Avon Yard is a railway yard west of

Northam, Western Australia Northam () is a town in the Australian state of Western Australia, situated at the confluence of the Avon and Mortlock Rivers, about east-northeast of Perth in the Avon Valley. At the 2016 census, Northam had a population of 6,548. Northam i ...

. It lies on the southern side of the Avon River on the Eastern Railway between Toodyay and Northam.

History

As part of the project to gauge convert the East-West rail corridor from

narrow gauge A narrow-gauge railway (narrow-gauge railroad in the US) is a railway with a track gauge narrower than standard . Most narrow-gauge railways are between and . Since narrow-gauge railways are usually built with tighter curves, smaller struc ...

to standard gauge, a new yard was built on the Eastern Railway to the west of Northam by the

Western Australian Government Railways Western Australian Government Railways (WAGR) was the operator of railway services in the state of Western Australia between October 1890 and June 2003. Owned by the state government, it was renamed a number of times to reflect extra respons ...

. It was built as a

dual gauge In railway engineering, " gauge" is the transverse distance between the inner surfaces of the heads of two rails, which for the vast majority of railway lines is the number of rails in place. However, it is sometimes necessary for track to ...

yard to allow freight from the narrow gauge Albany, Mullewa and Wyalkatchem lines to be transferred for forwarding via the standard gauge line. Extending for 3.2 kilometres and built on 40 hectares, as built it had 22 roads, both narrow (1,067mm) and standard gauge (1,435mm). It opened on 15 February 1966, initially only for narrow gauge trains. It had a diesel locomotive servicing depot, four 45 metre lighting towers and an eight cell CBH grain

silo A silo (from the Greek σιρός – ''siros'', "pit for holding grain") is a structure for storing bulk materials. Silos are used in agriculture to store fermented feed known as silage, not to be confused with a grain bin, which is used ...

. In October 1968, a

gantry crane A gantry crane is a crane built atop a gantry, which is a structure used to straddle an object or workspace. They can range from enormous "full" gantry cranes, capable of lifting some of the heaviest loads in the world, to small shop cranes, use ...

assembled by Vickers Hosking in Bassendean was commissioned to transfer

intermodal container An intermodal container, often called a shipping container, is a large standardized shipping container, designed and built for intermodal freight transport, meaning these containers can be used across different modes of transport – from sh ...

s. It was last used in July 1981. In 1978 a

turntable A phonograph, in its later forms also called a gramophone (as a trademark since 1887, as a generic name in the UK since 1910) or since the 1940s called a record player, or more recently a turntable, is a device for the mechanical and analogu ...

assembled at

Midland Railway Workshops The Midland Railway Workshops in Midland, Western Australia, were the main workshops for the Western Australian Government Railways (WAGR) for over 80 years. History The first railway workshops in Western Australia were located at Fremantle and ...

was installed. The yard has been modified at various stages, as the different operators dealt with the services required. It has also been considered as redundant grain receival or storage location with some arguments for bypassing the facility and railing direct to

Fremantle Fremantle () () is a port city in Western Australia, located at the mouth of the Swan River in the metropolitan area of Perth, the state capital. Fremantle Harbour serves as the port of Perth. The Western Australian vernacular diminutive for ...

. It ceased being used as an operational yard by

Aurizon Aurizon ( ) is a freight rail transport company in Australia, formerly named QR National. it was the world’s largest rail transporter of coal from mine to port. Formerly a Queensland Government-owned company, it was privatised and floated ...

in May 2013, however was still used to store withdrawn rolling stock.

Watco Australia Watco Australia is a rail haulage operator that was formed in 2010 to haul grain for the CBH Group in Western Australia. In 2019, it commenced operating in Queensland under a contract with GrainCorp. It is a subsidiary of Watco. History In 200 ...

used the depot to maintain its CBH class locomotives and rolling stock. As part of its new contract with CBH Group that commenced in September 2021, Aurizon reopened the yard.The CBH Rail Haulage Contract ''

Railway Digest ''Railway Digest'' is a monthly magazine, published in Sydney, covering contemporary railways of Australia. Overview The magazine's publisher is the Australian Railway Historical Society (ARHS), NSW Division. The first issue was published i ...

'' March 2022 page 44

References

External links

WA Stations gallery of the Yard predominately of photos up to 2004
{{coord, 31, 38, 34, S, 116, 37, 59, E, type:landmark, display=title Northam, Western Australia Rail yards in Australia Transport infrastructure completed in 1966 1966 establishments in Australia