The Berrima railway line is a partly closed private railway line in

New South Wales ) , nickname = , image_map = New South Wales in Australia.svg , map_caption = Location of New South Wales in AustraliaCoordinates: , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name = Australia , established_title = Before federation , es ...

, Australia. It was a short branch from the

Main South line The Main South Line, sometimes referred to as part of the South Island Main Trunk Railway, is a railway line that runs north and south from Lyttelton in New Zealand through Christchurch and along the east coast of the South Island to Inverca ...

to serve the Berrima Colliery.

Early history

The line originally began as a coal railway, built by the Berrima Coal Mining and Railway Company in 1881. That company opened a coal mine in the gorge of the

Wingecarribee River The Wingecarribee River ( Aboriginal Dharawal: ''Winge Karrabee''), a perennial river that is part of the Hawkesbury– Nepean catchment, is located in the Southern Highlands region of New South Wales, Australia. Course and features Wingecar ...

, about west of

Moss Vale Moss Vale is a town in the Southern Highlands of New South Wales, Australia, in the Wingecarribee Shire. It is located on the Illawarra Highway, which connects to Wollongong and the Illawarra coast via Macquarie Pass. Moss Vale has several h ...

and built a standard gauge line to a point above the gorge. It joined the Main Southern Railway at a point north of Moss Vale, then known as Austermere and later as Bong Bong. The railway crossed the Great Southern Road, later Hume Highway, on the level. At the colliery end, coal was brought up an incline from the mine which laid across the Wingecarribee River. Motive power on the railway was a locomotive hired from the NSWGR and it was driven by the company's driver. After the loss of contracts to

Victorian Railways The Victorian Railways (VR), trading from 1974 as VicRail, was the state-owned operator of most rail transport in the Australian state of Victoria from 1859 to 1983. The first railways in Victoria were private companies, but when these companie ...

, the company went into liquidation about 1889.''The Railways of Berrima'' Matthews, H.H.

Port Kembla A port is a maritime law, maritime facility comprising one or more Wharf, wharves or loading areas, where ships load and discharge Affreightment, cargo and passengers. Although usually situated on a sea coast or estuary, ports can a ...

steelworks, Southern Portland Cement Limited, a subsidiary of AIS, erected a cement works near Berrima to treat surplus limestone not required in steel-making. They acquired the right-of-way from the Medway company to construct a railway from the old Austermere Junction to a loading point at the old Berrima Colliery summit. Both locations were renamed Berrima Junction and Berrima Colliery after completion of the line on 4 February 1927. An associated company, Southern Blue Metal Quarries Ltd., established a blue metal quarry at Gingen Bullen and built a branch from, and concurrently with, the Southern Portland Cement line to serve it. The quarry ceased production in 1942. Adjacent to the junction at Berrima Junction lies the works of Southern Limestone Pty. Ltd. This company manufactures agricultural fertilisers. It was originally established about 1955 within the Berrima Cement Works, but transferred to this site in the early 1960s. This firm also uses the limestone mined at Marulan South.''Limestone Railways of the N.S.W. Southern Highlands'' Oberg, Leon

Australian Railway Historical Society Bulletin ''Australian Railway History'' is a monthly magazine covering railway history in Australia, published by the New South Wales Division of the Australian Railway Historical Society on behalf of its state and territory Divisions.limestone line at Marulan. The first locomotive was owned by Southern Blue Metal Quarries Ltd. and was known as "Berrima No. 1" and was purchased from the NSWGR in July, 1926. It was formerly 1111. The locomotive was later transferred to Southern Portland Cement and was condemned in 1940. The second locomotive was purchased by Southern Portland Cement from the NSWGR on 17 September 1929 and was formerly 2603. It was sold back to the NSWGR in November, 1949. The third locomotive was purchased from the NSWGR in January, 1937 and was formerly 2018. This locomotive does not appear to have seen service after September, 1947. Southern Blue Metal acquired "Wonga" from Hoskins Coal & Coke Company a
Wongawilli
in October, 1927. They used it on the quarry floor. It was withdrawn in September, 1929 and scrapped in 1942.This little saddle-tank engine had a long history, being built by Andrew Barklay Sons & Co., in Kilmarnock, Scotland, and first used on the mine railway of the British and Tasmanian Charcoal Iron Company in 1876. It was sold in 1879 and served in an oil shale mine at Hartley Vale, before moving to the Wongawilli Colliery in 1916. A number of locomotives were, from time to time, hired by the company from the NSWGR on a casual basis. These included 24 and 25 class 2-6-0s and 32 class 4-6-0s. In 1960, a 50 class 2-8-0 goods type was hired, followed in the mid-1960s by a more modern 53 class. Two 600 hp diesel-electric locomotives were ordered in 1966 to replace the hired steam locomotives. These were obtained from A Goninan of Broadmeadow. They arrived in July, 1967. Some technical difficulties were encountered, with NSWGR 48 class diesels being used on occasions during the late 1970s.

Tin Hares

The Berrima line was the home of two "Tin Hares". The first entered service in the late 1920s, having been converted from a 1926-7 Chevrolet truck. It was used to convey the Medway Colliery Mine Manager and his deputy between the Cement Works and the mine. At weekends, the railcar was used by maintenance staff. The car could operate in the forward direction only. To enable the vehicle to be turned, a vertical steel bar, with an eye-bolt on the top, ran up through the cab. A gantry crane located at the colliery was used to lift and turn it at that end of the line, whilst an overhead travelling crane at the works performed the same job there. The first car was destroyed by a head-on collision at the colliery about 1940. It was replaced by a similar vehicle, constructed from a 1938 Chevrolet. It, too, was wrecked after colliding with a steam locomotive about 1947.

Demise

Train working to the colliery fell off in the mid-1970s in favour of road transport. No train ran to the colliery after about June 1978. The rails from the cement works to the mine, however, remained in situ for another 10 years. An opening was provided in the motorway built across the line in the late 1980s.''Medway Colliery Revisited'' Oberg, Leon

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 ...

, April 1987, pp. 104-105 The line remains open from the junction to the cement works, serving that facility as well as the Ingham Chicken factory and the fertiliser works near the junction.

References

{{coord , 34.5225, 150.3728 Closed regional railway lines in New South Wales Mining railways in Australia Standard gauge railways in Australia Railway lines opened in 1881 1881 establishments in Australia Coal mining in New South Wales