The Railways in the Pilbara are a collection of railways in the

Pilbara The Pilbara () is a large, dry, thinly populated region in the north of Western Australia. It is known for its Aboriginal peoples; its ancient landscapes; the red earth; and its vast mineral deposits, in particular iron ore. It is also a g ...

region of north-west Western Australia.

History

In 1887, the Cossack Tram opened followed by the

Western Australian Government Railways Western Australian Government Railways (WAGR) was the operator of railway services in the state of Western Australia between October 1890 and June 2003. Owned by the state government, it was renamed a number of times to reflect extra responsi ...

's (WAGR) Marble Bar Railway in 1911. However, these had closed by the 1950s. Following the opening up of the

region by the Government of Western Australia for mining in the 1960s, four companies began to mine and export the iron ore. Because of the distances from the mines to the sea ports, railways were built as the most economical method to transport the ore. Unlike other lines in

Western Australia Western Australia (commonly abbreviated as WA) is a state of Australia occupying the western percent of the land area of Australia excluding external territories. It is bounded by the Indian Ocean to the north and west, the Southern Ocean to th ...

that were built to

narrow-gauge A narrow-gauge railway (narrow-gauge railroad in the US) is a railway with a track gauge narrower than standard . Most narrow-gauge railways are between and . Since narrow-gauge railways are usually built with tighter curves, smaller structu ...

, all of the Pilbara lines were built to and using American (wide) rollingstock loading gauge. This came about because it was determined by the iron ore industry that the required duty was going to be "heavy-haul" and it was considered that the track structure and rollingstock needed to be to standard-gauge scale. These "railroads" (as they were called) were built by a joint venture of Morrison-Knudsen, Mannix Contractors of Canada and McDonald Constructions of Australia. The first company to commence operations in June 1966 was Goldsworthy Mining, with a line from

Mount Goldsworthy Goldsworthy (named after the geographical feature Mount Goldsworthy) is a former mining town in Western Australia, east of Port Hedland and located in the Shire of East Pilbara. It was the first iron ore mine in the Pilbara region of Western Aust ...

Finucane Island Finucane Island () is located adjacent to Port Hedland in the Pilbara region of Western Australia.Gazetteer of Australia The Gazetteer of Australia is an index or dictionary of the location and spelling of geographical names across Australia. Geo ...

. In August 1966,

Hamersley Iron Pilbara Iron is a wholly owned subsidiary of the multinational Rio Tinto Group, that manages assets for Hamersley Iron Pty Ltd, a wholly owned subsidiary of Rio Tinto, and Robe River Iron Associates, an unincorporated joint venture between Rio ...

Rio Tinto Rio Tinto, meaning "red river", may refer to: Businesses * Rio Tinto (corporation), an Anglo-Australian multinational mining and resources corporation ** Rio Tinto Alcan, based in Canada ** Rio Tinto Borax in America *** Rio Tinto Borax Mine, ...

company) opened a 298-kilometre line from Mount Tom Price to a new port at East Intercourse Island, near Dampier. This was extended shortly after by 100 kilometres to a second mine at Paraburdoo. In March 1969, the Mount Newman Mining joint venture began operating a 427-kilometre line from its Mount Whaleback mine to

Port Hedland A port is a maritime facility comprising one or more wharves or loading areas, where ships load and discharge cargo and passengers. Although usually situated on a sea coast or estuary, ports can also be found far inland, such as Ha ...

. The Cliffs Robe River Iron Associates joint venture opened a 162-kilometre line from Mount Enid to

Cape Lambert Cape Lambert is a port facility operated by Rio Tinto Iron Ore in the Pilbara region of Western Australia. It is located 40 kilometres north of Karratha.

, near Wickham, in July 1972. Since then, the iron ore trackage has been expanded as new mines have opened. With mergers and takeovers, there has been considerable consolidation of mine (and railroad trackage) ownership, particularly with

BHP BHP Group Limited (formerly known as BHP Billiton) is an Australian multinational mining, metals, natural gas petroleum public company that is headquartered in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. The Broken Hill Proprietary Company was founded ...

and

. On 21 June 2001, eight BHP Billiton

GE AC6000CW The AC6000CW is a diesel electric locomotive built between 1995 and 2001 by GE Transportation. It is among the world's most powerful single-engined diesel locomotives. The locomotive was designed for extremely high horsepower needs, such as pu ...

s combined to set the world record for the longest and heaviest train; hauling a 682-car, 99,734 gross-tonne (82,000 tonnes of ore), 7.3 kilometre-long train. In April 2008,

Fortescue Metals Group Fortescue Metals Group Limited (often referred to as Fortescue Metals Group, FMG, or simply Fortescue) is an Australian iron ore company. As of 2017, Fortescue is the fourth-largest iron ore producer in the world. The company has holdings of m ...

opened a line from

Cloud Break mine The Cloudbreak mine is an iron ore mine located in the Pilbara region of Western Australia, 89 kilometres west-south-west of Nullagine, in the Chichester Range. The mine is fully owned and operated by the Fortescue Metals Group (FMG) and is ...

to Port Hedland. In November 2015,

Hancock Prospecting Hancock Prospecting Pty Ltd is a leading Australian owned mining and agricultural business run by Executive Chairman Gina Rinehart and CEO Garry Korte. At stages of its trading, the company has been known as Hancock Prospecting Ltd, Hancock Reso ...

opened a 344 kilometre line from Roy Hill. In 2013,

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 ...

in conjunction with Brockman Mining and Atlas Iron under an Alliance Study Agreement, completed a study for a new independent iron ore railway in the Pilbara. , iron ore trackage in the Pilbara was 2,295 kilometres long. It accounted for 94% of all Australian iron ore exports. In 2020, Rio Tinto completed their "AutoHaul" project fully automating their 200+ engine fleet into a driverless configuration.

Rolling stock

Goldsworthy Mining operated locomotives to the same design as the WAGR H and K classes as well as one EMD JT42C (

GML10 GML10 is a diesel-electric locomotive built by Clyde Engineering, Kelso for the Goldsworthy Mining Company in 1990. It is currently operated by Qube. History GML10's design is a hybrid of two earlier classes of Clyde-built locomotives, its ...

, based on both the V/Line N and

Australian National DL class The DL class are a class of diesel locomotives built by Clyde Engineering, Kelso for Australian National between 1988 and 1990. Five remain in service with Pacific National. History The first of the 15 commenced trials between Clyde Engineer ...

es). The other three mining companies operate larger locomotives built to take advantage of the wide (American) loading gauge. Some were built under licence in Australia by

AE Goodwin AE Goodwin was an Australian heavy engineering firm, which produced railway locomotives and rolling stock, as well as roadmaking machinery at its factory in Auburn. History Founded in December 1935 by Arthur Elliott Goodwin, the company was ...

, Comeng, and rebuilt by A Goninan & Co and

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 ...

, however most have been imported from the United States. Locomotives operated have included members of the following classes:

Alco The American Locomotive Company (often shortened to ALCO, ALCo or Alco) was an American manufacturer of locomotives, diesel generators, steel, and tanks that operated from 1901 to 1969. The company was formed by the merger of seven smaller locomo ...

* Alco C628 * Alco C630 * Alco C636 * Montreal Locomotive Works M636

GE Transportation GE Transportation is a division of Wabtec. It was known as GE Rail and owned by General Electric until sold to Wabtec on February 25, 2019. The organization manufactures equipment for the railroad, marine, mining, drilling and energy generati ...

GE C36-7 The GE C36-7 is a 6-axle diesel-electric locomotive built by GE Transportation Systems, GE do Brazil and A Goninan & Co between 1978 and 1989. It is an updated GE U36C with a 16-cylinder FDL engine. It is externally similar to the GE C30-7 but h ...

* GE CM39-8 *

GE Dash 9-44CW The GE C44-9W is a diesel-electric locomotive built by GE Transportation Systems of Erie, Pennsylvania. Keeping in tradition with GE's locomotive series nicknames beginning with the "Dash 7" of the 1970s, the C44-9W was dubbed the Dash 9 upon i ...

* GE ES44ACi * GE ES44DCi

Electro-Motive Diesel Progress Rail Locomotives, doing business as Electro-Motive Diesel (EMD), is an American manufacturer of diesel-electric locomotives, locomotive products and diesel engines for the rail industry. The company is owned by Caterpillar through its s ...

EMD SD50 The EMD SD50 is a diesel-electric locomotive built by General Motors Electro-Motive Division. It was introduced in May 1981 as part of EMD's "50 Series"; production ceased in January 1986. The SD50 was a transitional model between EMD's Dash ...

EMD SD40 The EMD SD40 is an American 6-axle diesel-electric locomotive built by General Motors Electro-Motive Division between January 1966 and August 1972. 1,268 locomotives were built between 1966 and 1972. In 1972, an improved version with new electron ...

R *

EMD SD40-2 The EMD SD40-2 is a C-C diesel-electric locomotive built by EMD from 1972 to 1989. The SD40-2 was introduced in January 1972 as part of EMD's '' Dash 2'' series, competing against the GE U30C and the ALCO Century 630. Although higher-horsep ...

* EMD SD70ACe/lc

Ports

The large-tonnage heavy-duty iron ore shipments require deep-water ports, which have to accommodate very high

tidal Tidal is the adjectival form of tide. Tidal may also refer to: * ''Tidal'' (album), a 1996 album by Fiona Apple * Tidal (king), a king involved in the Battle of the Vale of Siddim * TidalCycles, a live coding environment for music * Tidal (servic ...

ranges. *

** Mount Newman **

** Goldsworthy – now closed ** Shay Gap ** Yarrie mine *

** Dampier ** Hamersley **

Cape Lambert Cape Lambert is a port facility operated by Rio Tinto Iron Ore in the Pilbara region of Western Australia. It is located 40 kilometres north of Karratha.

** Robe River *

** Point Anderson near

** Christmas Creek mine

In development

* Anketell Port, near

Cape Lambert Cape Lambert is a port facility operated by Rio Tinto Iron Ore in the Pilbara region of Western Australia. It is located 40 kilometres north of Karratha.

Engineering heritage award

The heavy haul railways received an Engineering Heritage International Marker from

Engineers Australia Engineers Australia (EA) is an Australian professional body and not-for-profit organisation whose purpose is to advance the science and practice of engineering for the benefit of the community. Engineers Australia is Australia's recognized org ...

as part of its Engineering Heritage Recognition Program.

References

External links

Pilbara Railways enthusiast site
{{- Railway lines in the Pilbara Mining railways in Western Australia Standard gauge railways in Australia Recipients of Engineers Australia engineering heritage markers Iron mining in Australia Iron ore railways