Walhalla Goldfields Railway
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The Walhalla Goldfields Railway is a
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 ...
tourist railway located in the Thomson River and Stringers Creek valleys in
Gippsland Gippsland is a rural region that makes up the southeastern part of Victoria, Australia, mostly comprising the coastal plains to the rainward (southern) side of the Victorian Alps (the southernmost section of the Great Dividing Range). It covers ...
,
Victoria Victoria most commonly refers to: * Victoria (Australia), a state of the Commonwealth of Australia * Victoria, British Columbia, provincial capital of British Columbia, Canada * Victoria (mythology), Roman goddess of Victory * Victoria, Seychelle ...
,
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 ...
, near the former gold-mining town and tourist destination of Walhalla.


History

The Walhalla line was the last of four experimental
narrow gauge lines of the Victorian Railways The former Victorian Railways, the state railway authority in Victoria, Australia, built a number of experimental narrow-gauge lines around the beginning of the 20th century. Although all were closed by the early 1960s, parts of two have be ...
, the Moe-Walhalla railway commenced in 1904, but was not completed until 1910. The railway was expected to be a boon for Walhalla, which was in a state of decline with gold mining operations becoming uneconomical. The largest gold mining company closed in 1914. After the closure of the Walhalla mines, substantial timber traffic was carried from saw-mills around Erica until the late 1940s. Goods and passenger traffic declined, with the railway closed in sections from 1944 with the final section from
Moe Moe, MOE, MoE or m.o.e. may refer to: In arts and entertainment Characters * Moe Szyslak, from the animated television show ''The Simpsons'' * Moe, leader of The Three Stooges, played by Moe Howard * Moe Higurashi, supporting character in ''Yash ...
to
Erica Erica or ERICA may refer to: * Erica (given name) * ''Erica'' (plant), a flowering plant genus * Erica (chatbot), a service of Bank of America * ''Erica'' (video game), a 2019 FMV video game * ''Erica'' (spider), a jumping spider genus * Eric ...
closed on 25 June 1954. The tracks and buildings were removed by 1960, leaving only the roadbed and a number of bridges. The former station building at Walhalla was re-located to the
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 ...
suburban station of
Hartwell Hartwell may refer to: Places * Hartwell, Victoria, a neighbourhood of Camberwell in Melbourne, Australia ** Hartwell railway station England * Hartwell, Buckinghamshire * Hartwell, Northamptonshire, a village * Hartwell, Staffordshire, a l ...
. The centre span of the
National Estate National may refer to: Common uses * Nation or country ** Nationality – a ''national'' is a person who is subject to a nation, regardless of whether the person has full rights as a citizen Places in the United States * National, Maryland, ce ...
listed Thomson River Railway Bridge was formerly part of a road bridge over the
Murray River The Murray River (in South Australia: River Murray) (Ngarrindjeri: ''Millewa'', Yorta Yorta: ''Tongala'') is a river in Southeastern Australia. It is Australia's longest river at extent. Its tributaries include five of the next six longest r ...
at
Tocumwal Tocumwal ( ) is a town in the southern Riverina region of New South Wales, Australia, in the Berrigan Shire local government area, near the Victorian border. The town is situated on the banks of the Murray River, north of the city of Melbourne. ...
.


Tourist attraction

The railway is a key tourist attraction for Walhalla today, carrying around 35,000 passengers each year. The trains run on Wednesdays, Saturdays and Sundays departing Walhalla at 11am, 1pm and 3pm o 3pm service in June/July/August with increased daily services in school holiday periods. The train journey begins departing the Walhalla Heritage Precinct, travelling through the station yard between Stringers Creek and the cliff-face that underpins the Brunton's Bridge Road. The first kilometre and a half is almost entirely built over six large trestle bridges that criss-cross Stringers Creek Gorge in an effort to find anchorage for each bridge abutment. The train winds its way downhill across the historic and spectacular Thomson River Bridge to arrive at Thomson Station. Visitors have time to explore the area or enjoy a picnic before returning to Walhalla.


Reopening

Recognising the outstanding potential of the railway, there were several attempts to reopen the line for tourist traffic, although these proved unsuccessful until the early 1990s. One such project conducted during the 1970s was known as the ''Walhalla & Thomson River Steam Tramway''; this project saw the construction of a brick station building (since demolished) and the acquisition of an ex-
West Melbourne Gasworks The West Melbourne Gasworks was a coal gasification plant in West Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. History Melbourne was settled in 1835 and by the early 1850s, the gold rushes had led to rapid population growth. The City of Melbourne Gas and Coke ...
steam locomotive, which is now in the possession of the Puffing Billy Railway and operated as locomotive no. 861 (''Decauville''). A small section of track was completed within the Walhalla station grounds and steam train rides were held, however the lack of funds to restore the Stringers Creek trestle bridges saw no further progress with reconstructing the track, and the project was abandoned by the early 1980s. The owner sold all the remaining railway assets in 1983. The Walhalla Railway Taskforce formed in 1991, becoming the Walhalla Goldfields Railway, Inc., in 1993. The former roadbed was overgrown with blackberries and heavy scrub, with numerous sections of the trackbed collapsed and all the bridges either derelict or in ruinous condition. Restoration began with the establishment of Thomson Station and its accompanying yard on the site of the original station. The railway commenced operations in April 1994, within the Thomson station yard. Gradually the line progressed, first over the nationally-heritage-classified Thomson River Bridge in October 1994, pushing up the Stringers Creek Gorge to Happy Creek. This became the terminus until the six bridges in the last kilometre into the Walhalla Station yard were completed, and opened on 13 March 2002. The operating line is 4 km in length. Due to bushfires in the nearby mountains, services on the railway were suspended as from the weekend of 9 December 2006. By 18 December 2006 fires reached the outskirts of Walhalla, and on 22 December 2006 fire destroyed the three-span trestle bridge ("bridge 7") adjacent to the former temporary terminus known as Cascade Bridge Halt. Services resumed between Walhalla and Happy Creek on 31 December 2006. On 10 March 2007, the Victorian State Government announced funding of $195,000 to rebuild the destroyed bridge and repair/upgrade the track. The bridge was completed in early April 2007 and normal operations between Thomson and Walhalla recommenced on Saturday 7 April. In late 2014, the Walhalla station saw the addition of a verandah to complete the original appearance of the station. In more recent times, the WGR has adopted a much lower focus on heritage and its newer buildings (particularly at Thomson) are contemporary design and materials. In November 2015, the Walhalla Goldfields Railway signed a twinning agreement with the
Lynton & Barnstaple Railway The Lynton and Barnstaple Railway (L&B) opened as an independent railway in May 1898. It was a single track, narrow gauge railway and was slightly over long running through the rugged and picturesque area bordering Exmoor in North Devon, ...
in England. This agreement came about due to the similar nature of the railways and to foster cooperation and volunteer exchanges. Like the Walhalla railway, the Lynton & Barnstaple was closed over 70 years ago and the work of restoration requires rebuilding the track bed and railway infrastructure.


Current operation and rollingstock

The Walhalla Goldfields Railway operates regular tourist services between Thomson and Walhalla stations, using
diesel Diesel may refer to: * Diesel engine, an internal combustion engine where ignition is caused by compression * Diesel fuel, a liquid fuel used in diesel engines * Diesel locomotive, a railway locomotive in which the prime mover is a diesel engin ...
locomotives. Notably, the railway carries far more passengers as a tourist railway, than during its time as an operating revenue line. Around 30,000 passengers travel on the service each year, compared to around 1,000 annually during the latter years of the original railway's operation. Due to the unavailability of original rolling stock from the railway (some of which has been preserved by the
Puffing Billy Railway The Puffing Billy Railway is a narrow gauge heritage railway in the southern foothills of the Dandenong Ranges in Melbourne, Australia. The railway was one of the five narrow gauge lines of the Victorian Railways which opened around the beg ...
near Melbourne), locomotives were acquired from a variety of locations, including two small industrial diesel engines from the Gippsland area, a larger 10 class diesel engine from the
Emu Bay Railway The Emu Bay Railway was a Tasmania, Australian railway company. The railway was significant during full operation, in that it linked the Tasmanian Government Railways system at Burnie with that at Zeehan that further linked to the Mount Lyell ...
in
Tasmania ) , nickname = , image_map = Tasmania in Australia.svg , map_caption = Location of Tasmania in AustraliaCoordinates: , subdivision_type = Country , subdi ...
and in November 2010, a DH class diesel from
Queensland Rail Queensland Rail (QR) is a railway operator in Queensland, Australia. Owned by the Queensland Government, it operates local and long-distance passenger services, as well as owning and maintaining approximately 6,600 kilometres of track and relate ...
. A small
Henschel & Son Henschel & Son (german: Henschel und Sohn) was a German company, located in Kassel, best known during the 20th century as a maker of transportation equipment, including locomotives, trucks, buses and trolleybuses, and armoured fighting vehic ...
steam locomotive built in
Kassel Kassel (; in Germany, spelled Cassel until 1926) is a city on the Fulda River in northern Hesse, Germany. It is the administrative seat of the Regierungsbezirk Kassel and the district of the same name and had 201,048 inhabitants in December 2020 ...
,
Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...
was used between 2002–06 but was not commercially successful as it was underpowered and required a diesel locomotive banker on each service. It is now stored offsite by its owner. As part of the celebrations for the railway's centenary, the Puffing Billy Railway loaned steam locomotive 7A (which ran on the original line) for special public operations on the weekend of 29/30 May 2010. 7A is last believed to have operated through to Walhalla in 1936. The passenger rolling stock was constructed from the frames and bogies from coal wagons from the now closed
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 ...
Interconnecting Railway between Yallourn and Morwell, south of Walhalla. The buildings and new rollingstock designs reflect the original Victorian Railways design as much as possible. While the railway did not use historical rolling stock at the time of reopening because all extant examples were owned and required by the Puffing Billy Railway, the collection is a significant piece of
industrial railway An industrial railway is a type of railway (usually private) that is not available for public transportation and is used exclusively to serve a particular industrial, logistics, or military site. In regions of the world influenced by British ra ...
history, and the WGR provides a valuable tourist train service for the regional economy. In late 2015, the railway purchased two X1 class trams 461 and 463 for the purpose of conversion to rail-motors to allow 7 days-a-week operation with reduced crewing.


Locomotives


Future expansion plans

The WGR is planning to extend the line to Erica, where the railway's permanent workshop complex will be built. Engineering assessments and a business plan have now been completed. The first stage would extend through
Platina Platina is a municipality ''( município)'' in the state of São Paulo in Brazil Brazil ( pt, Brasil; ), officially the Federative Republic of Brazil (Portuguese: ), is the largest country in both South America and Latin America. At and ...
to the site of O'Shea & Bennett's Siding at the junction of Boola Rd and the Walhalla Tourist Road. This section will require the reconstruction of two trestle bridges between Thomson and Platina, one of which has already been disassembled in preparation for this. Completing the extension from O'Shea & Bennett's Siding to Erica will require the re-excavation of the former cutting where Boola Road crossed the railway on a bridge; from 1975, the cutting was used as a municipal garbage dump by the Narracan Shire Council, then entirely filled in and the road rebuilt across the top. There is also a large trestle bridge which requires reconstruction across Jacobs Creek, shortly before Erica station. The Baw Baw Shire Council considered in late 2007 selling a large section of the Erica station site to the caravan park operators currently leasing the site, which would retain only an 18-metre-wide easement for the eventual reconstruction of the station by the Walhalla Goldfields Railway. The in principle decision was later revoked but the caravan park is rated by Baw Baw Shire as more important locally than a future tourist railway terminus. In late 2015, the railway purchased X1 class trams 461 and 463 for the purpose of conversion to rail-motors to allow 7 days-a-week operation with reduced crewing. Reconstruction of the line from Erica to Moe would likely be impractical and uneconomical, as the original right of way was sold in many places, and is partly covered by the waters of the Moondarra Reservoir.


Engineering heritage award

The railway received an Engineering Heritage 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

Books * Kiely, John and Savage, Russell, ''Steam on the Lens: Walhalla Railway Construction, the photographs of Wilf Henty; Vol.11'', Russel Savage, Mildura, 2002, (a second volume pictorial of the construction of the railway into Walhalla during 1908-1910. Images taken from large glass negatives)


External links


Walhalla Goldfields Railway (official site)

Gippsland's official tourism website - Walhalla Goldfields Railway
{{coord, 37, 57, 8, S, 146, 26, 8, E, region:AU-VIC_type:landmark, display=title Tourist railways in Victoria (Australia) 2 ft 6 in gauge railways in Australia Heritage railways in Australia 1910 establishments in Australia 1954 disestablishments in Australia 1994 establishments in Australia Recipients of Engineers Australia engineering heritage markers Shire of Baw Baw Walhalla railway line