Strzelecki railway line, Victoria

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Strzelecki railway line, Victoria

Line details
Opened	24 June 1922
Completed	1922
Closed	Closed in 4 stages 22 November, 1930 7 August, 1941 5 April 1950 4 February 1959
Fate	Closed
Stations	8
Tracks	Single
Former connections	Joined South Gippsland line at Koo Wee Rup
Rail transport in Victoria
List of stations Closed railways

Strzelecki railway line

Legend

South Gippsland line

65.97km

at Koo Wee Rup

70.43km

Plowrights siding

71.86km

W.W. Sand siding

73.63km

Bayles

79.76km

Catani

83.88km

Yannathan

Lang Lang River

87.55km

Heathill

Creek

Pheasant Creek

Crompton's Creek

Athlone Quarry Siding

96.07km

Athlone

Mathieson's Creek

101.71km

Topiram

Creek

Lang Lang River

106.41km

Triholm

Lang Lang River

Waterfall Creek

114.97km

Strzelecki

The Strzelecki railway line was a steam-era branch railway line in Victoria, Australia. The line opened in 1922 branching off the former Great Southern Railway (South Gippsland line) at Koo Wee Rup Station. The main line branched off the current Pakenham line at Dandenong, extending out into the South Gippsland region.

1 History
2 See also

[edit] History

The Strzelecki Line was a branch line off the former Great Southern Railway (South Gippsland line).

[edit] Construction

The line was constructed with 60lbs 'D' steel rail, using 9 sleepers of 8'4" long, 9" wide and 4 1/2" deep with 9 sleepers being used for every 22'6" or 20 sleepers per 45' length of rail, laid on a ballast of sand 6" deep. Track speed for Passenger and Freight services was 25mph.^{[citation needed]}

[edit] Opening and Operations

The Strzelecki line was opened as a branch off the main line at Koo Wee Rup Station (Koo Wee Rup) opening on 29 June, 1922. The line served the farms of the Strezlecki rangers having. Upon opening in 1922 sheep and/or cattle loading facilities were provided at all stations except Heath Hill, and Goods Loading and storage facilities at all stations except Athlone. Two further goods sidings were provided upon opening, these were situated before Bayles station, the Plowrights siding and W.W. Sand siding and a further siding for Athlone Quarry Siding on the Up side of Athlone station was opened later.

The original terminus station at Strezlecki had a 53' turntable, after its closure no station on the line was supplied with a turntable, requiring trains to run tender first Down the line and returning to Koo Wee Rup normally.^{[citation needed]}

[edit] Closures

The Strzelecki line turned out to be one of the shorter-lived lines in Victoria. With the section between Triholm to Strzelecki closing on 22 November 1930, due to a trestle bridge developing a large sway every time a train ran over it. The cost of repairs deemed uneconomical to repair the trestle causing this section of line to be closed^{[citation needed]}. This was followed by the section of track after Yannathan to Triholm being closed on 7 August 1941 following flooding of the Lang Lang River, resulting in damages to one of the four trestle bridges over that river^{[citation needed]}, Next to close was the section Bayles to Yannathan which was truncated on 15 April 1950^{[citation needed]}. The line to Bayles was kept open until 4 February 1959 to serve a butter factory.^{[citation needed]}