Bridgewater railway line, Adelaide

The Bridgewater line is a former passenger railway service in the Adelaide Hills. It was a single broad gauge track extension of the twin broad gauge Belair line, the service being withdrawn in 1987.

It ran through the suburbs of
*Belair and Belair National Park,
* Crafers West,
*Stirling,
*Heathfield,
*Aldgate and
*Bridgewater.

It serviced eleven stations;
*National Park (demolished),
*Long Gully (mostly demolished),
*Nalawort (demolished),
*Upper Sturt (demolished),
*Mount Lofty (now used as a Private Hotel),
*Heathfield (demolished),
*Madurta (demolished),
*Aldgate (now used as a community centre),
*Jibilla (demolished),
*Carripook (demolished), and the terminus Bridgewater (demolished).

In 1995 the Melbourne-Adelaide railway line was converted to standard gauge under the One Nation infrastructure program [cite web
url=http://www.railwaymuseum.org.au/history3.html
title=ARHS Railway Museum: History 1950 - now
publisher=www.railwaymuseum.org.au
accessdate=2008-03-29] , disconnecting these stations from the broad gauge suburban railway system.

History

The line from Adelaide to Belair/Bridgewater opened in 1883. The Bridgewater line departed from the main Belair line east of Belair, and headed east, parallel to the northern side of Belair National Park. The line then turned south through the national park and then turned east again, where the National Park station used to be. It continued east and reached the Upper Sturt station, 28.9km by rail from Adelaide Railway Station. 500m later the track turns north east and reaches Mount Lofty station 31km away from Adelaide, after that it turns south and reaches Heathfield station (33km), just after the line turns north east. It reaches Aldgate just as it passes the demolished Madurta station, then the track reaches the Aldgate station (34.5km). The line continues east, passing the Jibilla and Carripook stations (which are demolished) and finally, the line terminates at Bridgewater station, 37.3km from Adelaide Railway Station.

The Bridgewater line had a fairly steep grade for most of the journey, sometimes resulting in derailments due to the tight bends. Services from Adelaide to Bridgewater usually took an average of one hour (stopping all stations), and about 50 minutes (express). Only one train per two hours operated during off-peak and weekends (most trains terminated at Belair) and no more than two trains per hour in either direction during peak-hours. This was because the line was single track (which is still the case today) with crossing loops located at Belair, Long Gully, Mount Lofty, Aldgate and Bridgewater.

Services

Services on the Bridgewater line were mainly Redhen railcars, but the 2000 class railcars occasionally used the line every week.

On special occasions such as the Oakbank Easter Racing Carnival held every Easter weekend at Oakbank, trains went further east to terminate at Balhannah station, however this ceased in 2002 due to the expensive operation of the trains Fact|date=August 2008.

Closure of the line

When the more direct South Eastern Freeway opened in the 1960s, patronage to Bridgewater declined heavily, as more people had access to cars. On Sunday July 26, 1987, passenger services to Bridgewater were withdrawn, attributed to high cost of operation and low passenger numbers. All stations beyond Belair were closed and all suburban trains now terminate at Belair.

In 1995 the main line from Adelaide to Melbourne was converted from Broad Gauge (1600mm) to Standard Gauge (1435mm). This prevented any restoration of local trains to Bridgewater or beyond, and also disconnected a number of the South Australian country broad gauge services from Adelaide. [Disconnected services included, for example, Mount Barker to Victor Harbor and Wolseley to Mount Gambier - see Rail transport in South Australia for a detailed list.] Between Goodwood and Belair, the former double track route became two parallel single lines - one Broad Gauge for suburban railcars, the other Standard Gauge for interstate freight.

Along with this conversion, stations on the Belair line at Mile End Goods, Millswood, Hawthorn and Clapham were closed. The other Belair line stations; Unley Park, Torrens Park, Lynton, Eden Hills, Coromandel, Glenalta, Pinera and Belair each had one platform closed.

Stations

There are also closed stations beyond Bridgewater, on the Adelaide-Melbourne line:
*Yantaringa
*Ambleside
*Balhannah
*Mount Barker Junction
*Nairne
*Callington
*Monarto South
*Murray Bridge
*Tailem Bend
*etc.

The line forked at Mount Barker Junction. There are also closed stations on the Victor Harbor line:
*Littlehampton
*Mount Barker
*Bugle Ranges
*Gemmells
*Strathalbyn
*Sandergrove
**Nurragi
**Milang
*Finnis
*Black Swamp
*Currency Creek
*Goolwa
*Middleton
*Port Elliot
*Victor Harbor

References

See also

*List of closed Adelaide railway stations
*List of Adelaide railway stations
*Railways in Adelaide
*Rail transport in South Australia