The Newport–Sunshine line is a railway line in the western suburbs of

Melbourne Melbourne ( ; Boonwurrung/Woiwurrung: ''Narrm'' or ''Naarm'') is the capital and most populous city of the Australian state of Victoria, and the second-most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Its name generally refers to a met ...

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...

. Linking Newport station on the Werribee line to Sunshine station on the

Sunbury line The Sunbury Line (formerly known as Sunbury Subdivision) is a rail line owned and operated by Norfolk Southern Railway which in turn is owned by the Norfolk Southern Corporation. The line travels from Sunbury, Pennsylvania, to Binghamton, New Yo ...

, it is primarily a freight line with no

overhead wires An overhead line or overhead wire is an electrical cable that is used to transmit electrical energy to electric locomotives, trolleybuses or trams. It is known variously as: * Overhead catenary * Overhead contact system (OCS) * Overhead equipmen ...

, passenger stations or platforms but ''

The Overland ''The Overland'' is an Australian passenger train service between the state capitals of Melbourne and Adelaide, a distance of 828 km (515 mi). It first ran in 1887 as the ''Adelaide Express'', known by South Australians as the ''Melb ...

'' passenger service between

and

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 ...

also uses this route.

History

The line was opened on 24 September 1887 to permit freight trains from the western and northern areas of

Victoria (Australia) Victoria is a state in southeastern Australia. It is the second-smallest state with a land area of , the second most populated state (after New South Wales) with a population of over 6.5 million, and the most densely populated state in ...

to access the then important port at

Williamstown, Victoria Williamstown is a suburb in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, south-west of Melbourne's Central Business District, located within the City of Hobsons Bay local government area. Williamstown recorded a population of 14,407 at the 2021 census. H ...

. It was 4.29 miles long and is also known as the Brooklyn Loop line, for the former intermediate

signal box In signal processing, a signal is a function that conveys information about a phenomenon. Any quantity that can vary over space or time can be used as a signal to share messages between observers. The ''IEEE Transactions on Signal Processing'' ...

on the line. Initially, it was not possible for trains to run from Brooklyn into Melbourne via Tottenham. A connection from the line to Tottenham Yard opened on 15 February 1965. Between Newport and Brooklyn, the line was provided with bidirectional

double-track A double-track railway usually involves running one track in each direction, compared to a single-track railway where trains in both directions share the same track. Overview In the earliest days of railways in the United Kingdom, most li ...

lines. By the 1930s, a number of private sidings were opened off the line to serve adjacent industries. Today, the majority of them have closed. In 1995, the East Line was converted to

dual gauge In railway engineering, "gauge" is the transverse distance between the inner surfaces of the heads of two rails, which for the vast majority of railway lines is the number of rails in place. However, it is sometimes necessary for track to c ...

as part of the

standardization Standardization or standardisation is the process of implementing and developing technical standards based on the consensus of different parties that include firms, users, interest groups, standards organizations and governments. Standardization ...

of the Melbourne–Adelaide railway.

Line guide

From inner Melbourne, access to the line is via the South Kensington–West Footscray freight line under Footscray station. The main line runs as dual gauge from Tottenham Junction on the

North East standard gauge line North is one of the four compass points or cardinal directions. It is the opposite of south and is perpendicular to east and west. ''North'' is a noun, adjective, or adverb indicating direction or geography. Etymology The word ''north'' is ...

, crosses the suburban Sunbury line on a bridge, until it reaches Brooklyn where a single broad gauge from Sunshine station joins. From here, parallel broad and dual gauge tracks run to Newport, where they merge and run behind Newport station, with the broad gauge joining the Werribee line and the standard gauge continuing as the

Western standard gauge line The Western standard gauge railway line is a standard-gauge railway line in western Victoria, Australia. Completed in 1995, it forms part of the Melbourne–Adelaide rail corridor and serves as the principal interstate rail link between Victori ...

alongside. Standard gauge in blue, dual gauge in green, broad gauge in red.

References

External links

*Photos
V/Line via the goods lines
*Photos
Sidings along the line
*Signalling diagram

(1968) *Signalling diagram

(1979) {{DEFAULTSORT:Newport-Sunshine railway line Railway lines in Melbourne Railway lines opened in 1887 1887 establishments in Australia Transport in the City of Hobsons Bay Transport in the City of Maribyrnong Transport in the City of Brimbank