Esperance Branch Railway
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Esperance Branch Railway | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Termini | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Technical | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Track gauge | 1,435 mm (4 ft 8+1⁄2 in) standard gauge | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Old gauge | Narrow gauge | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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The Esperance Branch Railway is a railway from Kalgoorlie to the port of Esperance in Western Australia.
It was lobbied for by Esperance residents to be linked into the WAGR railway network to provide land transport to their region.[1][2][3]
In the strictest terms it was an extension of the Eastern Goldfields Railway.[4] ,[5] but following the Standard Gauge project in the 1960s it ran from Kalgoorlie to Esperance, as Coolgardie was no longer connected by rail.
Sub-divisions/Sections
- Coolgardie – Widgiemooltha – 51 miles 38 chains (82.8 km), completed in 1908.
- Widgiemooltha – Norseman – 56 miles 59 chains (91.3 km), completed in 1909
- Norseman – Salmon Gums – 58 miles 46 chains (94.3 km), completed in 1927
- Salmon Gums – Esperance – 65 miles 56 chains (105.7 km), completed in 1925.[6]
Steam era water supplies
During the time the narrow gauge railway was in operation, due to the distances through dry country, dams and tanks were of importance to supply the steam engines in operation. Between Coolgardie and Esperance, water supply sources were from Water Supply Department (Coolgardie), Mines Department Dam (Widgiemooltha),and WAGR dams – WAGR annual reports took into consideration: Catchment area, Capacity, Pumped or gravitation collection of water, estimated loss by evaporation and absorption, and total amount of water stored.
Esperance Flyer
This passenger train started in 1932. It was 5 hours faster than the mixed goods train,[7] though averaging only about 35 km/h (22 mph).[8] Trains were sped up by a further 1½ hours when diesels took over in 1954.[9] By 1967 a bus had replaced the train.[10]
Gauge and route
It was originally built as narrow gauge, but with gauge standardisation of the main interstate railway in the late 1960s, it was converted to standard gauge to, so as not to become a gauge orphan. The route was also changed somewhat with standardisation, with a junction at Kalgoorlie replacing the junction at Coolgardie.
Selected stopping locations
- Grass Patch
- Scaddan
- Gibson – 1800m crossing loop built 2009.[11]
- Esperance
Notes
- ^ http://henrietta.liswa.wa.gov.au/record=b2395637~S2
- ^ http://henrietta.liswa.wa.gov.au/record=b1891792~S2
- ^ http://henrietta.liswa.wa.gov.au/record=b1869671~S2
- ^ Western Australian Government Railways (1954), Report of the Western Australian Government Railways Commission for the year ended, W.H. Wyatt, retrieved 5 July 2012 Appendix F, page 60 – 'Eastern Goldfields Railway'
- ^ [Scrapbook] of newspaper cuttings May 1900-December 1916 relating to Coolgardie-Esperance Railway, 1900, retrieved 18 April 2022
- ^ Alex Gibson and D. H. S. du Plessis (December 1947). "Report to the Royal Commission appointed to inquire into the management, workings and control of the Western Australian Government Railways" (PDF). Parliament of Western Australia. Retrieved 25 October 2015.
- ^ "BY RAIL TO ESPERANCE". West Australian (Perth, WA : 1879 – 1954). 20 December 1932. p. 15. Retrieved 6 March 2018.
- ^ Fitch, Ron J. (2006). Australian Railwayman: From Cadet Engineer to Railways Commissioner. Rosenberg Publishing Pty, Limited. ISBN 9781922013095.
- ^ "Westland will be nearly four hours faster". Sunday Times (Perth, WA : 1902 – 1954). 21 November 1954. p. 6. Retrieved 6 March 2018.
- ^ "Week-end Bus Service for Kambalda". Beverley Times (WA : 1905 – 1977). 1 December 1967. p. 8. Retrieved 6 March 2018.
- ^ Railway Digest October 2009, p17
Further reading
- Affleck, Fred (1978). On Track: The Making of Westrail, 1950–1976. Perth: Westrail. ISBN 0724475605. OCLC 6489347.
- Quinlan, Howard & Newland, John R. (2000) Australian Railway Routes 1854-2000 ISBN 0-909650-49-7
External links
Old photos – Esperance station, Esperance Flyer
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