Silverton Tramway

This article is about the physical railway line. For the company that operated the line, see Southern & Silverton Rail.

Silverton Tramway
A defunct goods platform and shed on the line in 2008
Overview
Termini
Continues fromCrystal Brook-Cockburn line
Stations6
Service
Operator(s)Silverton Tramway Company
History
Opened12 January 1888
Closed9 January 1970
Technical
Line length58 km (36 mi)
Track gauge1,067 mm (3 ft 6 in)
Silverton Tramway
Legend
 Port Pirie-Cockburn line
0.0km
 Cockburn
SA/NSW state border
0.14km
 Burns
8.97km
 Thackaringa
20.20km
 12 Mile Siding
32.44km
 Silverton
44.27km
 Limestone Siding
49.09km
 Barrier Mine
53.03km
 Picton Salesyard
55.51km
 Brickyards Siding
56.51km
 Railway Town
57.47km
 Sulphide Street

The Silverton Tramway was a 58-kilometre-long 1,067 mm (3 ft 6 in) railway line running from Cockburn on the South Australian state border to Broken Hill in New South Wales. Operating between 1888 and 1970, it served the mines in Broken Hill, and formed the link between the 1,435 mm (4 ft 8+1⁄2 in) standard gauge New South Wales Government Railways and the narrow gauge South Australian Railways lines. It was owned and operated by the Silverton Tramway Company (STC).

The Silverton Tramway was one of only two privately-owned railways in New South Wales, originally founded to transport ore from local mines in the Broken Hill and Silverton region into South Australia. The company soon branched out, not only carrying ore from the mines but freighted other goods and offered a passenger service which eventually accounted for a third of their business.[1] From 1888 to 1970 it was critical to the economic functioning of Broken Hill, by providing the key transport of ore to the Port Pirie smelters. It played a significant role in the politics and recreation of Broken Hill, and a crucial role at times of water shortage in Broken Hill.[1][2][3]

  1. ^ a b "1915 Picnic Train Attack and White Rocks Reserve". New South Wales State Heritage Register. Department of Planning & Environment. H02002. Retrieved 3 May 2019. Text is licensed by State of New South Wales (Department of Planning and Environment) under CC BY 4.0 licence. Text was copied from this source, which is available under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
  2. ^ Lew Roberts (1995). Rails to wealth: a history of the Silverton Tramway Company Limited, Broken Hill's railway service. Melbourne: L.E. Roberts. ISBN 978-0-646-26587-2.
  3. ^ Lew Roberts (2015), 'Rails to Wealth', Australian Railway History, Vol. 66, January 2015.