Main North railway line, New South Wales

Main North Line
Looking south over Morisset rail yard, with the station in the distance and maintenance trains on a siding
Line length:	780 km (480 mi)
Gauge:	1,435 mm (4 ft 8+1⁄2 in) (Standard)
Legend 12 Main Suburban line at Strathfield  North Strathfield Concord West Rhodes Meadowbank West Ryde Denistone Eastwood Epping to Chatswood line 23 Epping North West Rail Link under planning Cheltenham Beecroft Pennant Hills Thornleigh Normanhurst North Shore Line to Sydney 34 Hornsby  Asquith Mount Colah Mount Kuring-Gai 45 Berowra limit of CityRail suburban services Cowan Boronia Tunnels x 4 Hawkesbury River Long Island Tunnel Hawkesbury River Mullet Creek Tunnel Wondabyne Woy Woy Tunnel Woy Woy Koolewong Tascott Point Clare Brisbane Water Gosford Racecourse closed 81 Gosford  Narara Niagara Park Lisarow Ourimbah Tuggerah 101 Wyong  Warnervale Wyee Vales Point coal unloader Morisset Dora Creek Eraring coal unloader Awaba Wangi Power Station Toronto line closed Fassifern Newstan colliery Booragul Teralba Boolaroo Boolaroo Racecourse Cockle Creek Sulphide Junction Platform Cardiff Tickhole Tunnel Kotara Belmont line closed Adamstown 163 Broadmeadow  Newcastle Line to Newcastle limit of electrification Goninan Broadmeadow depot to Port Waratah Waratah "Hanbury Dive" Warabrook (University) Kooragang Island coal loaders Sandgate Cemetery branch closed Sandgate Sandgate Flyover Hexham Richmond Vale Railway closed Tarro Thornton Bloomfield Colliery Metford Victoria Street East Maitland Morpeth line closed High Street 193 Maitland  South Maitland Railway North Coast line to Brisbane Farley Lochinvar Allandale Greta Whitburn Colliery Branxton Belford Minimbah Whittingham Hunter Valley collieries line 239 Singleton  Hunter River Camberwell & Rixs Creek collieries Nundah Glennies Creek Mount Owen colliery Ravensworth Bayswater Power Station Hunter Valley collieries line Mount Arthur & Drayton collieries Antiene Grasstree Muswellbrook Merriwa line to Ulan and Gulgong Koolbury Dartbrook colliery Aberdeen 315 Scone  limit of CityRail regional services Parkville Wingen Murrulla Blandford Murrurundi Temple Court Ardglen Tunnel Ardglen Kankool Willow Tree Braefield Quirindi Quipolly 411 Werris Creek  Mungindi line Currabubula Duri Warral Barraba line West Tamworth 455 Tamworth Nemingah Tintinhull Kootingal Limbri Danglemah Woolbrook Walcha Road Wollun Kentucky South Kentucky Uralla Kellys Plains 579 Armidale  limit of CountryLink services Dumaresq Exmouth Black Mountain Guyra Llangothlin Ben Lomond Glencoe Stonehenge Glen Innes Yarraford Dundee Deepwater Greenley Bolivia Sandy Flat Bungulla Tenterfield Sunnyside 792 Wallagarra and QLD Border

The Main North Line (also known as the Great Northern Railway) is a major railway in New South Wales, Australia. It runs through the Central Coast, Hunter and the New England regions. The line was the original main line between Sydney and Brisbane, however this required a change of gauge at Wallangarra. The line is now closed north of Armidale, and the main route between Brisbane and Sydney is now the North Coast line.

Description of route

The line starts as a branch from the Main Suburban line at Strathfield in Sydney. The line heads north as a double track electrified line through the northern suburbs of Sydney, crossing the Hawkesbury River, before passing through the Central Coast.

At Fassifern, a former branch line to Toronto divides off in an eastwards direction. The line continues north to Broadmeadow in the inner western suburbs of Newcastle. North of Broadmeadow is the junction with the Newcastle Branch Line. Electrification of the main line ends at Broadmeadow but continues along the Newcastle branch line.

The line then swings westwards as four tracks (two main line and two coal roads) through the outer suburbs of Newcastle to Maitland. Maitland is the junction of the North Coast line which continues to Brisbane. The line becomes double track immediately west of Maitland and heads through the Upper Hunter Valley through the townships of Branxton and Singleton before reaching Muswellbrook. The line is presently single track from Antiene to Muswellbrook, but Australian Rail Track Corporation are altering the layout of the Muswellbrook yard in preparation for duplication of this section.^[1]

Muswellbrook is the junction point for the cross country goods line to Sandy Hollow and Gulgong. The Main North continues northwards through the Ardglen Tunnel to Werris Creek, where the Mungindi Line branches off northwest to Moree, and a cross country branch continues to Binnaway and ultimately Dubbo.

The line continues north, but sees limited traffic from Werris Creek northwards. The line reaches the major New England towns of Tamworth and Armidale. Dumaresq, a township north of Armidale, is the current limit of goods traffic^{[citation needed]}. The line is essentially closed beyond Dumaresq to Glen Innes and in poor state of repair beyond to Wallangarra.

History

An abandoned section of the Main North Line north of Armidale, New South Wales. Also showing is the post marking the distance from Central Station, Sydney

The first section of the Main North Line was built from the port of Newcastle to Victoria Street, Maitland in 1857^[2] and extended to Singleton in 1863, Muswellbrook and Murrurundi in 1872, Werris Creek and west Tamworth in 1878, Armidale in 1883 and Wallangarra, Queensland in 1888. The Sydney to Newcastle section was started significantly later due to the difficult topography, including the need to cross the Hawkesbury River. The line was opened to Hornsby in 1886 and Hawkesbury River station at Brooklyn in 1887. The line also opened from Newcastle to Gosford in 1887. The Hawkesbury River bridge and the line to Gosford were opened in 1889.^[3] The bridge was built on pylons that failed to reach bed rock and it had to be replaced in the 1940s but due to the war the new bridge was not opened until 1 July 1946. The section between Hornsby and Gosford was electrified in the 1960s, and to Broadmeadow (and Newcastle) in 1984^[4].

Branch lines

Several lines branch from the Main North Line, including:

• the Newcastle Branch Line between Broadmeadow and Newcastle
• the Merriwa Line to Sandy Hollow and on to the Sandy Hollow- Gulgong line
• the Mungindi Line from Werris Creek to Narrabri and Moree
• the Toronto Line from Fassifern to Toronto (now closed and converted to cycleway)
• the Belmont Line from Adamstown to Belmont (now closed and converted to a cycleway called The Fernleigh Track)
• the Morpeth Line from East Maitland and Morpeth (now closed).
• the Barraba Branch Line from West Tamworth to Barraba (now closed).

Services

CountryLink operates passenger services along the Main North line. A daily Xplorer diesel self-propelled train operates to Werris Creek before dividing into two sections, one operating along the Main North Line to Armidale, and one section operating along the North-West (Mungindi) line to Moree. CityRail operates electric suburban passenger services over the suburban section between Strathfield and Berowra, and inter-urban passenger services between Sydney and Newcastle. It also operates diesel self propelled regional railcars between Newcastle, Maitland, Scone and Dungog. The section between Strathfield and Maitland forms part of the trunk line between Sydney and Brisbane and sees intermodal goods traffic carried between the two cities. The section of line in the Hunter Valley sees intensive coal train working, in fact the section between Broadmeadow and Maitland is one of the busiest goods lines in Australia.

Developments in the 20th century

Cowan railway station

The line was hampered by the rugged terrain and a change of gauge at Wallangarra for traffic to Queensland. The line was supplanted as the principal route to Brisbane by the completion of the North Coast Line in 1930. Despite being bypassed, the line remained busy for many years afterwards, with the line instead becoming the major freight link to the wheat and wool regions of northern and north-west New South Wales.

In 1988, the New South Wales government abandoned the line between Tenterfield and Wallangarra. The line was later abandoned to as far south as Tamworth before services were returned to Armidale in 1993. Since that time, there have been attempts to revive freight or tourist traffic to as far as Glen Innes, although these plans have not yet succeeded.

Today, the line is used for both freight and passenger traffic. The busiest sections are in the Hunter Valley and Central Coast regions, with services to the New England being less frequent. Passenger services are provided by CountryLink, with daily Xplorer services running from Sydney to Armidale and Moree. Freight services are provided by a number of companies, with Pacific National being the largest user on the line.

A section of the line between Waratah and Maitland is quadruple track, with one pair being used exclusively for coal trains within the Hunter Valley Coal Chain and the other pair of tracks being used for passenger trains and general freight. The coal tracks from Port Waratah join the line on the eastern side of the other tracks at Scholey Street Junction and pass underneath the other tracks at Hanbury Dive just west of Maud Street, continuing to Maitland on the western side of the other tracks.

The Sandgate Flyover was constructed in 2006 to allow the two passenger/freight tracks to rise and pass over the coal tracks that branch off to Kooragang Island in order to eliminate a capacity restriction caused by the long coal trains crossing the other tracks at grade. Because of the location of the overpass relative to the branch to Kooragang Island, a short section of the line has 6 parallel tracks. The bridge carrying Sandgate Road over the lines had to modified to allow for the additional lines. Sandgate railway station is flanked by a pair of coal tracks on each side.

See also

• Rail transport in New South Wales

Notes

External links

• ARTC maps of rail network outside Railcorp controlled zone (Sydney)
• Curve and gradient data for all lines including some closed lines

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