The Holdfast Bay railway line was a

railway Rail transport (also known as train transport) is a means of transport that transfers passengers and goods on wheeled vehicles running on rails, which are incorporated in tracks. In contrast to road transport, where the vehicles run on a pre ...

in western

Adelaide Adelaide ( ) is the capital city of South Australia, the state's largest city and the fifth-most populous city in Australia. "Adelaide" may refer to either Greater Adelaide (including the Adelaide Hills) or the Adelaide city centre. The dem ...

. The line started in the

city A city is a human settlement of notable size.Goodall, B. (1987) ''The Penguin Dictionary of Human Geography''. London: Penguin.Kuper, A. and Kuper, J., eds (1996) ''The Social Science Encyclopedia''. 2nd edition. London: Routledge. It can be def ...

from the

Adelaide railway station Adelaide Railway Station is the central terminus of the Adelaide Metro railway system. All lines approach the station from the west, and it is a terminal station with no through lines, with most of the traffic on the metropolitan network eithe ...

, and then headed west. From approximately where

Henley Beach Road Currie Street is a main street in the Adelaide city centre, South Australia.Map
of the

then followed an almost direct route to the seaside suburb of Glenelg. Today, much of the corridor in which the line ran remains as a

rail trail A rail trail is a shared-use path on railway right of way. Rail trails are typically constructed after a railway has been abandoned and the track has been removed, but may also share the right of way with active railways, light rail, or streetcar ...

for cyclists, which is known as the Westside Bikeway. Part of the north section of the corridor has been built over as

James Congdon Drive Adelaide has two city ring routes, that loop around the Adelaide city centre and North Adelaide, known as the Inner and Outer Ring Routes. Inner ring route The Inner Ring Route is a collection of major roads signposted as state route R1 (was A2 ...

. A

railway platform A railway platform is an area alongside a railway track providing convenient access to trains. Almost all stations have some form of platform, with larger stations having multiple platforms. The world's longest station platform is at Hubbali ...

remains on the site of Plympton station near

Marion Road Marion Road is a north–south arterial road through the western suburbs of Adelaide, South Australia, named after its traversal through the suburb of Marion and the local government area of City of Marion. It is designated part of route A14. ...

in the suburb of

Plympton Plympton is a suburb of the city of Plymouth in Devon, England. It is in origin an ancient stannary town. It was an important trading centre for locally mined tin, and a seaport before the River Plym silted up and trade moved down river to Plym ...

. The line was closed in 1929, after which remnants remained for some time including rails across Marion Road in the 1950s. A signal from the line was preserved and put in the main pavilion of the National Railway Museum, Port Adelaide.

History

The line was constructed to compete with the existing Glenelg railway line, (now the

Glenelg tram line The Glenelg tram line is a tram/ light rail line in Adelaide. Apart from a short street-running section in Glenelg, the line has its own reservation, with minimal interference from road traffic. The service is free in the city centre and a ...

), which ran from Victoria Square. Customer satisfaction on the existing line was becoming low. In response a group which had been attempting to improve conditions on the existing service decided to establish a company and construct a new railway in competition with the existing one. The Holdfast Bay Railway Company was established and the new line was opened on 24 May 1880 with a depot at St Leonards (now in the suburb of

Glenelg North Glenelg North is a seaside suburb of Adelaide, South Australia. It is located in both the City of Holdfast Bay and the City of West Torrens. Demographics The 2011 Census by the Australian Bureau of Statistics counted 5,699 persons in Glenelg ...

). Trips took only 20 minutes to Glenelg, 5 minutes shorter than the existing line. There were two trains that ran in the morning from Glenelg to Adelaide, and two from Adelaide to Glenelg in the afternoon. The company ran services from the existing Adelaide railway station, paying a fee to use the portion of track owned by the

South Australian Railways South Australian Railways (SAR) was the statutory corporation through which the Government of South Australia built and operated railways in South Australia from 1854 until March 1978, when its non-urban railways were incorporated into Austr ...

(SAR) between Adelaide and

Mile End Mile End is a district of the London Borough of Tower Hamlets in the East End of London, England, east-northeast of Charing Cross. Situated on the London-to-Colchester road, it was one of the earliest suburbs of London. It became part of the m ...

stations, with the line branching off just before Mile End station. Less than a year after the line opened, it was realised there was not enough business to support both companies. On 11 May 1882, the two merged to form the Glenelg Railway Company. A connecting line was laid along Brighton Road with both lines continuing to run services. Business assets such as maintenance facilities were shared to reduce costs, and the South Terrace depot was consequently closed."Glenelg century of rail transport" ''

Trolley Wire The Sydney Tramway Museum (operated by the South Pacific Electric Railway) is Australia's oldest tramway museum and the largest in the southern hemisphere. It is located at Loftus in the southern suburbs of Sydney. History Construction of th ...

'' issue 147 August 1973 pages 3–7"The Glenelg Line: Australia's First LRT" ''Trolley Wide'' issue 185 December 1979 pages 3–11 The Holdfast Bay line was the less profitable of the two, partly due to excessive charges by the SAR for use of its line. Attempts to close the line met with strong opposition as it was argued closure would isolate Glenelg from the rest of the State. To overcome this it was proposed to lay in a connection at Goodwood. The Glenelg Railway Company was acquired by the SAR and steam services continued, with the Holdfast Bay line duplicated from Mile End to St Leonards by 1914, with raised platforms being provided at most stations. A branch line running across Bay Road (now

Anzac Highway Anzac Highway is an main arterial road heading southwest from the city of Adelaide, the capital of South Australia, to the beachside suburb of Glenelg. Originally named the Bay Road (which remains an informal synonym), it mostly follows the t ...

) was constructed to provide services to

Morphettville Racecourse Morphettville Racecourse is the main horse racing Race track, course for the Australia, Australian state of South Australia, incorporating two separate tracks. It is situated in the Adelaide suburb of Morphettville, South Australia, Morphettvi ...

, though it did not make a connection with the other rail line. In 1924, William A. Webb, the railways commissioner, proposed that the two Glenelg railways be given to the

Municipal Tramways Trust The Municipal Tramways Trust (MTT) was established by the Government of South Australia in December 1906 to purchase all of the horse-drawn tramways in Adelaide, Australia. The Trust subsequently also ran petrol and diesel buses and electric t ...

(MTT) and be converted from

steam Steam is a substance containing water in the gas phase, and sometimes also an aerosol of liquid water droplets, or air. This may occur due to evaporation or due to boiling, where heat is applied until water reaches the enthalpy of vaporization ...

railways into

electric Electricity is the set of physical phenomena associated with the presence and motion of matter that has a property of electric charge. Electricity is related to magnetism, both being part of the phenomenon of electromagnetism, as described by ...

tram A tram (called a streetcar or trolley in North America) is a rail vehicle that travels on tramway tracks on public urban streets; some include segments on segregated right-of-way. The tramlines or networks operated as public transport are ...

ways. The government, following Mr Webb's recommendation, acquired both railways and electrification of the Glenelg railway line (now the Glenelg tram) began in 1929, taking nine months to finish. On the day when the Glenelg line conversion was completed in December 1929,

stopped running trains on the Holdfast Bay line. After the closure, the MTT began the operation of bus services from the city to Plympton. The Holdfast Bay line was originally intended to become electrified with the Glenelg line, and small scale works on its conversion had begun, including drilling holes for

power lines Electric power transmission is the bulk movement of electrical energy from a generating site, such as a power plant, to an electrical substation. The interconnected lines that facilitate this movement form a ''transmission network''. This is ...

. However, with the onset of the

Great Depression The Great Depression (19291939) was an economic shock that impacted most countries across the world. It was a period of economic depression that became evident after a major fall in stock prices in the United States. The economic contagio ...

, conversion works were halted and steam services did not resume. Parts of the remaining corridor, primarily beyond Camden station, were sold to private holders in 1938, and the remainder to the South Australian Government in 1940. The MATS Plan in the 1960s proposed an

expressway Expressway may refer to: * Controlled-access highway, the highest-grade type of highway with access ramps, lane markings, etc., for high-speed traffic. * Limited-access road, a lower grade of highway or arterial road. *Expressway, the fictional s ...

be constructed in the corridor.

Notes

References

J.C. Radcliff. C.J.M. Steele, '' Adelaide Road Passenger Transport 1836–1958 '', Libraries Board of South Australia, Adelaide, 1974 {{DEFAULTSORT:North Terrace - Glenelg railway line Closed railway lines in South Australia Railway lines opened in 1880 Railway lines closed in 1929

History

See also

Notes

References