Adelaide–Port Augusta railway line

The Adelaide–Port Augusta railway line is the main route for northbound rail traffic out of Adelaide, South Australia. The line, 315 kilometres (196 miles) long, is part of the Adelaide–Darwin rail corridor and the Sydney–Perth rail corridor.

Adelaide–Port Augusta railway line
Overview
Owner	Australian Rail Track Corporation
Termini	Adelaide Port Augusta
Continues from	Adelaide-Wolseley line
Continues as	Trans-Australian Railway
Service
Services	The Ghan Indian Pacific
Operator(s)	Freight: Aurizon Pacific National SCT Logistics Bowmans Rail Passenger: Journey Beyond
Technical
Number of tracks	1
Track gauge	1,435 mm (4 ft 8+1⁄2 in)
Old gauge	1,600 mm (5 ft 3 in)
Route map km to Perth & Darwin Whyalla line 95.0 Spencer Junction loop & Aurizon Yard 92.0 Port Augusta Northern Power Station (Marree line) Marree line Pichi Richi Railway 85.4 Stirling North 71.5 Winninowie loop 45.0 Mambray Creek loop 25.5 Port Germein loop to Port Pirie Wharf Aurizon Port Pirie Yard 0.0 220.1 Coonamia datum point, east Port Pirie Crystal Brook Grain Terminal Crystal Brook loop to Sydney via Broken Hill 193.2 Rocky River loop 172.8 Redhill loop Brinkworth line closed 1990 146.1 Snowtown loop Snowtown Grain Terminal Kadina line closed 1993 120.5 Nantawarra loop 101.5 Bowmans Rail Terminal 77.3 Long Plains loop 61.7 Mallala loop Mallala Grain Terminal 44.8 Two Wells loop 31.5 Bolivar loop SCT Penfield Terminal Gawler line Salisbury 15.19 Aurizon Dry Creek North Yard 8.1 Aurizon Dry Creek South Yard & loop to Pelican Point Private freight sidings 7.8 Adelaide Freight Terminal Islington Railway Workshops Outer Harbor & Grange lines Adelaide 0.0 3.4 Mile End loop, datum point Adelaide Parklands Terminal Belair & Seaford lines to Melbourne broad gauge standard gauge 3 ft 6 in narrow gauge dual gauge ^[1] This diagram: view talk edit

One Rail Australia, Pacific National and SCT Logistics operate freight services on the line; the sole passenger service is Journey Beyond's experiential tourism trains The Ghan and Indian Pacific.

SCT Logistics' Penfield intermodal terminal is connected to a siding south of the Northern Expressway and the Bolivar crossing loop.^[2]

History

The government-owned South Australian Railways started to build the broad-gauge Salisbury–Long Plains line as a branch off the Main North line in 1915, completing it in April 1917.^[3] The line was extended from Long Plains to Redhill from 1917 to 1925,^[4] and again from Redhill to Port Pirie in 1937. In the latter year, the Commonwealth Railways extended its standard gauge Trans-Australian Railway line from Port Augusta south to Port Pirie.^[5]

In 1980, the Federal and State Governments entered an agreement to convert the line from Adelaide to standard gauge, albeit altered to meet the Trans-Australian Railway at Crystal Brook.^[6] This allowed Adelaide to become the last mainland state capital to join the standard gauge network. The line opened in 1982. It runs on the western side of the same corridor as the Gawler railway line from north of Salisbury railway station to the triangle near Adelaide Gaol, and continues on the western side of the metropolitan broad gauge tracks to Adelaide Parklands Terminal. The new line allowed Australian National to operate The Ghan, Indian Pacific and Trans-Australian through to Adelaide without passengers having to change trains. In July 1998, it became part of the Australian Rail Track Corporation network.

Until late 2017, this meant that the standard gauge trains had to cross the Outer Harbor railway line at-grade at Torrens Junction, north of the River Torrens. In 2017, this conflict was removed by lowering the suburban Outer Harbor line into a trench so it could pass under the standard gauge line. This would ease timetable and operational conflicts on both services.^[7]

Crossing loops

The maximum length of trains on this line is 1.8 kilometres, and almost all crossing loops are of this length. East of Mile End the maximum train length is 1.5 kilometres, though this is starting to be increased to 1.8 kilometres also.

Mile End

The crossing loop at the Adelaide Parklands Terminal at Mile End is of length 1,658m.

Dry Creek

The first crossing loop north of Adelaide, of length 1,950m, is south of Dry Creek.

Bolivar

The Bolivar crossing loop is 1800 metres long, having been lengthened from 1200 metres in 2012, after the Taylors Road level crossing at the southern end was replaced by an overpass of the Northern Expressway.^[8] As a result, the overpass marks the approximate mid-point of the loop.^{[note 1]}

SCT Penfield

In 2007, it was proposed that an Intermodal Rail/Road facility be built in the Edinburgh Parks area. Accordingly, an area of rural/agricultural land in Penfield was rezoned in 2008.^[10][11]

In the 2010s, SCT Logistics^[12] and another company started to develop an intermodal hub.^[13][14] The new facilities and trackwork commenced construction on the north-east side of the line, south of the Northern Expressway and north of Heaslip Road and RAAF Base Edinburgh, in 2011–2012.^{[needs update]}

Two Wells

The next crossing loop, of length 1,817m, is at Two Wells - the loop is between Gawler Rd and Temby Rd.

Others

There are about a dozen other crossing loops north of Two Wells - refer to the infobox to the right.

Crystal Brook

Crystal Brook includes the triangle junction with the main line to Broken Hill and Sydney. Then there is a 968m crossing loop and siding with provision to load grain at the silos in the town. The tracks converge to single track to cross a bridge over the Crystal Brook, then split into double track for the 20 km to Coonamia. The western track is for northbound travel and the eastern track for southbound, except that there is a balloon loop for loading grain from the AWB silos which is accessed by proceeding a short distance north on the eastern track.^{[15]: 62–66}

Coonamia

Coonamia "station" – in the past a provisional stopping place^[16] but since the early 2010s comprising only a nameboard – is the site of the "0 km" datum point for routes to Port Augusta, Broken Hill and Adelaide.^[15]: 70 At this point ARTC train controllers in Adelaide (who oversee operations between Broken Hill and Coonamia, and Coonamia southwards) hand over to controllers in Port Augusta (who oversee the line to Port Augusta and points west); the sign remains so that train crews can identify the change-over point.^[17] The location has a crossing loop 1638 m (1791 yds) long on the south side of the double mainline from Crystal Brook.^{[15]: 66, 69}

A further 2.25 km (1.4 mi) west is a triangle junction where the double track ends and from which single tracks go west to Port Pirie Yard and north to Port Augusta.^{[15]: 67–68}

Port Germein

The 1960m crossing loop at Port Germein was supplemented by a 805m goods siding in 2015, operated by SCT Logistics.^{[18][15]: 69, 70} A short stub siding also leads off the crossing loop.^[19]

Notes

1. The original crossing loop was between Taylors Road and King Road, Virginia.^[9]

References

1. East – West Corridor SA Network Diagram ARTC
2. "DRY CRK(ex) to (CRYSTAL BRK(ex) Yard Plans & Component Identification" (PDF). Australian Rail Track Corporation. July 2011. TA400010. Retrieved 30 January 2016.
3. "OPENING OF THE LONG PLAINS RAILWAY". Chronicle. Vol. LIX, no. 3, 062. South Australia. 28 April 1917. p. 27. Retrieved 31 July 2019 – via National Library of Australia.
4. "REDHILL RAILWAY OPENING". Observer. Vol. LXXXII, no. 6, 081. South Australia. 15 August 1925. p. 62. Retrieved 31 July 2019 – via National Library of Australia.
5. Rail Standardisation National Railway Museum
6. Rail Agreement (Adelaide to Crystal Brook Railway) Act 1980 Government of Australia
7. Kemp, Miles (13 September 2017). "Major disruption to Outer Harbor and Gawler train lines as work starts on Park Tce underpass". The Advertiser. news.com.au. Retrieved 13 January 2018.
8. (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 17 March 2012. Retrieved 19 October 2012.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
9. Interstate Network Overview 20 July 2008 at the Wayback Machine, appendix II, ARTC document no. TA02, issue 2.2, 20 June 2004, p. 7
10. Penfield intermodal rail freight facility amendment 13 May 2013 at the Wayback Machine, Development Plan Amendment (DPA), Minister for Urban Development and Planning, www.sa.gov.au
    Written submissions on the DPA were received for a period of eight weeks, from Thursday 14 February 2008 to Thursday 10 April 2008. The Penfield Intermodal Rail Freight Facility DPA was approved by the Minister for Urban Development and Planning on 7 August 2008.
11. Community information sheet 20 July 2013 at the Wayback Machine, Rail Freight Terminal at Penfield – rezoning for an Intermodal facility, Planning SA, February 2008, www.sa.gov.au
12. http://www.sct.net.au/ SCT Logistics home page
13. $30 Million rail freight terminal for South Australia, 4 February 2011, T&DC Pty Ltd, www.tndc.com.au
14. Rail Freight Terminal for South Australia 3 March 2016 at the Wayback Machine, Media Release from the City of Playford, 25 January 2011, www.playford.sa.gov.au
15. "Network information book West CTC" (PDF). Australian Rail Track Corporation. 5 December 2018. Retrieved 9 June 2020.
16. South Australian Railways working timetable 1964, Table 35
17. Vincent, Graham (2019). "Coonamia–Weeroona (diagram AR080 – page 26)" (PDF). SA Track and Signal. G.F. Vincent. Retrieved 24 January 2020.
18. . SA Track and Signal. Archived from the original on 13 June 2018. Retrieved 6 June 2018.
19. "Port Germein–Mambray Creek" (PDF). SA Track and Signal. GF Vincent. 2009. Retrieved 28 September 2023.