Eastern Goldfields Railway

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The Eastern Goldfields Railway (EGR) was built in the 1880s to connect Perth, Western Australia with the rich goldfields at Coolgardie and Kalgoorlie.[1]

The narrow gauge Eastern Railway line already connected Perth with Northam, and the EGR extended this line through semi-desert to the goldfields.[2][3]

The railway line ran parallel with the Goldfields Water Supply Scheme.The chief engineer for both the railway and the pipeline was C. Y. O'Connor.

In 1917, the EGR linked up at Kalgoorlie with the Trans-Australian Railway from Port Augusta, but with an inconvenient break-of-gauge.

Sub - divisions

The Western Australian Government Railways annual reports to the Western Australian Parliament included distances of sections of the railway line:[4]

  • Northam - Southern Cross - 175 miles 14 chains (281.9 km) (opened 1 July 1894)
  • Southern Cross - Boorabbin - 60 miles 55 chains (97.7 km) (opened 1 July 1896)
  • Boorabbin - Kalgoorlie - 78 miles 14 chains (125.8 km) (opened 1 January 1897) [5]

Northern and Southern extensions

Operationally the EGR was extended to connect Kalgoorlie with:

and Coolgardie with:

Conversion

In 1968, the EGR was converted to standard gauge, on a substantially different route, mostly to the north of the original route, which included access to Koolyanobbing where an iron ore mine operated and which used the rail access to transport ore to the coast.[6]

Upgrades

In November 2005, funding was announced for various upgrades of the EGR . These included:

  • $33.1 million to replace the final 76 km of timber sleepers between Koolyanobbing and Kalgoorlie with concrete sleepers.
  • $12 million to extend eight crossing loops to accommodate 1800m long trains. The crossing loops are at Bodallin, Darrine, Wallaroo, Lake Julia, Grass Valley, Bungulla, Booraan and Seabrook.

Notes

  1. ↑ Souvenir brochure 60th anniversary celebrations of the opening of the railway to Coolgardie 23 March 1896, [Coolgardie], 1956, retrieved 5 March 2012 
  2. ↑ Searle, M. J (January 1983), "The Eastern and Eastern Goldfields Railways [Series of parts] Part 1: construction and opening", RIM: Western Australian Railways Institute Magazine 80 (Jan 1983): 3–8, retrieved 5 March 2012 
  3. ↑ Searle, M. J (February 1983), "The Eastern and Eastern Goldfields Railways [Series of parts] Part 2. - Constructions of extensions-", RIM: Western Australian Railways Institute Magazine 80 (Feb 1983): 2–3, 5–6, retrieved 5 March 2012 
  4. ↑ Western Australian Government Railways (1954), Report of the Western Australian Government Railways Commission for the year ended, W.H. Wyatt, retrieved 5 July 2012  Appendix F, page 60
  5. ↑ page 67 Quinlan, Howard; Newland, John R; Australian Railway Historical Society. New South Wales Division (2000), Australian railway routes 1854 to 2000, Australian Railway Historical Society - New South Wales Division, ISBN 978-0-909650-49-0 
  6. ↑ page 63 - 4 November 1968 -Quinlan, Howard; Newland, John R; Australian Railway Historical Society. New South Wales Division (2000), Australian railway routes 1854 to 2000, Australian Railway Historical Society - New South Wales Division, ISBN 978-0-909650-49-0 

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