South Gippsland railway line, Victoria

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South Gippsland railway line, Victoria
Line details
Commenced	1888
Completed	1892
Closed	1993
Fate	Suburban Cranbourne line, South Gippsland Tourist Railway, Great Southern Rail Trail
Rail transport in Victoria
List of stations Closed railways

The South Gippsland railway line opened in 1892, branching from the Gippsland line at Dandenong, and extending to Port Albert. Much of it (the section up to Leongatha) remained in use until 1993 (the track up to Leongatha is still intact), however only a small portion is in use today, as the suburban Cranbourne line.

In addition to the Cranbourne line, the section from Nyora to Leongatha is used by the South Gippsland Tourist Railway, and Leongatha to Foster has been converted to the Great Southern Rail Trail.

Contents 1 History 1.1 Branch lines 1.2 Services 2 Current status 3 References 4 External links

[edit] History

The Melbourne and Suburban Railway Company opened a line from Princes Bridge railway station to Punt Road (Richmond) and South Yarra in 1859 and extended to Dandenong in 1879. The South Gippsland railway line (also known as the Great Southern Railway) was opened from Dandenong to Cranbourne in 1888 and extended to Koo Wee Rup, Nyora and Loch in 1890, Korumburra and Leongatha in 1891 and Welshpool, Alberton and Port Albert in 1892. The section from Alberton to Port Albert was closed in the 1940s. A branch line was built from Alberton to Yarram and Woodside in 1921.

The line was well known for its sharp curves and spectacular scenery, and was also one of the last lines to offer a 'Mixed Passenger and Goods' service in Victoria. The section from Yarram to Woodside was closed in the early 1970s, with the section from Barry Beach Junction to Yarram closed in the 1980s when the mixed goods service closed. From this point until about 1992, the track beyond Agnes received minimal usage, although a short branch leading from Agnes to Barry Beach was used extensively for goods traffic to serve the oil platforms in Bass Strait.

The Barry Beach service ceased in 1992 and with it all usage of the train line beyond Leongatha. This section of track was then dismantled in 1994, requiring the strengthening of a bridge to allow the track machine onto the track to do the dismantling. The section from Nyora to Leongatha was transferred to the South Gippsland Railway in 1994 and trains have not operated beyond Cranbourne since 1998.^[1]

[edit] Branch lines

South Gippsland Line

Legend 32.500km Gippsland line at Dandenong 33.419km Bombardier Siding 34.742km Greens Road 34.750km D/nong Through Siding 35.337km Eumemmerring Creek 36.914km Abbotts Road 38.362km Lyndhurst 38.590km D/nong-Hastings Road 39.500km Lyndbrook Loop 41.593km Evans Road 42.350km Merinda Park 42.526km Thompsons Road 44.679km Camms Road 45.122km Cranbourne 45.277km Sth Gippsland Hwy 45.472km End of overhead 46.227km Narre Warren Road 46.945km Ford New Holland Siding 48.106km Berwick Road 50.047km Five Ways Road 50.738km Clyde 51.140km Ballarhow Road 54.733km 56.310km 56.333km Manks Rd 58.176km Tooradin 58.378km 58.403km Station St 60.065km 60.117km Hardy Rd 61.116km 61.161km Dalmore Rd Dalmore 62.661km - 62.945km 66.084km - 66.430km 67.148km Koo Wee Rup Strzelecki Line 67.346km Rossiter Road 68.135km 68.944km 69.447km 70.392km Monomeith 70.596km 71.323km 71.833km 72.268km Caldermeade 74.077km Caldermeade Lane 76.303km 77.205km Western Port Road 77.404km Lang Lang 78.487km McDonalds Track 79.767km 83.416km 86.115km Koala Siding 88.685km 90.507km Nyora 90.703km Poowong Road 91.476km Wonthaggi Line 93.107km 93.570km 95.041km Loch 95.315km 96.250km Loch - Poowong Road 97.189km 99.241km 99.672km 100.930km Jeetho Road Jeetho 101.177km 101.593km 104.260km Bena - Kongwak Road 105.620km Bena - Poowong Road 105.792km Bena 106.493km Chapmans Lane 107.441km Bena Road White Law 109.380km 111.406km Warragul Road 111.896km Korumburra 112.180km Bridge Street Outtrim line 113.315km O'Neils Xing 115.808km 116.138km Fairbank Rd 116.339km Kardella 116.865km 120.751km 121.299km Leongatha Rd 121.510km Ruby 121.867km 122.368km 123.092km 126.077km Turner Street 126.511km McCarten Street 126.735km Leongatha Koonwarra Tarwin Meeniyan Stony Creek Buffalo Boys Fish Creek Hoddle Foster Bennison Toora Agnes Barry Beach Welshpool Welshpool Jetty narrow gauge Hedley Gelliondale Alberton Woodside line Port Albert

A 5km-long narrow-gauge horse-drawn tramway was built from Welshpool to Welshpool Jetty in 1905. It was closed in 1941.

The mountainous Strzelecki branch line was built from Koo Wee Rup to Strzelecki which opened in 1922. This line was closed in stages throughout the 1930s, 40s and 50s.

The Wonthaggi branch line was built from Nyora to Wonthaggi opening in 1910 to serve the State Coal Mine, a small extension to the line was opened in 1917. The Wonthaggi line was closed in 1978.

The Outtrim branch line was built from Korumburra to the coal mine at Outtrim in two stages, the initial stage to Jumbunna was opening in 1894 with the final stage to Outtrim opening in 1896, The line was closed in two stages the first from Jumbunna to Outtrim on 4 September 1951 and then from Jumbunna to Korumburra on 1 October 1953.

[edit] Services

Passenger services operated on the line since opening. Services from Melbourne to Leongatha and Yarram were withdrawn on June 6, 1981 with replacement buses starting 3 days later.^[2] The Yarram train was a loco hauled mixed train, while the Leongatha train was a DRC railcar hauling MTH carriages. To fill the gap local trains were introduced on a three month trial from Dandenong to Lang Lang, being withdrawn on October 3, 1981 due to insufficient patronage. Services to Leongatha were restored on December 9, 1984 but were again withdrawn on July 21, 1993.^[2]

The line became unused beyond Cranbourne which still retained a short shuttle service, except for a tourist operation to become known as South Gippsland Railway which commenced operation between Nyora and Leongatha. In 1995 the section between Dandenong and Cranbourne was electrified and a station added at Merinda Park, as part of a $27 million Federal Government funded project.^[3]

The Barry Beach freight service ceased in 1992 and with it all usage of the train line beyond Leongatha. By the mid 1990s only T, Y and P class diesel locomotives were used on the line from this time due to their low axle loads, with a 15 km/h speed limit applying to parts of the track.^[1] This continued until January 15, 1998 when the Koala Siding (near Nyora) to Spotswood sand train ceased operation.^[1]

[edit] Current status

The track beyond Leongatha to Yarram and the Barry Beach branch line was dismantled in 1994 (Although dismantling of other facilities along the line such as level crossing signals took place around mid to late 1992, not long after the last train ran to Barry Beach).

The section from Dandenong to Cranbourne was electrified in 1995 and is now part of the suburban rail network as the Cranbourne; while the line from Nyora to Leongatha is now used by the South Gippsland Tourist Railway. The remaining section of track from Cranbourne to Lang Lang is disused but still intact. The branch line from Nyora to Wonthaggi was closed in 1978 and later dismantled.

Prior to the 1999 Victorian election, the state Labor Party made a promise to return passenger services to Leongatha, which has not yet been met. However some bridges have been repaired between Leogatha and Korumburra which has allowed the South Gippsland Tourist railway to restore its services on this section of the track after it was prevented from using it due to the declining condition of the bridges. The first level crossing on the closed section of the line, the South Gippsland Highway crossing in Cranbourne has since been paved over.

In 2008 a report commissioned by the Victorian Department of Transport found the cost of returning passenger services to Leongatha to be unjustifiably high, at an estimated $72 million, and that only 20 per cent of respondents surveyed about their transport needs considered restoring train services to be the main priority. Instead $14.7 million will be spent on bus and coach service upgrades.^[4]

[edit] References

• TransNet Logistics (May 1, 2007). Leongatha Rail Line: Reintroduction of Passenger Train Services (Review Summary & Transport Options Assessment Report). www.doi.vic.gov.au. Retrieved on 2008-05-04.

[edit] External links

• Statistics and detailed schematic map at the vicsig enthusiast website
• Photos: Between Cranbourne and Clyde stations