This presentation, Main South Line Pt 1, covers passenger and freight train operations on both the ‘down’ and ‘up’ as we move from the southern extremity of the Greater Sydney Metropolitan Area at Campbelltown down to the city of Goulburn.
Whilst not considered part of the metropolitan area of Sydney at that time, the railway had reached Campbelltown by 1858. It rapidly progressed south, reaching Picton, Mittagong, Moss Vale and then Goulburn in 1863, 1867 and 1869 respectively. An easier path between Picton Junction and Mittagong Junction via Bargo was opened in 1919, leading to the former path between Picton Junction and Mittagong Junction being renamed the Picton to Mittagong Loop Line. The mid section of the latter, namely Buxton to Braemar was closed in the late 1980s whilst the Picton end is operated by the NSW Rail Transport Museum and the Mittagong end provides rail access to Braemar Engineering.
Over the subsequent years, several major branches/accesses have opened, including the Glenlee Colliery branch in 1958, the Tahmoor Colliery balloon loop in 1981, Box Vale Colliery branch in 1888 (closing in 1896), the Berrima Colliery branch in 1927 (which closed beyond Berrima Cement Works in 1970), Moss Vale to Unanderra Line in 1932, the South Marulan branch in 1928 and the Crookwell/Taralga branch in 1902/1926 respectively (abandoned in 1985/1957 respectively).
Locomotives seen in action include EL, G, NR, T, X, 18, 422, 48, 80, 81 and 82 Class in the liveries of Austrac, CFCLA, Freight Australia, Freight Corp/Rail, National Rail, PacNat and VLine, while passenger equipment includes Endeavour, Tangara, Millenium/Explorer, XPT and 900 Class rail cars and locomotive hauled carriages from CityRail/CountryLink and SRA.
Approximate run time: 86 minutes.