Walhalla railway line, Victoria

Walhalla railway line, Victoria

The Walhalla railway line was a narrow gauge (RailGauge|30) railway located in Gippsland, Victoria, Australia, the line ran from Moe to the former gold-mining town and popular tourist destination of Walhalla, closing in sections from 1944.

History

The last of four experimental narrow gauge lines of the Victorian Railways, construction of the Moe-Walhalla railway began in 1904, but was not completed until 1910 due to the difficult mountainous terrain to be contended with. The railway was expected to be a boon for the town, which was in a state of economic and population decline due to gold mining operations becoming increasingly uneconomical, the largest gold mining company closing in 1914. But the arrival of the railway did not save the town.

After the closure of the Walhalla mines, substantial timber traffic was carried from sawmills in the Erica area until the late 1940s. Although the line carried numerous special passenger trains to Walhalla in the 1930s and early 1940s, freight and passenger traffic to Walhalla itself declined to almost nothing by 1939. The railway was closed in sections from 1944-54, the section from Platina to Walhalla closing in March 1944 and the final section from Moe to Erica eventually closing on June 25th 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 relocated to the Melbourne suburban station of Hartwell.

Reconstruction

In recognition of the outstanding tourist potential of the railway, a number of attempts were made to reopen the line for tourist traffic, but none were successful until the early 1990s. The Walhalla Railway Taskforce was formed in 1991, becoming the Walhalla Goldfields Railway, Inc., in 1993. By this time the former roadbed was a totally overgrown jungle of blackberries and heavy scrub, with numerous sections of the trackbed having collapsed and all but one of the bridges being totally derelict. Restoration began with the establishment of Thomson Station and its accompanying yard on the site of an 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 for the line until the six bridges in the last kilometre into the Walhalla Station yard were completed, this section of line opening on 15th of March, 2002. The operating line is 4km in length.

tations

* refers to stations built during the reconstruction of the Walhalla Tourist railway

ee also

*Narrow gauge lines of the Victorian Railways
*Walhalla Goldfields Railway
*List of closed regional railway stations in Victoria
*List of closed regional railway lines in Victoria
*Transportation in Australia
*Tyers Valley Tramway

External links

* [http://www.walhallarail.com Walhalla Goldfields Railway (official site)]
* [http://drunken.stupor.org/walhalla Pictures from around the Walhalla Golfields Railway (unofficial)]


Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.

Игры ⚽ Поможем сделать НИР

Look at other dictionaries:

  • Oaklands railway line, Victoria — Not to be confused with Oaklands railway line, New South Wales. Oaklands railway railway line, Victoria Line details Commenced 1883/1886 Length 64 km (39.8 mi) in Victoria and 61 km (37.9 mi) in NSW Rail transport in Victoria …   Wikipedia

  • Walhalla railway station, Victoria — VictorianTouristRailwayStation LOGO= BGCOLOR = red FONT = white NAME= Walhalla LINE= Walhalla DISTANCE= 171.94km PLATFORMS= 1 TRACKS= 4 STATUS=Tourist Station OPENED= 3rd of May, 1910 CLOSED= 1st of April 1944 RE OPENED= 2002 http://www.street… …   Wikipedia

  • Orbost railway line, Victoria — VictorianRailwayLineInfobox type = vic name = Orbost yearcommenced = 1877 yearopened = yearcompleted = 1916 yearclosed = fate = lengthkm = stations = tracks = users = V/Line passenger services, freight traffic servicepattern = RollingStock =… …   Wikipedia

  • Orbost railway line — Orbost railway line, Victoria Line details Commenced 1877 Completed 1916 Closed 1987 …   Wikipedia

  • North East railway line — For the mass transit line in Singapore, see North East MRT Line. North East railway line, Victoria Line details Commenced 1860 Completed 1883 …   Wikipedia

  • Outtrim railway line — Outtrim railway line, Victoria Line details Commenced 6 March 1885 Opened 1894 to Jumbunna 1896 to Outtrim Completed 1896 …   Wikipedia

  • Mildura railway line — Mildura railway line, Victoria Line details Commenced 1874 Completed 1903 Closed …   Wikipedia

  • Noojee railway line — Noojee railway line, Victoria Line details Opened 12 May 1890 (Warragul to Rokeby), 18 March 1892 (Rokeby to Neerim South), 27 March 1917 (Neerim South to Nayook), 26 April 1919 (Nayook to Noojee) Completed …   Wikipedia

  • Echuca railway line — Echuca railway line, Victoria Line details Length 251.99 km Stations 3 Tracks 1 …   Wikipedia

  • Shepparton railway line — Tocumwal railway line redirects here. For the closed line in New South Wales, see Tocumwal railway line, New South Wales. Shepparton railway line, Victoria Line details Opened 1860 L …   Wikipedia

Share the article and excerpts

Direct link
Do a right-click on the link above
and select “Copy Link”