SAR Northern Division

Revision as of 09:11, 16 August 2020

The SAR (South Australian Railways) Northern Division was a network of narrow gauge (3ft 6in - 1047mm) tracks running from Port Pirie to Cockburn on the New South Wales and South Australian border where a private narrow gauge railway provided a "hook and pull" service to Broken Hill. The line was built to carry mineral ores from the mines at Broken Hill to the smelters and port at Port Pirie, a function it still performs today but as a standard gauge railway. The division also had narrow gauge branch lines to Wilmington, Terowie and Quorn as well as some mining branch lines.

The Trainz layout is modelled on the actual narrow gauge mainline route from Gladstone to Paratoo as it existed in the mid to late 1960s. It includes the complete Wilmington, Quorn and Terowie branch lines. Total route length is 375km (223mi). At Quorn the branch line connected with the Commonwealth Railways narrow gauge Port Augusta to Hawker line - this line was originally the Central Australia Line and extended to Alice Springs at the centre of the continent. Terowie was the junction with the broad gauge (5ft 3in - 1600mm) mainline to Adelaide, the state capital. In 1969 the main line was converted to standard gauge (4ft 8.5in - 1435mm) and, during the following years, the narrow gauge branch lines were closed. The short branch to Terowie was initially converted to broad gauge but eventually this was also closed. The map only shows the major stations. Products carried in the 1960s included:- Passengers Mineral Ores General Goods Grain Livestock Oil and Fuel

Locomotives

The SAR Northern Narrow Gauge Division was the preserve of the SAR T Class steam locomotives. A total of 78 were built specifically to haul the ore trains from Broken Hill to Port Pirie. Six were later sold to the Tasmanian Government Railways and some were transferred or loaned to other narrow gauge systems in South Australia. During the 1920s five were temporarily converted to 1600mm (5ft 3in) broad gauge to fix a shortage of locomotives on the state's broad gauge network. They were converted back to narrow gauge at the end of that period. The Ts were also used for local passenger services, general freights and branch line workings. They continued operating on the Wilmington and Quorn lines, which had become isolated narrow gauge lines after the main Port Pirie to Broken Hill line had been converted to standard gauge, until those lines were eventually closed.

In the 1950s 10 Beyer-Garratt 400 Class narrow gauge locos were purchased for the Broken Hill ore trains and these replaced many of the T class locos on that run. The Garratts occasionally pulled the Broken Hill express passenger services and freight services to Terowie. These were withdrawn from service after the conversion of the Port Pirie to Broken Hill line to standard gauge.

During the 1960s the 830 class mainline diesel locos (in narrow, standard and broad gauge versions) started appearing on the various rail networks in South Australia.

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