South Gippsland railway line, Victoria

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

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.

1 History
- 1.1 Branch lines
2 Services
3 Current status
4 Possible reopening
5 List of stations
6 See also
7 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, it 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 early 1970s. The section from Barry Beach Junction to Yarram was 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, amazingly 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 about that time.

[edit] Branch lines

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

A mountainous branch line was built from Koo Wee Rup to Strzelecki in the 1920s. This line was closed bit by bit in the 1930s, 1940s and 1950s.

A branch line was built from Nyora to Wonthaggi in 1910 to serve the State Coal Mine. This line was closed in 1978.

A branch line was built from Korumburra to the coal mine at Outtrim in the 1890s. It was closed in the 1950s.

[edit] Services

A passenger service operated to Leongatha for many years, but this was cut in the early 1980s, however this service was later reinstated by the Cain Labor Government but was later cut again by the Kennett Liberal Government in 1993. The line then became unused beyond Cranbourne which still retained a short V/Line 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.

[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 down the tracks from Barry Beach). The remaining sections of track are still intact, the section to Cranbourne was electrified in 1995 and is now part of the suburban rail network, the section after Cranbourne to Lang Lang is still intact but is disused, however the remaining track from Korumburra to Leongatha is now used as the South Gippsland Tourist Railway. Due to VicRoads roadworks, the tourist section from Nyora to Korumburra is currently out of service, but may be used by tourist trains again in 2007. The branch line from Nyora to Wonthaggi was closed in 1978 and later dismantled.

[edit] Possible reopening

Prior to the 1999 election, the government promised that services would return to Leongatha soon, however they are currently doing a feasibility study into reopening the section, seven years on. However some Bridges have been repaired betweem 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.

[edit] List of stations

Bold stations are terminuses, italic stations are staffed.

Branches from Pakenham line at Dandenong station.

			Zone 3 Dandenong (DNG) >	Pakenham line branches
			Merinda Park (MPK)
			Cranbourne (CBE)
			Closed Section
			Clyde
			Tooradin
			Dalmore
			Koo Wee Rup >	Strezlecki Line
			Monomeith	Bayles
			Caldermeade	Catani
			Lang Lang	Yannathan
			AGM Sdg	Heathill
			S.G. Tourist railway	Athlone
	Wonthaggi Line	Branches after Nyora	Nyora	Topiram
	Woodleigh		Loch	Triholm
	McKenzie		Jeetho	Strezlecki
	Kernot		Bena	END OF LINE
	Almurta		White Law
Coal Creek	Branch From Outtrim	Outtrim Line <	Korumburra
	Glen Forbes	Jumbunna
	Woolamai	Outtrim North	Kardella
	Anderson	Outtrim	Ruby
	Mitchell's Sdg	END OF LINE	Leongatha
	Kilcunda		Great Sth. Rail Trail
	Dalyston		Koonwarra
Dudley Area < <	State Mine		Tarwin
	Wonthaggi		Meeniyan
Eastern Area	< branch >	Kirrak	Stony Creek
	END OF LINE		Buffalo
			Boys
			Fish Creek
			Hoddle
			Foster
			Bennison
			Toora
		Barry Beach <	Agnes
		Welshpool Jetty <	Welshpool
			Hedley
			Gelliondale
			Alberton >	Woodside line
			Port Albert	Yarram
			END OF LINE	Devon
				Calrossie
				Won Wron
				Napier
				Woodside
				END OF LINE