Merriwa railway line
railway line in New South Wales, Australia
The Merriwa railway line in the Hunter Valley of northern New South Wales, Australia, branches from the Main North line at Muswellbrook and travels south west to Denman then generally north west through Sandy Hollow to Merriwa, a distance of approximately 80 kilometres (50 mi). The line opened to Denman on 26 April 1915, and to Merriwa on 29 October 1917. CPH railmotor operated passenger service ceased on 7 July 1973.
The first 38 kilometres was rebuilt to main line standards in the early 1980s as part of the construction of the Sandy Hollow - Gulgong railway line. The section north west of Sandy Hollow closed with the last grain train hauled by four 48 class locomotives running on 8 May 1987. The Merriwa line was severed at on 11 December 1996.
There are three mines, Bengalla and Mount Pleasant, just south west and west of Muswellbrook and Mangoola, half way to Denman with balloon loops of this line and a number of passing sidings have been built with the traffic to/from the three mines at Ulan.
Restoration of Sandy Hollow to Merriwa section
A small group tried to form a preservation society (which was to be called Merriwa Railway Museum) to restore the station and goods shed to their original condition, as well as the railway yard including the historic steam era turntable and steam locomotive water column. The aim was to restore the line and have a steam locomotive run on it again using historic New South Wales Government Railways rolling stock. It was intended for tourists and train enthusiasts alike.
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This entry incorporates text from “Merriwa railway line” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.