Avon Yard is a railway yard west of
Northam, Western Australia
Northam () is a town in the Australian state of Western Australia, situated at the confluence of the Avon and Mortlock Rivers, about east-northeast of Perth in the Avon Valley. At the 2016 census, Northam had a population of 6,548. Northa ...
. It lies on the southern side of the
Avon River on the
Eastern Railway between
Toodyay and Northam.
History
As part of the project to
gauge convert the
East-West rail corridor from
narrow gauge
A narrow-gauge railway (narrow-gauge railroad in the US) is a railway with a track gauge narrower than standard . Most narrow-gauge railways are between and .
Since narrow-gauge railways are usually built with tighter curves, smaller structu ...
to
standard gauge, a new yard was built on the
Eastern Railway to the west of
Northam by the
Western Australian Government Railways
Western Australian Government Railways (WAGR) was the operator of railway services in the state of Western Australia between October 1890 and June 2003. Owned by the state government, it was renamed a number of times to reflect extra responsi ...
. It was built as a
dual gauge yard to allow freight from the narrow gauge
Albany,
Mullewa and
Wyalkatchem lines to be transferred for forwarding via the standard gauge line.
Extending for 3.2 kilometres and built on 40 hectares, as built it had 22 roads, both narrow (1,067mm) and standard gauge (1,435mm). It opened on 15 February 1966, initially only for narrow gauge trains. It had a diesel locomotive servicing depot, four 45 metre lighting towers and an eight cell
CBH grain
silo.
In October 1968, a
gantry crane
A gantry crane is a crane built atop a gantry, which is a structure used to straddle an object or workspace. They can range from enormous "full" gantry cranes, capable of lifting some of the heaviest loads in the world, to small shop cranes, us ...
assembled by Vickers Hosking in
Bassendean was commissioned to transfer
intermodal container
An intermodal container, often called a shipping container, is a large standardized shipping container, designed and built for intermodal freight transport, meaning these containers can be used across different modes of transport – from ship ...
s. It was last used in July 1981. In 1978 a
turntable
A phonograph, in its later forms also called a gramophone (as a trademark since 1887, as a generic name in the UK since 1910) or since the 1940s called a record player, or more recently a turntable, is a device for the mechanical and analogu ...
assembled at
Midland Railway Workshops
The Midland Railway Workshops in Midland, Western Australia, were the main workshops for the Western Australian Government Railways (WAGR) for over 80 years.
History
The first railway workshops in Western Australia were located at Fremantle a ...
was installed.
The yard has been modified at various stages, as the different operators dealt with the services required. It has also been considered as redundant grain receival or storage location with some arguments for bypassing the facility and railing direct to
Fremantle.
It ceased being used as an operational yard by
Aurizon
Aurizon ( ) is a freight rail transport company in Australia, formerly named QR National. it was the world’s largest rail transporter of coal from mine to port. Formerly a Queensland Government-owned company, it was privatised and floated o ...
in May 2013, however was still used to store withdrawn rolling stock.
Watco Australia
Watco Australia is a rail haulage operator that was formed in 2010 to haul grain for the CBH Group in Western Australia. In 2019, it commenced operating in Queensland under a contract with GrainCorp. It is a subsidiary of Watco.
History
In 200 ...
used the depot to maintain its
CBH class
The CBH class is a class of diesel-electric freight locomotives designed and manufactured in the United States by MotivePower in Boise, Idaho, for Western Australian grain growers' co-operative CBH Group.
The CBH class was ordered to haul gra ...
locomotives and rolling stock. As part of its new contract with CBH Group that commenced in September 2021, Aurizon reopened the yard.
[The CBH Rail Haulage Contract '']Railway Digest
''Railway Digest'' is a monthly magazine, published in Sydney, covering contemporary railways of Australia.
Overview
The magazine's publisher is the Australian Railway Historical Society (ARHS), NSW Division. The first issue was published in ...
'' March 2022 page 44
References
External links
WA Stations gallery of the Yard predominately of photos up to 2004
{{coord, 31, 38, 34, S, 116, 37, 59, E, type:landmark, display=title
Northam, Western Australia
Rail yards in Australia
Transport infrastructure completed in 1966
1966 establishments in Australia