Tocumwal railway line, New South Wales

The Tocumwal railway line is a closed railway line in New South Wales, Australia. The line branched from the still open Junee - Hay line at Narrandera station and then headed south west to Tocumwal station where there was a break-of-gauge with the Victorian Railways Goulburn Valley line from Shepparton.

The line was opened to Jerilderie in 1884, extended to Berrigan in 1896, Finley in 1898 and Tocumwal in 1914. The Victorian line had reached Tocumwal in July 1908.cite book
author = Bob Whitehead
title = Tocumwal Railway Centenary
year = 2008 ] The last goods train left Tocumwal for Narrandera in 1985, and traffic ceased over the line south of Jerilderie in September 1986 and the entire line was closed in December 1988.The Victorian line to Tocumwal remains open for freight traffic.

Tocumwal was the site in 1915 of early tests with third-rail devices to enable standard gauge and broad gauge trains to share the same tracks ["Early Tests of Third Rail Devices at Tocumwal" Buckland, John L. Australian Railway Historical Society Bulletin March, 1949 pp8-9] .

In later years passenger services on the line were operated by railcars, connecting with an overnight train at Narrandera. From 1973 the service operated three days per week, until their withdrawal on Saturday November 26, 1983. The final passenger service was a special excursion train operated with a Silver City Comet railcar set on September 20, 1986.

References

External links

* [http://www.nswrail.net/lines/show.php?name=NSW:Tocumwal NSWrail.net Tocumwal line]