Tocumwal railway line, New South Wales
Encyclopedia
New South Wales
New South Wales is a state of :Australia, located in the east of the country. It is bordered by Queensland, Victoria and South Australia to the north, south and west respectively. To the east, the state is bordered by the Tasman Sea, which forms part of the Pacific Ocean. New South Wales...
, Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
. The line branched from the still open Junee - Hay line
Hay railway line, New South Wales
The Hay railway line is a partly closed railway line in New South Wales, Australia. The line branches from the Main South line at Junee, and passes in a westwards direction through the towns of Coolamon and Narrandera to Yanco. The first train arrived in Hay on 4 July, 1882...
at Narrandera station and then headed south west to Tocumwal station
Tocumwal railway station, New South Wales
Tocumwal is a closed railway station in the town of Tocumwal, New South Wales, Australia. It was once the break-of-gauge between the broad gauge Victorian Railways Tocumwal line from the south and the standard gauge New South Wales Government Railways Tocumwal line from the north, but only the line...
where there was a break-of-gauge
Break-of-gauge
With railways, a break-of-gauge occurs where a line of one gauge meets a line of a different gauge. Trains and rolling stock cannot run through without some form of conversion between gauges, and freight and passengers must otherwise be transloaded...
with the Victorian Railways
Victorian Railways
The Victorian Railways operated railways in the Australian state of Victoria from 1859 to 1983. The first railways in Victoria were private companies, but when these companies failed or defaulted, the Victorian Railways was established to take over their operations...
Goulburn Valley line from Shepparton.
The line was opened to Jerilderie
Jerilderie, New South Wales
Jerilderie is a town of 768 people in the southern Riverina region of New South Wales, Australia. It is the only town in the Jerilderie Shire Local Government Area....
in 1884, extended to Berrigan
Berrigan, New South Wales
Berrigan is a town located on the Riverina Highway in the Riverina region of New South Wales, Australia. Berrigan is in the Berrigan Shire Local Government Area and is the location of the Berrigan Shire Council offices...
in 1896, Finley
Finley, New South Wales
Finley is a town in the Riverina region of New South Wales, Australia. It is the largest town in the Berrigan Shire Local Government Area. At the 2006 census, Finley had a population of 2,054 people....
in 1898 and Tocumwal
Tocumwal, New South Wales
Tocumwal is a town in the southern Riverina region of New South Wales, Australia in the Berrigan Shire Local Government Area, near the Victorian border. The town is situated on the banks of the Murray River, north of the city of Melbourne. The Newell Highway, part of the main road route between...
in 1914. The Victorian line had reached Tocumwal in July 1908. The last goods train left Tocumwal for Narrandera in 1985, and traffic ceased over the line south of Jerilderie in September 1986 and the entire line was closed in December 1988. The Victorian line to Tocumwal remains open for freight traffic.
Tocumwal was the site in 1915 of early tests with third-rail devices to enable standard gauge
Standard gauge
The standard gauge is a widely-used track gauge . Approximately 60% of the world's existing railway lines are built to this gauge...
and broad gauge
Broad gauge
Broad-gauge railways use a track gauge greater than the standard gauge of .- List :For list see: List of broad gauges, by gauge and country- History :...
trains to share the same tracks.
In later years passenger services on the line were operated by railcars, connecting with an overnight train at Narrandera. From 1973 the service operated three days per week, until their withdrawal on Saturday 26 November 1983. The final passenger service was a special excursion train operated with a Silver City Comet
Silver City Comet
The Silver City Comet was a train service that operated from 1937 to 1989 and ran between Broken Hill and Parkes in rural New South Wales and with special services to Sydney. It was to be the first ever airconditioned-train service in Australia and all sets were based in Parkes during their lifetime...
railcar set on 20 September 1986.