Pinnaroo railway line, South Australia | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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The Pinnaroo railway line at Peake, South Australia | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Overview | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Locale | Murray Mallee | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Coordinates | 35°23′S140°8′E / 35.383°S 140.133°E Coordinates: 35°23′S140°8′E / 35.383°S 140.133°E | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Operation | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Opened | 14 September 1906 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Technical | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Line length | 265.2 km (164.8 mi) | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Track length | 144.1 km (89.5 mi) | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Number of tracks | 1 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Track gauge | 1,435 mm (4 ft 8 1⁄2 in) standard gauge | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Old gauge | 5 ft 3 in (1,600 mm) | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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The Pinnaroo railway line ran east from the Adelaide to Melbourne line at Tailem Bend to Pinnaroo near the South Australia / Victoria state border. The route continues into Victoria via the Victorian Railways line to Ouyen where it joined the Mildura line. [1]
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.
Tailem Bend railway station is located on the Adelaide-Wolseley line in Tailem Bend, South Australia. It is also the junction point for the Loxton and Pinnaroo lines.
Pinnaroo is a town in the Murray Mallee region of South Australia, near the border with Victoria, 243 km east of Adelaide. Pinnaroo is on the north side of the Mallee Highway, and on the railway line between Tailem Bend and Ouyen. The roadhouse on the highway at Pinnaroo is the first "food and leg-stretch" stop on the bus route from Adelaide to Sydney. At the 2016 census, the locality of Pinnaroo had a population of 712 of which 547 lived in and around its town centre.
The line opened from Tailem Bend to Pinnaroo on 14 September 1906, being extended to the state border on 29 July 1915. [2]
When the Adelaide to Wolseley line was closed east of Tailem Bend for gauge conversion, the Pinnaroo line became part of the main line between Adelaide and Melbourne for two weeks in April 1995. Journey times increased by 10 to 12 hours. [3] [4]
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 2,080 km2 (800 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 5 million, and its inhabitants are referred to as "Melburnians".
In May 1995, it was announced that the line west of Pinnaroo would be gauge converted from broad gauge to standard gauge. [5] [6] Work on the conversion of the line was delayed until 1996, due to a large grain crop and increased traffic by trains destined for Tocumwal and Yarrawonga in regional Victoria that were on the broad gauge network. [7]
The Tocumwal railway station is a heritage-listed closed railway station in the town of Tocumwal, New South Wales, Australia. It was once the break-of-gauge between the broad gauge Victorian Railways Tocumwal line from the south, and the standard gauge New South Wales Government Railways Tocumwal line from the north. However, only the line from Victoria is still open.
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.
A small part of the line converted in 1996, was converted back for the 1997 grain harvest. To continue the journey to Adelaide, the grain was transhipped at Tailem Bend. [8] The last broad gauge train operated on 2 July 1998 [9] with the line reopening on 25 November 1998. [2] [10] As the Victorian line remained broad gauge, trains could no longer operate over the entire length with Pinnaroo becoming a break of gauge point.
Transshipment or transhipment is the shipment of goods or containers to an intermediate destination, then to another destination.
With railways, a break of gauge occurs where a line of one gauge meets a line of a different gauge: specifically a different track gauge. Trains and rolling stock cannot run through without some form of conversion between gauges, and freight and passengers must otherwise be transshipped. A break of gauge adds delays, cost, and inconvenience.
The line closed in July 2015. [11] Viterra announced that no more grain would be carried by rail after 31 July 2015, with the 2015 harvest to be entirely transported by road. [12] As the South Australian line closed, the Victorian government was upgrading part of its end of the line for regional freight. [13]
Viterra Inc. was a Canadian grain handling business, the nation's largest grain handler, with its historic formative roots in prairie grain-handling cooperatives, among them the iconic Saskatchewan Wheat Pool. Viterra Inc grew into a global agri-business with operations in Canada, the United States, Australia, New Zealand and China. Viterra operated three distinct, inter-related businesses: Grain Handling & Marketing, Agri-Products and Processing, enabling it to generate earnings at various points on the food production chain from field to the table. Following its $6.1-billion acquisition by Glencore International, on 1 January 2013 Viterra Inc was merged with Glencore purchaser, 8115222 Canada Inc.
Tailem Bend is a progressive river town on the Murray River in South Australia and the home of the Bend Motor Sport Park. It is located less than 100 km south-east of Adelaide. It is located on the cliffs above the east (left) bank of the Murray River close to where the river empties into Lake Alexandrina.
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.
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 Journey Beyond Rail Expeditions, 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.
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.
The National Rail Corporation was an Australian rail operator established by the Federal, New South Wales and Victorian governments in February 1992. In February 2002 National Rail was sold to a Patrick Corporation and Toll Holdings consortium and rebranded Pacific National.
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 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.
The rail network of Melbourne, Australia, has an significant number of railway lines and yards serving freight traffic. Rail transport in Victoria is heavily focused on Melbourne, and, as a consequence, much of the state's rail freight passes through the metropolitan network.
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.
The C Class are a class of diesel locomotive built by Clyde Engineering, Rosewater for the Victorian Railways in 1977–1978.
Genesee & Wyoming Australia (GWA) is an Australian rail freight operator company. It is a subsidiary of Genesee & Wyoming (51%) and Macquarie Infrastructure & Real Assets (49%).
The Melbourne–Adelaide rail corridor is a standard-gauge railway corridor that runs between the cities of Melbourne, Victoria and Adelaide, South Australia. 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.
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.
The Loxton railway line is a closed railway line in the northern Murray Mallee region of South Australia. It ran north-east from Tailem Bend to grain silos near Loxton.
The Barmera railway line was the second railway built to develop the Murray Mallee region of South Australia, in 1913. It followed the success of the Pinnaroo railway line in 1906. Both lines branched east from Tailem Bend to the north of the main Melbourne–Adelaide railway. The Brown's Well line was the more northerly, and extended into country which had not been developed much before the railway, partly due to the absence of any viable transport route for produce. The original terminus of the Brown's Well railway was at Meribah, not far from the Victorian border.
Mount Gambier-Heywood railway line is a 5 ft 3 in line located in Australia which operated from 27 November 1917 to 11 April 1995 between Mount Gambier in the state of South Australia and Heywood in the state of Victoria. It is one of two railway lines built by both state governments following an agreement in 1912 to connect to each other’s railway networks. There has been calls for standardisation over the past 2 decades from Heywood to Wolseley since the Melbourne to Adelaide line was converted in 1995.