Leighton Marshalling Yard was a railway yard in North Fremantle,

Western Australia Western Australia (WA) is the westernmost state of Australia. It is bounded by the Indian Ocean to the north and west, the Southern Ocean to the south, the Northern Territory to the north-east, and South Australia to the south-east. Western Aust ...

adjacent to the Eastern Railway.

History

As part of plans to expand

Fremantle Harbour Fremantle Harbour is Western Australia's largest and busiest general cargo port and an important historical site. The inner harbour handles a large volume of sea containers, vehicle imports and livestock exports, cruise shipping and naval visits ...

, in 1954 the

Government of Western Australia The Government of Western Australia is the States and territories of Australia, Australian state democratic administrative authority of Western Australia. It is also commonly referred to as the WA Government or the Western Australian Governmen ...

announced plans to build a new

marshalling yard A classification yard (American English, as well as the Canadian National Railway), marshalling yard (British, Hong Kong, Indian, and Australian English, and the former Canadian Pacific Railway) or shunting yard (Central Europe) is a railway y ...

to replace a yard at Fremantle North Wharf. It opened in 1961 with a freight classification yard and terminal, two classification yards and 60 lever

signal box A signal is both the process and the result of transmission of data over some media accomplished by embedding some variation. Signals are important in multiple subject fields including signal processing, information theory and biology. In ...

. In 1966, the yard was converted to

dual gauge Dual gauge railroad track has three or four rails, allowing vehicles of two track gauges to run on it. Signalling and sidings are more expensive to install on dual gauge tracks than on two single gauge tracks. Dual gauge is used when there i ...

as part of the conversion of the line from

Kalgoorlie Kalgoorlie-Boulder (or just Kalgoorlie) is a city in the Goldfields–Esperance region of Western Australia, located east-northeast of Perth at the end of the Great Eastern Highway. It is referred to as Kalgoorlie–Boulder as the surroundi ...

. In 1967 lighting towers were installed. In 1986, the

American Broadcasting Company The American Broadcasting Company (ABC) is an American Commercial broadcasting, commercial broadcast Television broadcaster, television and radio Radio network, network that serves as the flagship property of the Disney Entertainment division ...

installed receiving and transmitting equipment to the top of the lighting towers for its

1987 America's Cup The 1987 America's Cup was the twenty-sixth challenge for the America's Cup. The American challenger '' Stars & Stripes 87'', sailed by Dennis Conner, beat the Australian defender '' Kookaburra III'', sailed by Iain Murray, in a four-race swe ...

coverage. With altered traffic arrangements having resulted in dwindling traffic, work began in September 1988 to reduce the size of the yard. After the transfer of CBH Group's grain handling facility to Forrestfield in 1998, the yard was closed and the 17 hectare site was rezoned for urban redevelopment. In May 1999, a

Multiplex Multiplex may refer to: Science and technology * Multiplex communication, combining many signals into one transmission circuit or channel ** Multiplex (television), a group of digital television or radio channels that are combined for broadcast * ...

led consortium was selected to redevelop the site with four hectares to be for housing and 13 hectares as a coastal reserve.Perth - Rail Fares Up, Leighton Yard Redevelopment ''

Railway Digest ''Railway Digest'' is a monthly magazine, published in Sydney, covering contemporary railways in Australia. Overview The magazine is published by the Australian Railway Historical Society (ARHS), NSW Division. The first issue was in March 1 ...

'' July 1999 page 19

References

External links

{{commons category-inline, Leighton Yard North Fremantle, Western Australia Rail yards in Australia Transport infrastructure completed in 1961 1961 establishments in Australia 1998 disestablishments in Australia