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

Melbourne Melbourne ( , ; Boonwurrung language, Boonwurrung/ or ) is the List of Australian capital cities, capital and List of cities in Australia by population, most populous city of the States and territories of Australia, Australian state of Victori ...

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country comprising mainland Australia, the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania and list of islands of Australia, numerous smaller isl ...

. Linking Newport station on the

Werribee line The Werribee line is a commuter railway line in the city of Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. Operated by Metro Trains Melbourne, it is the city's ninth longest metropolitan railway line at . The line runs from Flinders Street station in cen ...

to Sunshine station on the

Sunbury line The Sunbury line is a commuter railway line in the city of Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. Operated by Metro Trains Melbourne, it is the city's fifth longest metropolitan railway line at . The line runs from Flinders Street railway station, Fl ...

, 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, electric multiple units, trolleybuses or trams. The generic term used by the International Union of Railways for the tec ...

, passenger stations or platforms but ''

The Overland ''The Overland'' is an interstate passenger train service in Australia, travelling 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 Sout ...

'' passenger service between

and

Adelaide Adelaide ( , ; ) is the list of Australian capital cities, capital and most populous city of South Australia, as well as the list of cities in Australia by population, fifth-most populous city in Australia. The name "Adelaide" may refer to ei ...

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, commonly abbreviated as Vic, is a States and territories of Australia, state in southeastern Australia. It is the second-smallest state (after Tasmania), with a land area of ; the second-most-populated state (after New South Wales), ...

to access the then important port at

Williamstown, Victoria Williamstown is a suburb in Melbourne, Victoria (state), Victoria, Australia, south-west of Melbourne's Melbourne central business district, Central Business District, located within the City of Hobsons Bay Local government areas of Victoria, ...

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

signal box A signal is both the process and the result of transmission of data over some media accomplished by embedding some variation. Signals are important in multiple subject fields including signal processing, information theory and biology. In ...

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 lin ...

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 Dual gauge railroad track has three or four rails, allowing vehicles of two track gauges to run on it. Signalling and sidings are more expensive to install on dual gauge tracks than on two single gauge tracks. Dual gauge is used when there i ...

as part of the

standardization Standardization (American English) or standardisation (British English) is the process of implementing and developing technical standards based on the consensus of different parties that include firms, users, interest groups, standards organiza ...

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, 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 Victor ...

alongside. Standard gauge in blue, dual gauge in teal, 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