Re: Port Kembla breakwater railway

[Eddie.Oliver@efs.mq.edu.au (Eddie Oliver)]

>David Proctor <daproc@bigfoot.com> wrote in article
><01bd0dd4$d474e3a0$014a23cb@locxvcym>...
>> With 3 hours to kill at Port Kembla last night (from 0105 till 0353) I
>went
>> for a walk along the breakwater, and disvovered that there are rails laid
>> into it (including a 130m long crossing loop from 690m to 820m) -
>> presumably laid to facilitate carrying the large concrete blocks that form
>> the breakwater.
>>
>> The rails are laid to 1435mm (standard gauge).
>>
>> Does anybody know anything of this line? Was it ever connected to the
>main
>> system? When was it last used? (it is currently out of use, as some of
>the
>> rails are concreted over, etc.)


Those jetties were connected into the main system by a line which ran
through a cutting, of which some traces still exist (or at least did a year
or so ago).  This cutting was odd because it was protected by a rather
primitive form of power signalling.

The PWD had a loco depot up on Reids Hill (to the south of the existing
main line, a little way west of Port Kembla station area) which held a
vast array of tiny locos used for shunting the industrial network.

Eddie Oliver