The
Broken Hill railway line is now part of the transcontinental railway from
Sydney to
Perth.
New South Wales's first line opened from Sydney to Parramatta Junction (near
Granville Station) in 1855 and was extended as the
Main Western line in stages to
Orange in 1877. The Broken Hill line branched off the Main Western line at Orange and was opened to
Molong in 1885. It was extended to
Parkes and
Forbes in 1893. This line was extended from Parkes to
Bogan Gate and
Condobolin in 1898 and
Roto and
Trida in 1919.
An isolated section of standard gauge line was also opened from
Menindee to
Broken Hill in 1919, which met the 1067 mm gauge
Silverton Tramway at a
break-of-gauge. At
Cockburn, South Australia, the Silverton Tramway connected with the
South Australian Railways system to
Port Pirie and via a break of gauge at
Terowie to
Adelaide. The final missing link between Trida and Menindee was completed in 1927. The Broken Hill Express, running from Sydney to Broken Hill, was introduced from November, 1927. Included in its composition was Dining Car, AB90, making it the first regularly scheduled Dining Car in that state
On-train Catering in New South Wales Banger, Chris
Australian Railway History, March, 2004 pp102-103. In 1969 the Broken Hill - Port Pirie line was standardised, completing the
Sydney–Perth standard gauge link.
Branch line
A branch line was opened from Molong to Dubbo as an...
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