Woodville railway station, Adelaide
Woodville railway station is the junction station for the Grange and Outer Harbor lines with the lines diverging north of the station. Situated in the western Adelaide suburb of Woodville, it is 7.5 kilometres from Adelaide station. It has auto pedestrian lights. Platform 3 had a small kiosk, built around 2006, that sells refreshments and tickets, but has not been opened since 2009. Woodville station was one of the original stations on the Adelaide to Port Adelaide railway, which opened in April 1856; the only other intermediate stations on the new line were at Alberton. In the early days, Adelaide to Port Adelaide was a single-track railway and a passing loop was provided at Woodville; as traffic on the line increased, the single track was duplicated throughout in 1881. The 1920s and 1930s saw significant development of heavy industry in Woodville and the neighbouring areas. For example, Holdens Motor Body Builders built a factory in the fork between the Grange and Outer Harbor lines. Sidings were laid to service the factory and Holdens station opened in 1928 a short way along the Grange line.
Cars were dispatched by rail from Holdens' sidings. The Woodville signal cabin became obsolete after a resignalling project in the late 1980s and has been relocated to the National Railway Museum, Port Adelaide. In late 2016, the station was ranked as one of the best stations in the western suburbs based on 5 criteria; the railway line between Woodville and Grange opened in September 1882. It was a private railway, constructed by the Grange Investment Company; the early railway was not a financial success and was bought out by the South Australian Railways in 1893. In World War II several munitions and armaments factories were opened, which resulted in construction of two new industrial branch lines in the Woodville area; the Finsbury line departed from the main line at Woodville. It headed in a northerly direction and serviced a wartime munitions works at Cheltenham Park and a Government Supply Depot at Finsbury; the line continued through Pennington to join the Dry Creek-Port Adelaide railway at Gillman Junction.
The layout at Woodville station was altered in 1942 when a new platform face was constructed on the north-east side of today's Platform 3 to serve Finsbury trains. The original 1856 station building on the Port Adelaide-bound platform was demolished and a new signal cabin was provided adjacent to the Woodville Road level crossing; this industrial line had limited passenger services, designed to cater for workers at factories in the vicinity. After the end of World War II there were no off-peak trains, or weekend services after Saturday lunchtime; the Finsbury line closed on 17 August 1979 and dismantled and redeveloped. The Islamic Arabic Centre & Al-Khalil Mosque on Torrens Road, Woodville North stands where the extensive Woodville North station platform used to stand until the 1980s. For many years the Grange line was operated by a shuttle service train at weekends and in the evenings; this terminated at Platform 1 and made connections with Outer Harbor line trains to and from Adelaide. However, since about 1996, all Grange trains have operated through to Adelaide.
Rails Through Swamp and Sand – A History of the Port Adelaide Railway. M. Thompson pub. Port Dock Station Railway Museum ISBN 0-9595073-6-1 Media related to Woodville railway station, Adelaide at Wikimedia Commons
Outer Harbor railway line
The Outer Harbor railway line is a suburban branch line in Adelaide, South Australia. It runs from Adelaide station through the north western suburbs to Outer Harbor, it is 21.9 kilometres in length, shares part of its run with the Grange line. It is operated by Adelaide Metro. Since 2016, the line has been used as a shuttle for cruise liner passengers heading for Adelaide, with additional services provided. Opening in 1856, the railway between Adelaide and Port Dock railway station was the second railway in the colony of South Australia, the first government-owned railway in the British Empire. Port Adelaide junction was created when the railway was extended to cross the Port River to Le Fevre Peninsula; as industry developed on the west side of the Port River, deeper harbour was required. This was at Semaphore, with the railway extended in 1882 as the now-closed Semaphore railway line to service the overseas shipping jetty there; the Outer Harbor was developed and the railway extended from Glanville railway station to service it.
The line between Port Adelaide Junction and Glanville was dual gauge until early December 2009 when the standard gauge rails were removed. Outer Harbor had a balloon loop railway so that trains could be turned around without shunting or requiring a turntable or triangle; the loop was cut when rail freight moved off the broad gauge Outer Harbor railway to the nearby standard gauge line on the eastern side of the peninsula. Various plans to modify the line have been proposed. In 2008, the State Government announced a plan to rebuild the Outer Harbour line in preparation for the line to be electrified with the Federal Government to provide funding. In the 2011 budget, it was announced that electrification of the Outer Harbor line had been deferred until 2016. In June 2012, the project was cancelled. In May 2016, the State Government announced 1.4 kilometres of the line would be lowered in a grade separation project to pass below the Adelaide to Port Augusta and Gawler lines. A new Bowden station will be built as part of the project.
In December 2016 the contract was awarded to a consortium of Laing O'Rourke, AECOM and KBR. As of 2016, the State Government was again considering electrifying the line or converting it to light rail. A 2016 report into potential light rail projects in Adelaide considered two options for the future of the line; the first option would electrify the heavy rail line and provide a short spur-line to central Port Adelaide. The second option would add a new on-street branch to Semaphore. A light rail conversion would require the conversion or closure of the Grange line - several options for the future of that line were presented. In June 2017, the state government unveiled plans for a spur line into Port Adelaide. In January 2017, the line was closed for three weeks alongside the Grange line for the building of an overpass over South Road. There are a total of five railway tracks on three bridges in parallel across the River Torrens. North of this bridge, the two tracks of the Gawler railway line continues north, as does the standard gauge railway track, while the two tracks of the Outer Harbor line swing away northwest.
Until late 2017, the Outer Harbor tracks were the pair between the Gawler tracks on the east and the standard gauge track, built in 1982 on the west. This meant that Outer Harbor and Grange trains had to cross the track that carries rail freight between Melbourne and the main freight terminals in Adelaide and Darwin. In 2017, the Torrens Junction project worked to remove this operational conflict; the outcome was to make the Gawler trains use the central pair of tracks, while the Outer Harbor line now uses the eastern pair across the bridge descends into a trench and passes underneath the Gawler and standard gauge lines and Park Terrace, a busy level crossing. The Bowden railway station was demolished and rebuilt at a new lower level; the Outer Harbor line was closed along with a portion of the Gawler line in April, June and August 2017 to work on the Torrens Rail Junction Project. The entire line was closed on 24 September 2017, reopened on 15 January 2018, having been delayed from a December 3 opening.
The line is double track from Adelaide to Midlunga single for the final three kilometres to Outer Harbour. The northern section of the line runs along the middle of the narrow Lefevre Peninsula with stations at regular intervals; the line's services are operated by 3000 class railcars. Parking / Park ‘n’ Ride / Hi Frequency The Outer Harbor line shares part of its route with the Grange line. All passenger train services are operated by 3000/3100 class railcars. Trains run 9 pm on weekdays and weekends; until April 21, 2018, trains ran on an hourly schedule after 9pm. There are no frequent express services on the line, with the only exception being the Osborne service which runs express from Adelaide to Woodville all stations to Osborne during peak periods only. Rails Through Swamp and Sand – A History of the Port Adelaide Railway. M. Thompson pub. Port Dock Station Railway Museum ISBN 0-9595073-6-1 Outer Harbor to City - Adelaide Metro website
Westfield Marion
Westfield Marion is the largest shopping complex in Adelaide, South Australia, located in Oaklands Park, serving greater Southern Adelaide. It contains 342 stores, with anchor tenants including David Jones, Harris Scarfe, Kmart, Big W, Coles, Event Cinemas and Rebel Sport. A food court containing KFC and Subway; the Event Cinema complex on the third level of Westfield Marion is the Southern Hemisphere's largest cinema complex, featuring 26 screens. The centre houses all of Westfield's management in Adelaide, located in an 8-storey office block to the east of the centre, as well as services including, it houses the head office for Fellas Gifts. The office tower is located at the original mall. 5 Star Spas, Dan Murphy's, Super Cheap Auto and Bunnings Warehouse are located to the west of the centre. The South Australia Aquatic and Leisure Centre is a part of Westfield Marion. Across the road from it is Bob Jane T-Marts, Battery World and the Westpac Bank Westfield Marion was built in 1968 on a large expanse of land bordered by Sturt and Morphett Roads, has seen extensions in 1982, 1989, 1997 and 2016.
The 1997 extension saw the centre expand to a floorspace of 119,000 m2. Westfield Marion achieved major Australian firsts upon redevelopment in 1997 as the first shopping centre to have all three department stores, as well as all three discount department stores. There is a 9.1 metre high replica of the Statue of Liberty above the upper-floor external concourse promoting the "New York Bar and Grill", but remains despite a change of lease. Westfield Marion
Largs Bay, South Australia
Largs Bay is a suburb in the Australian state of South Australia located on the Lefevre Peninsula in the west of Adelaide about 16 kilometres northwest of the Adelaide city centre. Largs bay is bounded to the north by Walcot and Warwick Street, to the south by Wills and Union Streets and in the west and east by Gulf St Vincent and the centre of the Port River respectively, it is adjacent to the suburbs of Largs North, Port Adelaide and Semaphore. It is a residential suburb, with a minor harbourside presence on the eastern side of the suburb, it is located within the local government area of the City of Port Adelaide Enfield. Largs Bay started as a private sub-division in Section 1069 in the cadastral unit of the Hundred of Port Adelaide; the name was “formally submitted by the City of Port Adelaide at a council meeting held on 10 May 1945” and was formally adopted in 1951 by the Nomenclature Committee. In August 2009, its eastern boundary was extended to the centre of the Port River; the suburb is served by a primary school, Largs Bay Primary School, the local high school is Ocean View College Gedville Campus, in nearby Taperoo.
There is a museum on Fletcher Road. Largs Reserve overlooking Woolnough Road is the main outdoor recreational reserve in the suburb, being the site of a lawn bowling club; the Largs Pier Hotel on the Esplanade was used as a historical landmark in earlier times by sailors. A sailing club and a jetty are present on Largs Bay Beach; the eastern side of the suburb, by the Port riverside is the location of three shipping berths, which are used by Caltex, BP and Mobil vessels. Largs Bay has a number of heritage-listed sites, including: Esplanade: Largs Bay Jetty 138-139 Esplanade: Largs Bay College 198 Esplanade: Largs Pier Hotel 11-15 Jetty Road: Largs Bay Land and Investment Company's Shops 212 Lady Gowrie Drive: Montrose The 157 and 333 buses service Military Road, while the 150 services Fletcher Road; the suburb is serviced by Largs and Largs North railway stations on the Outer Harbor railway line. Largs Bay is part of the state electoral district of Lee. Since 2014 Lee's member of South Australia's House of Assembly has been Stephen Mullighan.
Stephen is a member of the Australian Labor Party. His electoral office is at Shop 4, 173-177 Seaton. Largs Bay is part of the federal division of Port Adelaide. Since 1997 Port Adelaide's member of the Commonwealth of Australia's House of Representatives has been Mark Butler. Mark is a member of the Australian Labor Party, his electoral office is at 15 Semaphore Road, Semaphore
St Clair railway station
St Clair railway station is located on the Outer Harbor line. Situated in the north-western Adelaide suburb of Cheltenham, it is 8.6 kilometres from Adelaide station. A Coles supermarket is built right next to the city-bound platform. Construction of St Clair station began in June 2013, with the station opening on 23 February 2014, it is the official replacement for the Cheltenham Racecourse railway station, which closed in 2009 and was demolished. In late 2016, the station was ranked as one of the best stations in the western suburbs based on 5 criteria; the reasons cited included: "Very clean no graffiti and no smell. Area well landscaped." St Clair is one of only four stations on the Outer Harbor line to feature the new Adelaide Metro station design, commonplace on the Gawler and Seaford railway lines. The other stations are Bowden and Port Adelaide. Media related to St Clair railway station, Adelaide at Wikimedia Commons
Single-track railway
A single-track railway is a railway where trains traveling in both directions share the same track. Single track is found on lesser-used rail lines branch lines, where the level of traffic is not high enough to justify the cost of constructing a second track. Single track is cheaper to build, but has operational and safety disadvantages. For example, a single-track line that takes 15 minutes to travel through would have capacity for only two trains per hour in each direction. By contrast, a double track with signal boxes four minutes apart can allow up to 15 trains per hour in each direction, provided all the trains travel at the same speed; this hindrance on the capacity of a single track may be overcome by making the track one-way on alternate days, if the single track is not used for public passenger transit. Long freight trains are a problem. Other disadvantages include the propagation of delays, since one delayed train on a single track will delay any train waiting for it to pass. A single track does not have a "reserve" track that can allow a reduced capacity service to continue if one track is closed.
If a single-track line is designed to be used by more than one train at a time, it must have passing loops at intervals along the line to allow trains running in different directions to pass each other. These consist of short stretches of double track long enough to hold one train; the capacity of a single-track line is determined by the number of passing loops. Passing loops may be used to allow trains heading in the same direction at different speeds to overtake. In some circumstances on some isolated branch lines with a simple shuttle service a single-track line may work under the "one train working" principle without passing loops, where only one train is allowed on the line at a time. On single-track lines with passing loops, measures must be taken to ensure that only one train in one direction can use a stretch of single track at a time, as head-on collisions are a particular risk; some form of signalling system is required. In traditional British practice, single-track lines were operated using a token system where the train driver had to be in possession of a token in order to enter a stretch of single track.
Because there was only one unique token issued at any one time for each stretch of single track, it was impossible for more than one train to be on it at a time. This method is still used on some minor lines but in the longest single-track lines in Britain this has been superseded by radio communication. In the early days of railways in North America it was common to rely upon simple timetable operation where operators knew where a train was scheduled to be at a particular time, so would not enter a single-track stretch when they were not scheduled to; this worked but was inflexible and inefficient. It was improved with the invention of the ability to issue train orders. Converting a single-track railway to double track is called duplication or doubling. A double-track railway operating only a single track is known as single-line working. Building bike trails on rail corridors has occurred in limited examples, however developing rail right of ways for a bike trail can restrict a train corridor to a single track.
Reclaiming a railway corridor to use trains again, that have become bike paths, limits the use of double tracks. The bike path is where the second track would be. An example of a bike, single-track corridor is the E&N Railway in Canada. Rails to trails
Croydon railway station, Adelaide
Croydon railway station is located on the Grange and Outer Harbor lines. Situated in the western Adelaide suburb of Croydon, it is 4.2 kilometres from Adelaide station. Croydon station opened in 1888, with the station buildings and platforms transferred from the former Torrens Bridge station; the station has been unattended since 1981. The provides easy access to the popular Queen Street/Elizabeth Street cafe and retro shop strip, as well as a children's park. Wheelchair access ramps and sheltered seating areas are located on both platforms. Lights displaying the warning'Caution More Than One Train' have been installed at pedestrian crossings near the station as part of an Adelaide-wide crossing safety upgrade program; these lights are illuminated when more than one train is due to warn pedestrians waiting to cross the line that another train will be following after the first has passed. Whilst it had been proposed that as part of an upgrade to South Road, the station would be elevated and relocated to the east as part of a grade separation project, the final design adopted a shorter rail overpass option allowing the station to remain in its current location.
In October 2017 it was announced that the station would be demolished in its entirety and rebuilt to ensure platforms and access ramps meet DDA requirements and to remove a speed restriction on passing trains due to the narrow width of the rail corridor in between the platforms. The rebuilt station features new platforms that are the same height as the train floor, as well as new shelters and lighting; the pedestrian crossing points at the adjacent level crossing was upgraded to'active crossings' meaning that gates will open and close automatically to prevent pedestrians from entering the rail corridor whilst trains are passing. Construction was expected to be completed by the reopening of the train line in January 2018, works continued until May with the platforms remaining open for train passengers during most of this time. Media related to Croydon railway station, Adelaide at Wikimedia Commons
Media related to Kilkenny railway station, Adelaide at Wikimedia Commons
