The National Railway Museum, Port Adelaide, South Australia is the largest railway museum in Australia. More than 100 major exhibits, mainly from the South Australian Railways (SAR) and Commonwealth Railways and their successor, Australian National, are displayed at its 3.5 hectares (8.6 acres) site. A very large archival collection of photographs of those railways and records created by them is also managed by the museum. The museum is operated with a large number of volunteers.
History
Locomotive Peronne hauls a special train on narrow-gauge – 1067 millimetres (3 feet 6 inches) – track at the museum; track on the left is for miniature train rides around the site.
Mile End, 1964–1988
In 1963, a group of rail preservationists asked the South Australian Railways Commissioner to allocate land near the site of the former Mile End locomotive depot to hold a small collection of withdrawn steam locomotives. The first locomotive arrived in 1964 and in 1970 the site opened as the Mile End Railway Museum. Only a few exhibits were under cover and the effects of weather took their toll; an alternative, under-cover venue was sought.[1]
Move to Port Adelaide
In 1987, the Mile End Railway Museum obtained a $2 million Bicentennial commemorative grant to redevelop the former Port Dock goods terminal, off Lipson Street, as the new property. In January 1988, the museum closed at Mile End and 11 months later opened as the Port Dock Station Railway Museum.[1]
In 1999, funding was received as part of Australia's Centenary of Federation to construct a Commonwealth Railway Museum within the museum's precinct.[2] The facility, opened in 2001, houses a representative sample of exhibits from the Commonwealth Railways and its successor, the Australian National Railways Commission.[note 1] Included are vehicles from The Ghan, Tea and Sugar and Trans-Australian trains. At the opening, the museum was renamed the National Railway Museum on the initiative of deputy prime minister and noted railway enthusiast, Tim Fischer, AC.[1][note 2]
In May 2009, the main pavilion was named after Ron Fitch, who as South Australian Railways Commissioner had facilitated the transfer of much of the museum's early rolling stock. At the same time, the Commonwealth Railways Museum was renamed the Ronald E. Fluck Pavilion, after the museum's founder.[1]
Construction of spur line
In 2017, $16.4 million was allocated in the state budget for a new station to be built near the original site of the Port Dock railway station, at the end of a new 1.0 km (1100 yard) spur line[4][5] using the existing corridor beside the museum that connects to the Outer Harbor railway line.[6][7] In June 2019, when some museum track had already been dismantled, the development was paused while a North West Planning Study was conducted; a forecast cost increase to $40 million was cited.[8][9] On-ground preparatory work was reversed in January 2020.[citation needed]
In June 2023 the project, by then budgeted at $51 million, resumed with partial severing of the direct rail connection to suburban lines, followed by removal of some of the museum's rail siding storage space. A general loss of land in the museum's leaseholding was incurred. The line extension was planned to include a dual-purpose island platform for both regular suburban services and, during special event days and holidays, broad-gauge heritage trains.[10]
Collection
The South Australian Railways owned 129 diminutive Y and Yx class locomotives on its narrow-gauge system from 1885. Beyond Y97 is the broad-gauge 500 ("Mountain") class locomotive number 504, one of 10 introduced in 1926 to haul trains unaided over the Mount Lofty Range. The 500 class was almost 3 times as powerful than the Rx class that it displaced, and 41⁄2 times more powerful than its museum neighbour.
The museum houses its large static collection in two pavilions and the historic Port Dock railway station goods shed. On the site, all three mainline gauges of Australia are represented: narrow, 1067 mm (3 ft 6 in); standard, 1435 mm (4 ft 8+1⁄2 in); and broad 1600 mm (5 ft 3 in). The collection comprises more than 100 major exhibits, mainly from the Commonwealth Railways and South Australian Railways. It also holds rolling stock from the Silverton Tramway and Victorian Railways.[11]
Operational locomotives and railcars on these gauges are:
narrow gauge: former Broken Hill Associated Smelters steam locomotive Peronne (1918 Andrew Barclay0-6-0T tank locomotive)
The museum also operates locomotives, including steam locomotives Bill (with a 2-4-0 wheel arrangement) and Bub (0-4-2T), for visitor rides on its 457-millimetre (18.0-inch) track around the site.
Locomotive and railcar exhibits as of 2022[update]
Steam engine Bub, which hauls visitor trains around the museum
The museum operates a number of historic locomotives for shunting of rolling stock and during special events. Within the museum grounds, 457 mm (18.0 in)-gauge steam and diesel locomotives provide rides on a track 1.2 km (0.75 mi) long. In 1992, the museum, in cooperation with the local council, built a 1.7 km (1.1 mi) line along the beach from Semaphore to Fort Glanville. From October to April, trains operate – subject to temperatures being less than 35 °C (95 °F) – on weekends, public holidays and school holidays. The line travels along the coastline, through the sand dunes and the Fort Glanville Conservation Park; the locomotive is turned at each end.
Since 1982 the museum has published its bi-monthly Catch Point Magazine, a full-colour, A5-format, 48-page magazine that features news and articles about railway operations mainly in South Australia.[12][13][14]
Buildings
The museum has a number of historic buildings, some original to the site and others transported for display,[15] including the following:
Port Dock station goods shed: this is the only remaining intact building of the Port Adelaide (later named Port Dock) station complex. Typical of South Australian Railways structures of the 19th century, architecturally it is an austere industrial building notable for its scale and the use of large timber beams throughout. Its size and scale reflect the economic prosperity of South Australia when it was built, in 1878 – a time when Port Adelaide's facilities were being extended to serve the growing import and export trade.[16] It has been entered in the SA Heritage Register.[16]
Woodville signal cabin: this two-storey wooden building from suburban Woodville, prominently backing on to Lipson Street, is connected to the narrow gauge yard.
Callington shelter shed: typical of a type of building provided by the South Australian Railways at small country stations, this shelter shed and minuscule booking office was originally built in 1951 for the then small rural community of Callington, 24 kilometres (15 miles) west of Murray Bridge on the main Adelaide-Melbourne line.
Eudunda gangers shed: typical of hundreds of such sheds on the South Australian Railways where track-maintenance gangers held their tools and track inspection trolleys, this example came from Eudunda, 110 kilometres (68 miles) north of Adelaide.
Gallery
A train on the museum's 1.7 km (1 mi) Semaphore and Fort Glanville Tourist Railway, headed by miniature steam locomotive, Bub
Turning a miniature locomotive on the seafront line at Semaphore
SAR-designed and built diesel-electric locomotive no. 900 ready for transfer to the museum
1914-built locomotive no. 4, which hauled BHP iron ore trains from Iron Knob to Whyalla
Narrow-gauge Beyer-Garratt 400 class locomotive no. 409 was one of ten introduced in 1954 to haul silver-lead-zinc ore trains to Port Pirie
Notes
^The Australian National Railways Commission subsequently traded as Australian National Railways, Australian National and AN.
^Mr Fischer proposed "national" in view of the multi-jurisdictional scope of the museum's collection and the incorporation of all three of the nation's major railway gauges.[3]
^Australian Railway Historical Society. South Australian Division; Mile End Railway Museum; Port Dock Station Railway Museum (1982), Catchpoint : S.A.'s modern railway magazine, Mile End Railway Museum (South Australia)
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