The Eyre Peninsula Railway is a

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, ...

railway on the

Eyre Peninsula The Eyre Peninsula is a triangular peninsula in South Australia. It is bounded by the Spencer Gulf on the east, the Great Australian Bight on the west, and the Gawler Ranges to the north. Originally called Eyre’s Peninsula, it was named af ...

South Australia South Australia (commonly abbreviated as SA) is a state in the southern central part of Australia. It covers some of the most arid parts of the country. With a total land area of , it is the fourth-largest of Australia's states and territories ...

. Radiating out from the ports at

Port Lincoln Port Lincoln is a town on the Lower Eyre Peninsula in the Australian state of South Australia. It is situated on the shore of Boston Bay, which opens eastward into Spencer Gulf. It is the largest city in the West Coast region, and is located a ...

and Thevenard, it is isolated from the rest of the South Australian railway network. Peaking at 777 kilometres in 1950, today only one 60 kilometre section remains open. It is operated 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 ...

History

Map of Eyre Peninsula railway lines in 2019

Map of Eyre Peninsula railway lines in 1953

The Eyre Peninsula Railway was built and operated 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 Aust ...

(SAR). As with many other early narrow-gauge railways in South Australia, the Eyre Peninsula lines started out as isolated lines connecting small ports to the inland, opening up the country for settlement and economic life including export of grain and other produce in an environment with few roads and only horse-drawn road vehicles. The railway has always been isolated from the main network. A proposal to link it with the rest of the network at Port Augusta was rejected in the 1920s and again in the 1950s. The first 67 kilometres from

Cummins Cummins Inc. is an American multinational corporation that designs, manufactures, and distributes engines, filtration, and power generation products. Cummins also services engines and related equipment, including fuel systems, controls, air ...

opened on 18 November 1907, followed by extensions to Yeelanna on 1 April 1909, Minnipa on 5 May 1913, Nunjikompita on 14 August 1914 and Thevenard on 8 February 1915, a total of 434 kilometres. A second line opened from Cummins to Moody on 1 August 1912, being extended to Ungarra on 31 March 1913, Kimba on 11 July 1913 and Buckleboo on 5 August 1926, a distance of 213 kilometres. Branch lines off the original line opened from Yeelanna to Mount Hope on 9 October 1914, a distance of 38 kilometres and from Wandana to

Penong __NOTOC__ Penong ( ) is a town and locality on the Nullarbor Plain, in the far west of the state of South Australia located about north-west of the state capital of Adelaide. With no settlements between it and Border Village on the border with ...

on 7 February 1924, a distance of 83 kilometres. A further nine kilometre branch from

Kevin Kevin () is the anglicized form of the Irish masculine given name (; mga, Caoimhghín ; sga, Cóemgein ; Latinized as ). It is composed of "dear; noble"; Old Irish and ("birth"; Old Irish ). The variant '' Kevan'' is anglicized from , a ...

to Kowulka opened on 11 April 1950. This was the peak of the network's size at 777 kilometres. The Mount Hope line was truncated by 15 kilometres on 12 July 1965, with Kapinnie becoming its terminus. The remaining section closed in October 2002. The original route for gypsum traffic had followed a circuitous, route, via Kowulka and Wandana, from the mine at Kevin to the port at Thevenard. The ruling grade was 1 in 80. In 1966, a line with a ruling grade of 1 in 120 was opened from Kevin to Penong Junction. The line from Wandana to Kowulka was closed. In 1984 the Thevenard unloading facility was upgraded with a

balloon loop A balloon loop, turning loop, or reversing loop ( North American Terminology) allows a rail vehicle or train to reverse direction without having to shunt or stop. Balloon loops can be useful for passenger trains and unit freight trains. Bal ...

. The Eyre Peninsula Railway was included in the March 1978 takeover of the SAR by Australian National and the November 1997 sale of Australian National's South Australian freight business to

Genesee & Wyoming Genesee & Wyoming Inc. (G&W) is an American short line railroad holding company, that owns or maintains an interest in 122 railroads in the United States, Canada, Belgium, Netherlands, Poland, United Kingdom and formerly Australia. It operates ...

which included a 50-year lease on the rail network from the state government until 2047. The last grain train from Kevin to Penong operated on 3 March 1997 with the line reverting to state government ownership on 30 June 2001. Due to a poor harvest resulting from drought, the last grain train north of Cummins to Kimba ran on 20 December 2018. Grain trains ceased operating in May 2019, with Viterra moving its business to road haulage with much of the network closed. The network technically remains open as no lines have formally been 'closed'. However, from an operational standpoint, the lines are closed. Since April 2005, grain trains had only operated from Port Lincoln to Wudinna and Kimba. The workshops in Port Lincoln initially remained open for ongoing railway wagon maintenance brought in by road from Whyalla and Thevenard, but the workshops have now closed. The maintenance is now done at the Port Augusta workshops. The Wudinna to Penong Junction section remained open to facilitate rolling stock movements to and from the Port Lincoln workshops. Gypsum trains continue to operate from the

Lake MacDonnell Lake MacDonnell is a salt lake on western Eyre Peninsula near the Nullarbor Plain. The closest town is Penong, to the north. It is the site of a former salt mine, now the largest gypsum mine in Australia on the largest gypsum deposit in the ...

mine at

to Thevenard for Gypsum Resources Australia, a joint venture between Boral and CSR. A final light engine movement from Port Lincoln to Thevenard ran on 26 June 2019. Operation of the Eyre Peninsula Railway was acquired by

in their purchase of

One Rail Australia One Rail Australia is an Australian rail freight operator company. Founded by Genesee & Wyoming Inc. in 1997 as Australian Southern Railroad, and later renamed Genesee & Wyoming Australia, it was renamed One Rail Australia in February 2020 af ...

(previously Genesee & Wyoming Australia); the sale was finalised on 29 July 2022.

Lines

Services

Freight

Today the Eyre Peninsula Railway only carries gypsum with three returns trains daily. In 2017, 1.55 million tonnes of gypsum was transported. Previously grain, livestock, oil, salt, superphosphate and water was carried.

Passenger

Initially passengers were conveyed on

mixed train A mixed train or mixed consist is a train that contains both passenger and freight cars or wagons. Although common in the early days of railways, by the 20th century they were largely confined to branch lines with little traffic. Typically, service ...

s. A weekly passenger service from Port Lincoln to Thevenard was introduced in 1923 that included a sleeping car. It operated as a

boat train A boat train is a passenger train operating to a port for the specific purpose of making connection with a passenger ship, such as a ferry, ocean liner, or cruise ship. Through ticketing is normally available. __NOTOC__ Notable named boat tr ...

being positioned at the foot of the jetty at Port Lincoln to connect with ships from

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 ...

. In 1931

Fageol Fageol Motors was a United States manufacturer of buses, trucks and farm tractors. History The company was founded in 1916, in Oakland, California, by Rollie, William, Frank and Claude Fageol, to manufacture motor trucks, farm tractors and au ...

railbuses converted from motor buses were introduced, these were supplemented by Brill 75s in 1936. The last service was withdrawn on 30 August 1968.

Rolling stock

The Eyre Peninsula Railway was operated by T, V, W and Y class steam locomotives. All had previously been used on other parts of the SAR network. These were replaced by 830 class diesel locomotives in the 1960s. Nine were delivered new to the Eyre Peninsula Railway, while others were transferred from the Port Pirie to Broken Hill line after it was converted to standard gauge replacing the last steam locomotives in April 1970. Some 830s were transferred to

AN Tasrail AN Tasrail was an Australian railway operator that operated the Tasmanian rail network from March 1978 until November 2004. Originally a subsidiary of the Federal Government's Australian National, it was sold to Australian Transport Network ( ...

in the early 1980s and replaced by ex

Commonwealth Railways The Commonwealth Railways were established in 1917 by the Government of Australia with the Commonwealth Railways Act to administer the Trans-Australia and Port Augusta to Darwin railways. It was absorbed into Australian National in 1975. O ...

NT and NJ class locomotives made redundant by the closure of the

Central Australia Railway The former Central Australia Railway, which was built between 1878 and 1929 and closed in 1980, was a 1067 mm narrow gauge railway between Port Augusta and Alice Springs. A standard gauge line duplicated the southern section from Port Aug ...

. As of January 2019, the locomotive fleet comprised seven 830s (including three rebuilt as 900s), three NJs and two ex Australian Railroad Group As locomotives. As of April 2020, The Thevenard locomotive fleet is worked by six 830 class variants and the 3 remaining 1600/NJ class units. Rolling stock was maintained under contract by

Clyde Engineering Clyde Engineering was an Australian manufacturer of locomotives, rolling stock, and other industrial products. It was founded in September 1898 by a syndicate of Sydney businessmen buying the Granville factory of timber merchants Huds ...

and

Downer Rail Downer Rail is a business unit within the Downer Group. As well as manufacturing and maintaining railway rolling stock it holds maintenance contracts to maintain rail infrastructure. The head office is located in North Ryde. History The E ...

from 1997 until brought back in house in 2014. The infrastructure is maintained by

Broadspectrum Broadspectrum, formerly known as Transfield Services, was an Australian and New Zealand company that provided infrastructure maintenance services. Formerly listed on the Australian Securities Exchange, and later owned by Ferrovial, it was then ...

Depots

When the line opened, a depot was established at Cummins with locomotives sent to

Islington Railway Workshops The Islington Railway Workshops are railway workshops in the northern suburbs of Adelaide, South Australia. They were the chief railway workshops of the South Australian Railways, and are still in operation today.roundhouse opened in 1934. The workshop was rebuilt in 1966 to service diesel locomotives. As well as maintaining the Eyre Peninsula fleet, in later years Downer Rail used the Port Lincoln depot for external work including rebuilding five Queensland Rail 2100s for further use with

Australian Railroad Group Australian Railroad Group (ARG) was an Australian rail freight operator. It began operations in Western Australia on 17 December 2000 following its purchase of the Westrail freight business. It was purchased by QR National in June 2006. The mai ...

, and 830s, CKs and DAs for the

Whyalla Steelworks The Whyalla Steelworks is a fully integrated steelworks and the only manufacturer of rail in Australia. Iron ore is mined in the Middleback Range to feed the steelworks, resulting in the distribution of finished steel products of over 90 different ...

network. In 2019, the locomotive depot was nominated for inclusion on the

South Australian Heritage Register The South Australian Heritage Register, also known as the SA Heritage Register, is a statutory register of historic places in South Australia South Australia (commonly abbreviated as SA) is a state in the southern central part of Australia. ...

. As of December 2019, the locomotive workshops and roundhouse have been provisionally listed on the register. A locomotive shed was also established at Thevenard and replaced by a small locomotive servicing facility in 1992. With the closure of the grain network, the Thevenard facility was expected to be upgraded when the Port Lincoln depot closed. As of December 2019, the Port Lincoln Workshops remained open for re-skinning wagon interiors brought in by road from the nearby

BHP Whyalla Tramway The BHP Whyalla Tramway is a gauge heavy-haul railway on the Eyre Peninsula in South Australia. It runs from haematite mines at Iron Monarch, Iron Baron and Iron Duke in the Middleback Range, about west of Whyalla, to company steelworks ...

Notes

References

External links

Peninsula Pioneer website
– dedicated to the history of the railways of Eyre Peninsula {{Eyre Peninsula Eyre Peninsula Railway lines in South Australia Railway lines opened in 1907 1907 establishments in Australia 3 ft 6 in gauge railways in Australia