New Norfolk
New Norfolk is a town on the River Derwent, in the south-east of Tasmania, Australia. At the 2011 census, New Norfolk had a population of 5,543.
Situated north-west of Hobart on the Lyell Highway, New Norfolk is a modern Australian region ...
. It is 3' 6" narrow
gauge
Gauge ( or ) may refer to:
Measurement
* Gauge (instrument), any of a variety of measuring instruments
* Gauge (firearms)
* Wire gauge, a measure of the size of a wire
** American wire gauge, a common measure of nonferrous wire diameter, ...
.
History
Tasmanian Government Railways opened the Derwent Valley Line in 1887.Stokes, H.J.W. (1975)''The Derwent Valley Railway''
New Norfolk
New Norfolk is a town on the River Derwent, in the south-east of Tasmania, Australia. At the 2011 census, New Norfolk had a population of 5,543.
Situated north-west of Hobart on the Lyell Highway, New Norfolk is a modern Australian region ...
, a distance of 18 kilometres. It was extended to 29 km at Plenty in 1887, and then to 41 km at Glenora in 1888. It closely follows the course of the River Derwent for the first 39 km as far as Coniston, and crosses the river at three different points.
The following years saw a number of plans to extend the line further up the Derwent Valley or to connect it to the west coast. Finally, twenty one years later, in 1909, it was extended along the Tyenna River, another 8 km to what is now Westerway. In 1917 another extension was added to extend the railway to Fitzgerald (66 km), and a final extension was opened in 1936 to Kallista, 74 km from Bridgewater. The last extension replaced an earlier wooden tramway on the same alignment. The primary usage of the line was to provide a service to the rural areas and the logging areas around Kallista. In 1940 there was a significant increase in log traffic along most of the line with the opening of a paper mill at Boyer, 14 km from Bridgewater. This increased traffic resulted in the construction of two deviations and additional facilities at a number of stations.
Sometime later, parts of the railway began to close. Firstly, the logging branches around Kallista, and then the section from Kallista to
Florentine Junction
Florentine Junction, also known as Pillinger’s Creek, Risby’s Junction, Florentine Rail Yard and Florentine Depot, is the terminus of the Derwent Valley Railway, a 3’ 6” narrow gauge railway that operates from New Norfolk in Tasmania, Au ...
were closed. In 1995,
TasRail
TasRail is the trading name of Tasmanian Railway Proprietary Limited, a Tasmanian Government state-owned enterprise that has operated the mainline railways in Tasmania since September 2009. It operates only freight services.
History
Establis ...
completely closed the line beyond New Norfolk after floods and heavy rain substantially damaged the track.
Restoration
In 1990, Derwent Valley Railway Preservation Society was formed. It
purchased the assets of the Tasmanian Locomotive Company, who had been operating excursion trains on the line. The Society established its operating base at New Norfolk, although initially operating out of the Hobart suburb of Claremont. It continued operating passenger trains on the line to Maydena. The Derwent Valley Line was closed beyond New Norfolk in 1995, and so the Society operated to other destinations. Although the line remained under Tasrail ownership, in 1999 the line was reopened by the society to Hayes, then in 2000 to Westerway and then to National Park in 2003 (37 km from New Norfolk). The society now trades as Derwent Valley Railway Inc. The Society now has 11 locomotives (4 steam, 4 diesel-electric, 1 diesel-hydraulic and 2 diesel-mechanical), 9 carriages, and 11 wagons.
Two of Tasrail's freight services regularly used the section from Bridgewater to the
Norske Skog
Norske Skog ASA, formerly Norske Skogindustrier ASA, which translates as ''Norwegian Forest Industries'', is a Norwegian pulp and paper company established in 1962. The company has long been one of the world's leading manufacturers of newsprint ...
paper mill at Boyer, carrying paper to
Burnie
Burnie is a port city on the north-west coast of Tasmania, Australia. When founded in 1827, it was named Emu Bay, being renamed after William Burnie, a director of the Van Diemen's Land Company, in the early 1840s.
, Burnie had an urban popu ...
for export, and the other supplying the plant with coal and timber from the north of the state.
The present
In October 2005,
Pacific National
Pacific National is one of Australia's largest rail freight businesses.
History
In February 2002, National Rail's freight operations and rollingstock (owned by the Federal, New South Wales and Victorian Governments) were combined with Freig ...
, who had taken over commercial running of the TasRail network, closed the Derwent Valley Line west of New Norfolk. This effectively stopped the running of the heritage railway. In May 2006, Pacific National came to a new agreement with the Tasmanian Government which included returning all tracks and rail lands to government ownership.
Derwent Valley Railway Inc. are currently in negotiations to regain access to the Derwent Valley Line with a view to restoring it to operation for tourist trains.
See also
*
Rail transport in Tasmania
Rail transport in Tasmania consists of a network of narrow gauge track of reaching virtually all cities and major towns in the island state of Tasmania, Australia. Today, rail services are focused primarily on bulk freight, with no commercial pa ...