Mystery Rail Line?

i_an · Beginner Joined: Jun 09, 2008 Last Visited: Oct 15, 2008

There's a Wikipedia article (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_closed_Adelaide_railway_stations) that mentions a St Leonards to Grange Railway. I've never seen any mention of such a line anywhere else - does anyone know anything about it? Maybe there was a plan to linkup the City to St Leonards line up to the City to Grange/Henley Beach line?

Mod note: fixed url tags

MarkWaller2 · Posted: Wed Oct 15, 2008 10:43 pm

fabricator · Posted: Wed Oct 15, 2008 11:26 pm

I found some other reference, which claimed the following.
it included the Henley Beach line as we know it, but the tracks were pulled up only to be re-laid later. Also some track still remains under the road and sand hills.

Guard Class 2 · Posted: Thu Oct 16, 2008 9:58 am

The book "Little Coastal Railways of the Adelaide Plains" has a reasonable section on this line.
It was never connected to the Henley Beach line, as it didn't cross the Torrens River. I believe (from memory, as I don't have the book in front of me) that it terminated somewhere around the intersection of Military Road and West Beach Road.
And yes, fabricator, much of thet track was left in place and covered by sand drifts, etc. and as late as about the 1980's there were still bits of track being uncovered during various road repairs/realignments, etc.
The purpose of the line was for military use, with (I think) the original intention of joining the various "Forts" along the coast. i.e. a possible connection all the way through to Forts Glanville and Largs.

Cheers,
Wayne

Stretch
(Narrow Gauge Rules)

blue520 · Posted: Thu Oct 16, 2008 11:37 pm

I also can not find my copy of "Little Coastal Railways of the Adelaide Plains" at the moment. But from memory of what was covered in the book the line did reach Grange, the line north of near West Beach Road was removed, and south was left in place and lost with time under sand.

Guard Class 2 - The Torrens River outlet was constructed in the 1930's. So there was no need to cross it.

4BJ · Posted: Fri Oct 17, 2008 1:39 am

The railway was built after the Russian warships left in 1882. Their visit was treated as a holiday, but after they left, the you-know-what hit the fan and a decision was made to build a military road behind the sand dunes linking the existing coastal forts at Largs and Glanville with the new fort built at Glenelg (Where the sewage works is now).

The contractor awarded the task of building the road from the Glenelg fort to Grange chose to build a railway to facilitate the task. The railway started from St Leonards Depot, up Oswald Avenue (now Tapley's Hill Road), Anderson Avenue and then along the alignment the military road would take to Grange where it presumably connected with the railway between Woodville and Grange built by the Grange Railway and Investment Company.

Upon completion of the military road between Glenelg and Grange, the railway north of the Burbrige Road/Military Road intersection was removed. The rest was left in place, forgotten about and covered by sand drifts. In 1956, workers laying pipes for the Glenelg sewage works uncovered part of the railway. It is possible that parts of the railway still remain under Military Road.

I'm not crazy, M'Lynn, I've just been in a very bad mood for 40 years!

Avatar by Alco_Haulic. Thanks, Dave.

rhino · Posted: Thu Oct 23, 2008 1:42 pm

4BJ · Posted: Fri Oct 24, 2008 1:20 am

rhino · Posted: Fri Oct 24, 2008 6:49 am

When I was a kid I lived on Military Road in Henley Beach South. I knew the road was built to link up the forts, but I never knew about that railway, so thanks for that Well Done

Cheers, Rhino

jaspercool · Beginner Joined: Jul 06, 2005 Last Visited: Oct 31, 2008

This old photo from the state library archives taken at Brighton Beach.

Is this connected with what we are discussing?

Does anyone know where there could be remaining tracks buried?

simont141 · Posted: Fri Oct 31, 2008 5:28 pm

Completely off topic, but I just noticed that it says jaspercool's last visit was in 2006, yet he just posted just today? A bit strange?

Simon

www.prr.org.au

nm39 · Posted: Sat Nov 01, 2008 7:48 am

David Peters · Posted: Sat Nov 01, 2008 7:59 pm

It was really a railway but run by a private company, so it was termed a tramway like Silverton.

The caption for the photo reads " The Glenelg and Soth Coast Tramway Company laid the line on the beach , just above the normal high water mark for much of the ditance between Glenelg and Marino. Viewed southerly from between Brighton and Seacliff".

This same photo with the above caption is on page 14 of the book " Little Coastal Railways of the Adelaide Plains 1873-1929, by David Mack! Cool

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trainweld · Posted: Sat Nov 01, 2008 10:53 pm

Is there any possibility that some rail could still be along the shore?

trainweld
oh and completely off topic, hows the birthday celebrations going? did you have a chat to richard?

David Peters · Posted: Sat Nov 01, 2008 11:28 pm

Buried under the sand anything is possible, I think they have over the years found bits and pieces of this tramway line! Cool

National Railway Museum member.
The opinions expressed by my me in these posts is not the opinion of the N.R.M. and should not be construed as such.
Ferroequinologist and Microferroequinologist.
Photosite http://davidpeters950.fotopic.net