Bombala railway line

Cooma Line

Legend Main South line at Joppa Junction Komungla Inveralochy Lake Bathurst Tarago Bungendore junction of Captains Flat line Brooks Bank Tunnel Burbong Molonglo River Pine Range Tunnels x2 Queanbeyan River Queanbeyan Canberra Letchworth Tuggeranong Royalla Williamsdale Michelago Ingalara Creek[1] Colinton Colinton Tunnel Bredbo Bredbo River[2] Billilingra Numeralla River[3] Chakola Bunyan Cooma Rock Flat Coonerang Bobingah Nimmitabel Maclaughlin Holts Flat Jincumbilly Bukalong Bombala

The Bombala railway line is a partially closed branch railway line in the south of New South Wales, Australia. It branches off the Main South line at Joppa Junction, south of Goulburn, and was opened in stages to Tarago (January 1884), Bungendore (March 1885), Queanbeyan (September 1887), Michelago (December 1887), Cooma (May 1889), Nimmitabel (April 1912) and Bombala (November 1921).^[4]

History

Michelago

Michelago station opened on Wednesday, 7th December, 1887. On the previous day, SMH published a detailed description of the engineering works done between Queanbeyan and Michelago. ^[5]

Closure of the Southern end of the line

On 26 March 1986, the line south of Cooma was closed.^[6]

Passenger services south of Queanbeyan ceased in September 1988.^[7] Following a bridge carrying the line over the Numeralla River at Chakola being declared unsafe, freight services south of Queanbeyan ceased in May 1989.^[8] However a steam special did operate through to Cooma a few weeks later, albeit without passengers over the bridge in question.^[9]

The line between Joppa Junction Goulburn and Queanbeyan remains open, and is served by three daily NSW TrainLink Xplorer services in each direction operating between Sydney and Canberra.^[10] The majority of freight traffic on the line are refuse trains for the Woodlawn Bioreactor at Tarago.^[11] Fuel trains ran to Canberra until January 2009.^[12] From 6 March 2015, a joint venture between ESPEE Railroad Services (owned by the ACT division of the Australian Railway Historical Society) and local company Access Recycling began operating weekly freight trains loaded with scrap metal from Canberra to Port Botany via the Canberra branch and Bombala line.^[13]

The 49 kilometre section between Queanbeyan and Michelago was also re-opened in April 1993 for heritage tourist operation by the ACT Division of the Australian Railway Historical Society.^[14] The line available for traffic was truncated to Royalla as it deteriorated, until finally being suspended at the beginning of 2007 as a result of storm damage.

To reopen the line, substantial sleeper replacement will be required, approximately 16,000 pieces. In addition, one major timber bridge, at Jerrabomberra Creek, will need to be replaced, and some other minor bridgework and other works undertaken. The ARHS was investigating a large pile of steel sleepers that would probably have been sufficient that were lying unused along the northern line. However recovery work plan was never completed by the ARHS. The ARHS formally relinquished its lease on the Queanbeyan to Michelago section of track in 2011, and has subsequently concentrated its activities to boutique novelty trips for Canberra's population on the Canberra to Bungendore section of the line.^[15]

In October 1999 Freight Australia commenced operating log trains a couple of kilometres south of Queanbeyan to Hume.^[16] This freight though has now ceased also, with a stop block being placed at Queanbeyan, at 321.72 km, clear of Frame F crossover, signifying the current operational end of the Bombala line.^[17]

At the Cooma end of the line, there is another heritage railway, the Cooma Monaro Railway, that was formed in 1992, when a group of local Cooma people decided to restore Cooma Railway Station.^[18] After the group had restored the station, efforts were then made by the group to acquire some rolling stock and re-open a section of track. This came to fruition starting in 1998, with over 17 kilometres of railway track now reopened and restored CPH railmotors operating between Cooma and Chakola.^[19][20][21] Train movements though are currently suspended on this section of track, while the CMR tends to various new requirements of the Office of National Rail Safety Regulator.^[22]

At the Bombala terminus, a railway museum has been created, with a view to increasing local tourism. It is highly unlikely that a tourist train service will be instituted though, with vast tracts of rail missing between Bombala and the preceding station at Bukalong siding.^[23]

The future

The section of track between Michelago and Chakola remains an obstacle for the reopening of the full line between Queanbeyan and the township of Cooma. Realignment of the Monaro Highway has in a few cases encroached on the rail line reservation^[24] and there is also the rail bridge over the Numeralla River which requires demolition and reconstruction to modern standards. Hope has been raised a number of times for the full reopening of the section of rail between Queanbeyan and Cooma. In recent times, mining operations have commenced near Cooma.

There have also been calls for the line to be used for local services from Canberra through Queanbeyan to Bungendore.^[25]

The future of the far section of line from Cooma to Bombala seems less certain. Originally designed for the area's farmers to move their cattle, sheep and produce, this section seems to have fallen victim to the modern age.^[26] Early last century, the builders of the Cooma to Bombala line hoped that some continuity would eventually follow, with future rail construction and services from Bombala continuing down south across the Victorian border. This is evidenced by the main line and perway at Bombala continuing some distance past the station. This joining up with the Victorian Railways network never eventuated, despite Victoria having a rail line 100 km away at Orbost until 1987.

Books

• Robertson, Ian G; Cooma Railway Centenary Committee (1989), Rails to Cooma : commemorating 100 years of trains 1889-1989, Cooma Railway Centenary Committee, ISBN 978-0-7316-6375-0
• Sargent, John, (editor.); Barrack, Richard, (editor.) (2002), Country branch lines New South Wales - Part 3, Studfield, Victoria Train Hobby Publications, ISBN 978-1-921122-37-8

Further Research

• New South Wales Government Railways Country Timetables 1885 - 1972
• Public Transport Commission Country Timetables 1972 - 1980
• State Rail Authority Country Timetables 1980 - 1989
• Countrylink Timetables 1989–present

External links

• "Railpage Locations Database - Cooma". RailPage.
• NSW Rail Net - Station Opening and Closure Dates
• Engineering Heritage Canberra - Historical References
• Monaro Engineering Heritage Canberra - Historical References
• Cooma Monaro Railway website
• Cooma Monaro Railway FB
• Friends of the Bombala Railway
• Friends of Platypus Country Railway Sidings

Further Photos

• http://www.njcull.net/photos/cooma-chakola/index.htm
• http://www.neety.net/trains/Bombala.html
• http://railgallery.wongm.com/nsw-stations/bombala/

Gallery

• 

  Bungendore railway station, used in the filming of The Year My Voice Broke and the Mick Jagger version of Ned Kelly

• 

  Tarago railway station

• 

  Queanbeyan railway station

• 

  Canberra railway station

• 

  Intermodal transfer station for landfill from Sydney south of Tarago

• 

  Nimmitabel railway station closed in 1986 looking south towards Bombala from the goods shed. Buildings are intact but not maintained and crumbling

• 

  Bombala station, the last train left here in 1986. The station has been restored and is used for community activities

• 

  Bombala station looking north towards Cooma from the station. The footbridge is a bit decrepit but still safe to walk on. (The footbridge was fully restored in 2012 ^[1]).

• 

  Cooma Monaro Railway's CPH6 at Chakola station

1. ^ http://www.bombalatimes.com.au/story/360654/100000-budget-for-our-footbridge/

"zoomable wide view of the Chakola Bridges". Panoramio. Retrieved 3 July 2014.

References

1. "Michelago rail bridge over Ingalara Creek". NSW Gov Env & Heritage. Retrieved 4 July 2014.
2. "Bredbo Rail Bridge Group". NSW Gov Env & Heritage. Retrieved 4 July 2014.
3. "Chakola, Umeralla Creek Underbridge". NSW Gov Env & Heritage. Retrieved 4 July 2014.
4. Stokes, HJW (1984). Railways of the Canberra and Monaro Districts. Canberra: Australian Railway Historical Society, ACT Division. pp. 4, 5.
5. "GOULBURN TO COOMA RAILWAY EXTENSION.". The Sydney Morning Herald (NSW : 1842 - 1954). NSW: National Library of Australia. 6 December 1887. p. 4. Retrieved 8 January 2016.
6. "Last Train to Bombala" Railway Digest June 1986 page 184
7. "Cooma" Railway Digest February 1989 page 55
8. "Last Cooma Freight" Railway Digest July 1989 page 237
9. "High Drama or Farce and Tragedy" Railway Digest August 1989 page 261
10. Southern timetable NSW TrainLink 30 June 2014
11. Louise Thrower (16 February 2012). "Waste on the double". Goulburn Post.
12. "Fuel by rail - A Victim of Progress". Trackside. 22 February 2010.
13. Tom McIlroy (6 March 2015). "A new railway plan for Canberra's scrap metal". The Canberra Times.
14. Railway Digest June 1993 pages 213,248,260
15. "Michelago Tourist Railway". Michelago Tourist Railway. Retrieved 2010-10-09.
16. "Freight Victoria's NSW Log Traffic" Railway Digest December 1999 page 15
17. MTR Gone? Railpage
18. History Cooma Monaro Railway
19. "Rail Returns to Snowy Mountains" Railway Digest January 1999 page 42
20. "Cooma News" Railway Digest July 1999 page 44
21. Operations Canberra Monaro Railway
22. "Railway stopped". Cooma Monaro Express. Fairfax Regional Media. 13 February 2014. Retrieved 2014-06-24.
23. "Bringing back some of railway's past". Bombala Times. Fairfax Regional Media. 24 April 2013. Retrieved 2014-06-24.
24. "Sleepers" Railway Digest February 1992 page 52
25. "Reopening of train line makes sense: Queanbeyan Mayor". News Online. Australian Broadcasting Corporation. 3 October 2006. Archived from the original on 9 Nov 2008. Retrieved 7 Nov 2007.
26. "The Old Bombala Road and rail line". ABC South East NSW. Australian Broadcasting Corporation. 6 June 2014. Retrieved 2014-06-24.