Northam Railway Station, Western Australia
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Northam railway station is located in Northam on the Eastern Railway route in
Western Australia Western Australia (WA) is the westernmost state of Australia. It is bounded by the Indian Ocean to the north and west, the Southern Ocean to the south, the Northern Territory to the north-east, and South Australia to the south-east. Western Aust ...
. It is the second and more recent railway station in Northam.


Original station

The line to Northam opened on 13 October 1886 at the end of a 15 kilometre branch line from Spencers Brook on the Eastern Railway. When the Eastern Railway was extended to
Southern Cross CRUX is a lightweight x86-64 Linux distribution targeted at experienced Linux users and delivered by a tar.gz-based package system with BSD-style initscripts. It is not based on any other Linux distribution. It also utilizes a ports system to ...
on 1 July 1894, it was done so via Northam.Welcome to the Old Railway Station Museum
Northam Heritage Forum
Northam became an important
junction station ''Junction station'' usually refers to a railway station situated either on or close to a rail junction, where lines to two or more destinations diverge. Many junction stations have multiple platform faces to enable trains for multiple destinatio ...
with a large yard, signalbox and locomotive depot to serve lines radiating out to Goomalling, Mullewa, Mukinbudin and Wyalkatchem."Northam - a Westrail hotspot" ''
Railway Digest ''Railway Digest'' is a monthly magazine, published in Sydney, covering contemporary railways in Australia. Overview The magazine is published by the Australian Railway Historical Society (ARHS), NSW Division. The first issue was in March 1 ...
'' September 2000 pages 28-29
In 1900, a new station opened on the south-west side of the town.


New station

As part of the construction of a new
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 ...
Eastern Railway from Midland via the Avon Valley, a new station was opened on the eastern side of the town on 7 October 1966 by the Minister for Railways
Charles Court Sir Charles Walter Michael Court (29 September 1911 – 22 December 2007) was an Australian politician who was the premier of Western Australia from 8 April 1974 to 25 January 1982. A member of the Western Australian Liberal Party, Liberal Par ...
. Part of the original line along Fitzgerald Street was retained to allow access to the steam locomotive depot and oil and flour mill sidings. It was later removed. Today, the dual gauge Eastern Railway terminates at Northam and becomes the standard gauge Eastern Goldfields Railway. Narrow gauge lines branch off east of the town north to Goomalling and south to
York York is a cathedral city in North Yorkshire, England, with Roman Britain, Roman origins, sited at the confluence of the rivers River Ouse, Yorkshire, Ouse and River Foss, Foss. It has many historic buildings and other structures, such as a Yor ...
and Albany via the Great Southern Railway. Between the western side of the town and Toodyay lies Avon Yard.


Old station

The original station closed on 12 February 1966 and has been converted to a museum.Municipal Heritage Inventory
Shire of Northam 21 September 2012 page 47


Passenger services

Transwa Transwa is Western Australia's regional public transport provider, linking 240 destinations, from Kalbarri in the north to Augusta in the south west to Esperance in the south east. The Transwa system provides transport between Perth and the ...
's ''
AvonLink The ''AvonLink'' is a rural passenger train service in Western Australia operated by Transwa between Midland railway station, Perth, Midland and Northam railway station, Western Australia, Northam. History The consideration of revitalising pa ...
,
MerredinLink The ''MerredinLink'' is a rural passenger train service in Western Australia operated by Transwa between East Perth railway station, East Perth and Merredin railway station, Merredin. History The ''MerredinLink'' was introduced in June 2004 w ...
'' and ''
Prospector Prospector may refer to: Space exploration * Prospector (spacecraft), a planned lunar probe, canceled in 1962 * ''Lunar Prospector'', a NASA spacecraft Trains * Prospector (train), a passenger train operated by the Denver & Rio Grande Western ra ...
''services stop at Northam, at least one service each day. The '' Indian Pacific'' also passes here, running once or twice a week (depending on the time of year) between
East Perth East is one of the four cardinal directions or points of the compass. It is the opposite direction from west and is the direction from which the Sun rises on the Earth. Etymology As in other languages, the word is formed from the fact that eas ...
and Sydney Central, but does not stop at the station.


References


External links

*
Northam Station
History of Western Australian Railways & Stations gallery {{Public Transport Authority of Western Australia railway stations, AvonLink=y, MerredinLink=y, Prospector=y, state=collapsed Eastern Railway (Western Australia) Northam, Western Australia Transwa railway stations Railway stations in Australia opened in 1900 Railway stations in Australia opened in 1966 Railway stations in Australia closed in 1966