Henley Beach railway line

Henley Beach railway line
Overview
Status	closed and removed
Locale	Adelaide, South Australia
Termini	Adelaide Henley Beach
History
Opened	1894
Closed	1957
Technical
Line length	15.3 km (9.5 mi)
Number of tracks	Double track to Woodville Single track to Grange Closed from Grange (formerly single track to Henley Beach)
Route map towards Adelaide 13.0 Grange (current) 13.2 Grange (old) 13.7 Kirkcaldy 14.5 Marlborough Street 15.3 Henley Beach This diagram: view talk edit

The Henley Beach railway line is a defunct railway in western Adelaide, which operated from 1894 to 1957 as the final section of the Grange railway line.

History

The line opened on 5 February 1894 as an extension of the Grange line and originally serviced five stations.[1] The line was originally taken over and extended partly to allow for military manoeuvres[2] as part of "the Russian Scare" and as a reaction to the Jervois-Scratchley reports, which also saw the building of Fort Glanville and Fort Largs to protect South Australian shipping around the same time.

The line appears to have had five stations at some early time: Grange, Kirkaldy, Marlborough Street, "Henley Beach Jetty Road", and Henley Beach.[1] Sometime prior to 1940 (perhaps as early as 31 October 1913[3]), the terminus station Henley Beach station was closed, with the "Jetty Road" station becoming the terminus and being renamed Henley Beach, resulting in 4 stations on the line.[4]

The line closed on 31 August 1957 due to the track being close to public roads with no fencing between. The line was cut back to the now defunct original Grange station, which was cut even further back to the current Grange station in the 1986 by removal of tracks across Military Road and infrastructure from the original platform. The unused platform still remains on the side of the road.

Line guide

Station	Image	Opened	Additional information
Henley Beach		1894	Terminus of Grange line from 1894; closed 31 August 1957
Marlborough Street		1894	Closed 31 August 1957
Kirkcaldy		1894	Closed 31 August 1957
Grange		1882-09	Terminus of Grange line from 1882 to 1894 and since 1 September 1957; moved 1986

References

1. "Grange to Henley Beach Railway". 18 February 2011. Archived from the original on 18 February 2011. Retrieved 21 September 2017.
2. "HENLEY BEACH RAILWAY". Advertiser (Adelaide, SA : 1889 - 1931). 30 March 1910. p. 11. Retrieved 21 September 2017.
3. "THE RAILWAYS". Advertiser (Adelaide, SA : 1889 - 1931). 31 October 1913. p. 18. Retrieved 29 September 2017.
4. "Fuller's streetmap (1940)". Archived from the original on 1 April 2016. Retrieved 30 September 2017.

• Thompson, M (1988), Rails Through Swamp and Sand, National Railway Museum, Port Adelaide, ISBN 0-9595073-6-1