Woodville railway station, Adelaide

TransAdelaide
colour=#a100ff
station_name=Woodville

---

line=Grange, Outer Harbor
street=Woodville Road
suburb=Woodville
distance=7.5
access=Level Pedestrian Crossing
HFS=No
peakfreq=Every 10-30 Mins
wdfreq=Every 30 Mins
wefreq=Every 15-45 Mins
nightfreq=Every 15-45 Mins
rrtd=Yes
rrts=Yes
platforms=2
platform_arch=1 Side Platform
1 Centre Platform
toilets=No
parking=Yes
bike=Yes
lounge=No
kiosk=Yes
disability=Yes
facilities=None
opened=1856
trainconnect=Grange, Outer Harbor
busconnect=100 (Circle Line)
previous=Woodville Park
next="Grange" Albert Park
"Outer Harbor" Cheltenham Racecourse

Woodville station is on the suburban rail routes from Adelaide to Grange and Outer Harbor. Woodville is 7.5 km (4½ miles) from Adelaide and is the junction station for the Grange branch.

ervices

All passenger services are operated by TransAdelaide. There are no freight trains through Woodville station. During Monday to Friday off peak times, trains depart every 30 minutes to the Outer Harbor line and every 30 minutes to the Grange line. Towards Adelaide there are non-stop expresses every 30 minutes (ex Outer Harbor) and all-stations trains every 30 minutes ex Grange. Peak hour services are more frequent.In the evenings and at weekends, there is one train per hour to both Outer Harbor and Grange lines.

There are three platforms at Woodville. Platform 1 serves the Grange line. It is normally used only for departures to Grange, although trains can also depart in the Adelaide direction if required. Platform 2 is for trains to the Outer Harbor line and all trains to Adelaide normally depart from platform 3.

For many years the Grange line was operated by a shuttle train at weekends and in the evenings. This terminated at Platform 1 and made connections with Outer Harbor line trains to and from Adelaide. However since 1996 or so, all Grange trains have operated through to Adelaide.

History

Woodville was one of the original stations on the Adelaide to Port Adelaide railway, which opened in April 1856. The only other intermediate stations on the new line were at Bowden and Alberton.

In the early days Adelaide to Port Adelaide was a single track railway and a passing loop was provided at Woodville. As traffic on the line increased the single track was duplicated throughout in 1881.

In September 1882 a second railway route was opened from Woodville to Grange. This was built by the Grange Railway and Investment Company. Unlike the Adelaide to Port Adelaide route, which was built and operated by the South Australian government, the Grange line was a private venture, constructed to tap into potential development in the area between Woodville and the coast. The new line ran into a bay platform at Woodville. Although there was a connection to the main line, it was not possible for Grange line trains to conveniently continue into the City.

The Grange railway company, with its rolling stock of 2 locomotives and 4 carriages, was not a financial success and was forced to operate on a shoestring budget right from the start. Following the collapse of the private company, the South Australian Railways took over operation in 1891, using a steam tram in place of the more conventional locomotive and carriages. The Grange line was fully bought out by the State Government in 1893 and in 1894 was extended from Grange southwards to Henley Beach along Military Road.

The track layout at Woodville station was modified in 1909 and it was then possible for trains from the Henley Beach & Grange line to travel through to Adelaide.

The 1920s and 1930s saw significant development of heavy industry in Woodville and the neighbouring areas. For example Holdens Motor Body Builders (later to become GMH) built a factory in the fork between the Grange and Outer Harbor lines. Sidings were laid to service the factory and a new station platform opened in 1928 a short way along the Grange line (the station was known as Holdens). Cars were dispatched by rail from the sidings at Holdens' Woodville factory to distant destinations such as Melbourne.

The Woodville signal cabin became obsolete after a resignalling project in the late 1980s and has now been relocated to the National Railway Museum at Port Adelaide.

Branch lines

In the Second World War several munitions and armaments factories were opened which resulted in construction of two new industrial branch lines in the Woodville area.

The Finsbury line was opened in September 1940 and departed from the main Port line at Woodville station. It headed in a northerly direction and serviced a wartime munitions works at Cheltenham Park and a Government Supply Depot at Finsbury. The line continued through Pennington to join the Dry Creek to Port Adelaide line at Gillman Junction.

The layout at Woodville station was altered in 1942 when a new platform face was constructed on the north-east side of today’s platform 3 to serve the Finsbury trains. The original 1856 station building was demolished on the Port Adelaide-bound platform and a new signal cabin was provided adjacent to the Woodville Road level crossing.

The Hendon line was a short branch line which diverged from the Grange line at Albert Park and ran 1.1 km (¾ mile) to the terminus at Hendon munitions works. This line opened in November 1940. There were no intermediate stations.

Both of these industrial lines had limited passenger services, designed mainly to cater for workers at factories in the vicinity. After the end of World War II there were no off-peak trains or weekend services after Saturday lunchtime.

* The Woodville to Henley Beach branch was cut back to terminate at Grange on 1 September 1957.
* The last train on the Woodville to Finsbury line ran on 17 August 1979.
* The last service to Hendon was on 1 February 1980.

All of these lines are now long dismantled and it is hard to find any trace of where they ran.

References

*"Rails Through Swamp and Sand – A History of the Port Adelaide Railway". M. Thompson pub. Port Dock Station Railway Museum (1988) ISBN 0-9595073-6-1

ee also

*List of closed Adelaide railway stations

External links

* [http://www.natrailmuseum.org.au/ National Railway Museum, Port Adelaide]
* [http://www.transadelaide.com.au/ TransAdelaide]
* [http://www.adelaidemetro.com.au/ Adelaide Metro]
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