, the Australian rail network consisted of a total of 33,168 kilometres (20,610 mi) of track on three major track gauges.

Rail transport in Victoria

Rail transport in Victoria, Australia, is provided by a number of railway operators who operate over the government-owned railway lines. The network consists of Victorian broad gauge lines, and an increasing number of standard gauge freight and interstate lines; the latter brought into existence as a result of gauge conversion of the former. Historically, a few experimental 762 mm gauge lines were built, along with various private logging, mining and industrial railways.

Australians generally assumed in the 1850s that railways would be built by the private sector. Private companies built railways in the then colonies of Victoria, opened in 1854, and New South Wales, where the company was taken over by the government before completion in 1855, due to bankruptcy. South Australia's railways were government owned from the beginning, including a horse-drawn line opened in 1854 and a steam-powered line opened in 1856. In Victoria, the private railways were soon found not to be financially viable, and existing rail networks and their expansion was taken over by the colony. Government ownership also enabled railways to be built to promote development, even if not apparently viable in strictly financial terms. The railway systems spread from the colonial capitals, except in cases where geography dictated a choice of an alternate port.

<i>The Overland</i> train service operating between Adelaide and Melbourne, Australia

The Overland is an Australian passenger train service between Melbourne and Adelaide. It first ran in 1887 as the Adelaide Express, but has been called the Melbourne Express by South Australians. It was given its current name in 1926. Now operated by private company Great Southern Rail, the train completes two return trips a week covering 828 kilometres between the state capitals. Originally an overnight train, it now operates during the day.

Rail transport in South Australia

The first railway in colonial South Australia was a horse-drawn tramway from the port of Goolwa on the Murray River to an ocean harbour at Port Elliot in 1854. Today the state has 1,600 mm broad gauge suburban railways in Adelaide, a number of country freight lines, as well as key 1,435 mm standard gauge links to other states.

Australian Rail Track Corporation

The Australian Rail Track Corporation (ARTC) is a Government of Australia owned statutory corporation, established in July 1998, that manages most of Australia's interstate rail network.

Rail gauge in Australia

Rail gauges in Australia display significant variations, which has presented an extremely difficult problem for rail transport on the Australian continent for over 150 years. As of 2014, there is 11,801 kilometres (7,333 mi) of narrow-gauge railways, 17,381 kilometres (10,800 mi) of standard gauge railways and 3,221 kilometres (2,001 mi) of broad gauge railways.

The Serviceton railway line is a railway serving the west of Victoria, Australia that links the state capital of Melbourne to the cities of Ballarat and Ararat, and once extended to the South Australian border as part of the Melbourne–Adelaide railway. In this role it has been replaced by the Western standard gauge line.

The North East railway line is a railway line in Victoria, Australia. The line runs from Albury railway station in the border settlement of Albury–Wodonga to Southern Cross railway station on the western edge of the Melbourne central business district, serving the cities of Wangaratta and Seymour, and smaller towns in northeastern Victoria. The line, owned by VicTrack but leased to and maintained by the Australian Rail Track Corporation, forms part of the Sydney–Melbourne rail corridor.

The Mildura railway line is a heavy rail line in northwestern Victoria, Australia. The line runs from Yelta station to Ballarat station via the settlements of Mildura, Ouyen and Maryborough in an approximate south-southeasterly direction. Initial sections of the line opened from Ballarat in 1874 and the line reached Mildura in 1903.

Nhill railway station is located on the Western standard gauge line in Victoria, Australia. It serves the town of Nhill. Large grain silos are located in the goods yard.

VicTrack Australian state-owned enterprise which owns all railway and tram lines

VicTrack, the trading name of Victorian Rail Track Corporation, is a Victorian Government state-owned enterprise which owns all railway and tram lines, associated rail lands and other related rail-related infrastructure in the state of Victoria, Australia, with the exception of the heritage Puffing Billy Railway that is owned by the Emerald Tourist Railway Board.

Freight railways in Melbourne

The city of Melbourne, Australia, has an extensive network of railway lines and yards to serve freight traffic. The lines are of two gauges—5 ft 3 in broad gauge and 4 ft 8 1⁄2 in standard gauge—and are unelectrified. In the inner western suburbs of the city, freight trains have their own lines to operate upon, but in other areas trains are required to share the tracks with Metro Trains Melbourne and V/Line passenger services.

The Western standard gauge railway line is a standard-gauge railway line in western Victoria, Australia. Opened in 1995, it forms part of the Melbourne–Adelaide rail corridor and serves as the principal interstate rail link between Victoria and the western states. The line replaced a number of former broad gauge routes which were gauge converted, and today sees both intrastate and interstate freight traffic, as well as the twice weekly The Overland passenger service. Major towns on the route include Geelong, Ararat, Horsham and Dimboola.

V/Line G class

The G Class are a class of diesel locomotive built by Clyde Engineering, Rosewater and Somerton for V/Line between 1984 and 1989.

The Sydney–Melbourne rail corridor is an approximately 960-kilometre (600 mi) standard gauge railway corridor that runs between Melbourne and Sydney, the two largest cities in Australia. Freight and passenger services operate along the route, such as the NSW TrainLink XPT passenger service. The XPT offers a day and night service in each direction.

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.

Avoca railway line Maryborough - Avoca - Ararat railway, Victoria, Australia

The Maryborough–Avoca–Ararat railway is a railway line in western Victoria, Australia. It is one of the few railway lines in the state to have been closed and then reopened. Today it is a standard gauge branch line connecting the Western SG with Bung Bong (ballast) and Dunolly (grain), running through Maryborough station.

References

Notes

  1. ↑ "AusLink Network Corridors". www.auslink.gov.au. Archived from the original on 19 July 2008. Retrieved 2008-03-29.
  2. ↑ "ARHS Railway Museum: History 1839 – 1900". www.railwaymuseum.org.au. Archived from the original on 29 September 2009. Retrieved 2008-03-29.
  3. ↑ "ARHS Railway Museum: History 1950 – now". www.railwaymuseum.org.au. Archived from the original on 8 February 2007. Retrieved 2008-03-29.
  4. ↑ "General News". Newsrail. Australian Railway Historical Society. February 1983. p. 19.

Bibliography

  • Avery, Rod (2006). Freight Across the Nation: The Australian Superfreighter Experience. Brisbane: Copyright Publishing Co. ISBN   1876344474. 

Coordinates: 36°22′26″S140°57′54″E / 36.373951°S 140.965087°E / -36.373951; 140.965087

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