Summit Tank railway station, New South Wales

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Summit Tank
Station information
Line Unanderra-Moss Vale line
Distance from
Central Station		 108.130km via Wollongong
Number of Platforms 1 Side Platform
Number of Tracks 1
Station Status In Use
Station opened 20/8/1942
Google map of station (150.7061°, -34.5125°) GDA94

Summit Tank was a railway station on the Unanderra-Moss Vale line in the Southern Highlands of New South Wales, Australia.

[edit] History

In the late 1920s it was decided by the then New South Wales Government that a railway was needed between Moss Vale and Wollongong to get freight trains from southern locations directly to Port Kembla and away from the increasing passenger train services in southern and south western Sydney. A right of way was surveyed from Unanderra just south of Wollongong through the southern part of Farmborough Heights on a gradient of 1 in 33 to Moss Vale.

Summit Tank is a location where banker or pusher engines were taken off Moss Vale bound trains and for extra braking were added to heavy Wollongong or Port Kembla bound trains. Summit Tank had a passenger platform, train crew amenities, a 60' manual turntable for turning locomotives and ash pits.

[edit] Today

Summit Tank still sees the occasional bank engine with heavy steel trains regularly using the Unanderra to Moss Vale line to gain access to the Main South Line to Melbourne. Other traffic on the line includes container trains, bulk wheat & grain trains from mostly southern New South Wales, coal trains from Tahmoor and Glenlee and western coal trains using the line during Illawarra line trackwork, limestone trains from Medway as well as the once a month Cockatoo Run from and to Sydney.

Summit Tank has a mainline and passing loop with a platform for safeworking duties including a local control panel & radio antenna for train operations. Also there is a platform for the Cockatoo Run to stop at further towards Moss Vale for access to a look out for viewing over Lake Illawarra and the ocean.

[edit] References