Eyre Peninsula Railway

The Eyre Peninsula Railway is a gauge railway on the Eyre Peninsula of South Australia. Radiating out from the ports at Port Lincoln and Thevenard, it is isolated from the rest of the South Australian railway network. Peaking at 777 kilometres in 1950, today only one 60 kilometre section remains open. It is operated by Genesee & Wyoming Australia.

History
The Eyre Peninsula Railway was built and operated by the South Australian Railways (SAR). As with many other early narrow-gauge railways in South Australia, the Eyre Peninsula lines started out as isolated lines connecting small ports to the inland, opening up the country for settlement and economic life including export of grain and other produce in an environment with few roads and only horse-drawn road vehicles. The railway has always been isolated from the main network. A proposal to link it with the rest of the network at Port Augusta was rejected in the 1920s and again in the 1950s.

The first 67 kilometres from Port Lincoln to Cummins opened on 18 November 1907, followed by extensions to Yeelanna on 1 April 1909, Minnipa on 5 May 1913, Nunjikompita on 14 August 1914 and Thevenard on 8 February 1915, a total of 434 kilometres. A second line opened from Cummins to Moody on 1 August 1912, being extended to Ungarra on 31 March 1913, Kimba on 11 July 1913 and Buckleboo on 5 August 1926, a distance of 213 kilometres.

Branch lines off the original line opened from Yeelanna to Mount Hope on 9 October 1914, a distance of 38 kilometres and from Wandana to Penong on 7 February 1924, a distance of 83 kilometres. A further nine kilometre branch from Kevin to Kowulka opened on 11 April 1950. This was the peak of the network's size at 777 kilometres.

The Mount Hope line was truncated by 15 kilometres on 12 July 1965, with Kapinnie becoming its terminus. The remaining section closed in October 2002.

With gypsum having to hauled by a circuitous route from Kevin to Thevanard via Kowulka and Wandana over 103 kilometres with a ruling grade of 1 in 80, in August 1964 construction began on a 58 kilometres line from Kevin to Penong Junction with a ruling 1 in 120 grade. It opened on 13 February 1966 with the Wandana to Kowulka line closed. In 1984 the Thevernard unloading facility was upgraded with a balloon loop built.

The Eyre Peninsula Railway was included in the March 1978 takeover of the SAR by Australian National and the November 1997 sale of Australian National's South Australian freight business to Genesee & Wyoming Australia which included a 50-year lease on the rail network from the state government until 2047.

The last grain train from Kevin to Penong operated on 3 March 1997 with the line reverting to state government ownership on 30 June 2001.

Grain trains ceased operating on 31 May 2019, with Viterra moving its business to road haulage and the majority of the network going into dormancy. Since April 2005, grain trains had only operated from Port Lincoln to Wudinna and Kimba.

The Wudinna to Penong Junction section remained open to facilitate rolling stock movements to and from the Port Lincoln workshops. Gypsum trains continue to operate from the Lake MacDonnell mine at Kevin to Thevenard for Gypsum Resources Australia, a joint venture between Boral and CSR.

Freight
Today the Eyre Peninsula Railway only carries gypsum with three returns trains daily. In 2017, 1.55 million tonnes of gypsum was transported. Previously grain, livestock, oil, salt, superphosphate and water was carried.

Passenger
Initially passengers were conveyed on mixed trains. A weekly passenger service from Port Lincoln to Thevenard was introduced in 1923 that included a sleeping car. It operated as a boat train being positioned at the foot of the jetty at Port Lincoln to connect with ships from Adelaide. In 1931 Fageol railbuses converted from motor buses were introduced, these were supplemented by Brill 75s in 1936. The last service was withdrawn on 30 August 1968.

Rolling stock
The Eyre Peninsula Railway was operated by T, V, W and Y class steam locomotives. All had previously been used on other parts of the SAR network. These were replaced by 830 class diesel locomotives in the 1960s. Nine were delivered new to the Eyre Peninsula Railway, while others were transferred from the Port Pirie to Broken Hill line after it was converted to standard gauge replacing the last steam locomotives in April 1970.

Some 830s were transferred to AN Tasrail in the early 1980s and replaced by ex Commonwealth Railways NT and NJ class locomotives made redundant by the closure of the Central Australia Railway. As at January 2019, the locomotive fleet comprised seven 830s (including three rebuilt as 900s), three NJs and two ex Australian Railroad Group As locomotives.

830 class locomotives 850, 851 and 873 are of particular note, having worked the EP narrow gauge division their entire working lives. However, with the cessation of grain services in may 2019, 850 is expected to be retired having not been transferred to Thevenard in the 4 locomotive transfer in late June 2019. Consequently, as at July 2019, Thevenard currently services 9 locomotives (six 830 class variants and 3 NJ/1600 class locomotives).

Rolling stock was maintained under contract by Clyde Engineering and Downer Rail from 1997 until brought back in house in 2014. The infrastructure is maintained by Broadspectrum.

Depots
When the line opened, a depot was established at Cummins with locomotives sent to Islington Railway Workshops in Adelaide for major work. From 1931 the railway was able to handle all level of repairs with the establishment of a workshop at Port Lincoln with a roundhouse opened in 1934. The workshop was rebuilt in 1966 to service diesel locomotives.

As well as maintaining the Eyre Peninsula fleet, in later years Downer Rail used the Port Lincoln depot for external work including rebuilding five Queensland Rail 2100s for further use with Australian Railroad Group, and 830s, CKs and DAs for the Whyalla Steelworks network. In 2019 the depot was nominated for inclusion on the South Australian Heritage Register.

A locomotive shed was also established at Thevanard. This was replaced by a small locomotive servicing facility in 1992. With the closure of the grain network, the Thevanard facility will be upgraded with the Port Lincoln depot closed.