Trans-Australian Railway
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Gauge : | 1435 mm ( standard gauge ) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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The Trans- Australian Railroad is a single-track, standard-gauge railway line, completed in 1917, which connects Western Australia with New South Wales . The core route runs from Kalgoorlie to Port Augusta . At both ends, the railway connects to other railways, so that in a broader sense the name Transaustralian Railway is also used for the entire west-east-oriented connection Perth - Sydney .
topography
The railway line crosses the Nullarbor Desert , a terrain with almost no incline. Here, between km 797 and km 1275, is the longest straight railroad in the world, at 478 km. The total length of the route between Kalgoorlie and Port Augusta is 1,692.6 km.
The route does not cross fresh water. In order to supply staff and steam locomotives with water, groundwater was drilled at large intervals and reservoirs were created.
history
In 1901 the six previously autonomous Australian colonies merged to form the state of Australia . The condition for the accession of Western Australia was the promise that the federal government would build a railway that would connect the settlement center of the colony around its capital Perth, which is isolated from the rest of the country, with the other settlement centers of the new state in the south and east of the continent.
In 1907 the legal basis was created for prospecting the course of the route. This work was completed in 1909. The result was a route proposal between the ends of the West Australian Railway in Kalgoorlie and the South Australian Railway in Port Augusta. The Railway Construction Act was passed in 1911 and the Commonwealth Railways was founded in 1912 to carry out construction and subsequent operations. The work began in September 1912 and was carried out in standard gauge, although the railways that connected at both ends at that time were in Cape gauge . Construction has started from both ends, and he was also, despite Australia's entry into the First World War led on. The two construction crews met in October 1917 and the track ends were connected on October 17, 1917. The construction cost 4,045,000 pounds sterling .
In 1937 the eastern end of the line was extended to Port Pirie . This saved the passengers in the direction of Adelaide from having to change to the Cape Gauge connection between Port Augusta and Terowie via Quorn and Peterborough through the Flinders Ranges . You could now switch directly to the South Australian broad gauge (1600 mm). It saved passengers going to Sydney at least the slow journey through the Flinders Ranges. At the same time, three gauges met at the Port Pirie station.
Only in 1970, after a gap had been closed at Broken Hill, did a continuous track in standard gauge coming from New South Wales reach Perth and for the first time enabled continuous trains between Perth and Sydney . In Broken Hill, a plaque at the station commemorates February 23, 1970 - the day the gap was closed - as well as numerous vehicles of the former Silverton Tramway, which are brought together in a museum.
business
The Trans- Australian Railroad is an important freight link between Western Australia and the eastern Australian states. Passenger traffic, on the other hand, is rather insignificant and primarily of a tourist nature: the Indian Pacific travels the entire length of the route, the Ghan uses it between Port Augusta and Tarcoola . The passenger train service originally operated under the name Trans-Australian . Even during the construction of the line until 1996, the Tea and Sugar Train was also running, supplying the isolated railway employees and towns along the line with everyday goods.
The water found by drilling was often salty and neither suitable for drinking nor for the locomotives. The trains had to carry their water supply with them. In the days of the steam locomotive, this meant that the water made up half of the tonnage carried. The problem was known from the beginning and the first chief engineer, Henry Deane, was already trying to prepare for the use of diesel locomotives . Before this proposal could gain a foothold, however, he had to resign because of a procurement scandal. The successor relied on steam locomotives again. So it was only from 1951 onwards that diesel locomotives were used as scheduled on the route.
Originally, the line was provided with a 400 meter long siding about every 100 kilometers so that train crossings were possible. With increasing traffic, these possibilities have increased and expanded. Since 2008, all passing points have been able to accommodate trains up to 1800 meters in length and are arranged along the route at intervals of between 30 km and 60 km. Most of these alternative positions are vacant. They are equipped with fallback switches and, if necessary, are set remotely by the train crew via radio. There are no signals . The safety is guaranteed by driving commands .
Crossing Australia by train
Color code | |||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Cape Track | Standard gauge | Broad gauge |
1917-1927
Route section | train | operator | length | annotation |
---|---|---|---|---|
Perth - Kalgoorlie | The Westland | Western Australian Government Railways | ||
Kalgoorlie - Port Augusta | Trans-Australian | Commonwealth Railways | 1693 km | |
Port Augusta - Terowie | South Australian Railway , from 1926: Commonwealth Railways | |||
Terowie - Adelaide | South Australian Railway | |||
Adelaide - Melbourne | The Overland | South Australian Railway, Victoria Railways | ||
Melbourne - Albury | Victoria Railways | |||
Albury - Sydney | New South Wales Railways |
1927-1937
Route section | train | operator | length | annotation |
---|---|---|---|---|
Perth - Kalgoorlie | The Westland | Western Australian Government Railways | ||
Kalgoorlie - Port Augusta | Trans-Australian | Commonwealth Railways | 1693 km | |
Port Augusta - Broken Hill | South Australian Railways / Silverton Tramway | Silverton Tramway on the Cockburn - Broken Hill section (56 km) | ||
Broken Hill - Sydney | New South Wales Railways |
1937-1968
Route section | train | operator | length | annotation |
---|---|---|---|---|
Perth - Kalgoorlie | The Westland | Western Australian Government Railways | ||
Kalgoorlie - Port Pirie | Trans-Australian | Commonwealth Railways | ||
Port Pirie - Broken Hill | South Australian Railways / Silverton Tramway | Silverton Tramway on the Cockburn - Broken Hill section (56 km) | ||
Broken Hill - Sydney | New South Wales Railways |
1968-1970
Route section | train | operator | length | annotation |
---|---|---|---|---|
Perth - Port Pirie | Trans-Australian | Western Australian Government Railways / Commonwealth Railways | ||
Port Pirie - Broken Hill | South Australian Railways / Silverton Tramway | Silverton Tramway on the Cockburn - Broken Hill section (56 km) | ||
Broken Hill - Sydney | New South Wales Railways |
Since 1970
Route section | train | operator | length | annotation |
---|---|---|---|---|
Perth - Sydney | Indian Pacific | today: Great Southern Railway | 3,962 km (direct route) | 4,352 km with a detour via Adelaide |
literature
- Patsy Adam-Smith: The desert railway . Adelaide 1974, ISBN 0851796753 .
- J .L. Buckland: Canadian and American Locomotives in Wartime Service on the Trans-Australian Railway . In: Australian Railway Historical Society Bulletin, September 1965.
- A. Burke: Rails through the Wilderness . New South Wales University Press 1991.
- David Burke: Road through the wilderness: The story of the transcontinental railway, the first great work of Australia's federation . Kensington, NSW 1991, ISBN 0868401404 .
- TF Chambers: The Golden Jubilee of the Trans Australian Railway . In: Australian Railway Historical Society Bulletin, November 1968, pp. 267-275.
- CH Henshaw: Overland to Perth in 1928 . In: Australian Railway Historical Society Bulletin, April, 1964.
- NN: Rail Journeys of Australia . South Pacific Maps Pty. Ltd., Brisbane 2007.
Web links
- Australian Bureau of Statistics article on federal railways
- Australian Rail Track Corporation map ( Memento from July 20, 2008 in the Internet Archive ) (PDF file; 646 kB)