The Mundaring branch railway is a historical section of the original Eastern Railway main line across the

Darling Scarp The Darling Scarp (), also referred to as the Darling Range or Darling Ranges, is a low escarpment running north–south to the east of the Swan Coastal Plain and Perth, Western Australia. The escarpment extends generally north of Bindoon, to ...

in the

Western Australian Government Railways Western Australian Government Railways (WAGR) was the state owned operator of railways 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 respon ...

(WAGR) system.

Name variation

It has had a number of names in WAGR records – including: * Smiths Mill Line (locality later known as

Glen Forrest A glen is a valley, typically one that is long and bounded by gently sloped concave sides, unlike a ravine, which is deep and bounded by steep slopes. The word is Goidelic in origin: ''gleann'' in Irish and Scottish Gaelic, ''glion'' in Manx. ...

) after the Eastern Railway was moved to the new line to the north – 1890s to 1920s * The Mundaring Loop, or Mundaring Line – 1930s to 1950s There was confusion in the naming of the Mahogany Creek Deviation. The Mahogany Creek railway stopping place was on the Mundaring branch between Glen Forrest and Mundaring. However the Mahogany Creek Deviation was the incorrect name for the new line that followed the line of the Jane Brook to Mount Helena. It was on the second route of the Eastern Railway constructed in the 1880s to early 1890s, and it passed through the

Swan View Tunnel The Swan View Tunnel is a former railway tunnel located on the southern side of the Jane Brook valley in the outer Perth suburb of Swan View in the John Forrest National Park on the edge of the Darling Scarp. After its closure as a railway tun ...

, well to the north of the original Mahogany Creek stopping place and the creek itself.

Connections

The branch commenced at Bellevue railway station, moving up the slope to Greenmount. Steep

gradients In vector calculus, the gradient of a scalar-valued differentiable function f of several variables is the vector field (or vector-valued function) \nabla f whose value at a point p gives the direction and the rate of fastest increase. The gra ...

and deviation inclines occurred through to

. It connected with the newer line at Mount Helena. Mundaring was the junction point where the

Mundaring Weir branch railway The Mundaring Weir branch railway was constructed from Mundaring, Western Australia to the site of the Mundaring Weir, and opened on 1 June 1898. Overview One of the rail lines constructed by the Public Works Department in the early 20th cen ...

commenced. Timetabled passenger services on this branch (until closure in early 1954) tended to terminate at Sawyers Valley.

Closure

Traffic ceased running in 1954; the line was closed by Parliament in 1966, the closure including divestment of the land of the rail route to the local council. Following closure, it eventually became part of the

Railway Reserve Heritage Trail The Railway Reserves Heritage Trail also on some maps as ''Rail Reserve Heritage Trail'' or ''Rail Reserves Historical Trail'', and frequently referred to locally as the ''Bridle Trail'' or ''Bridle Track'' is within the Shire of Mundaring in ...

Stopping places and sidings

Bellevue Bellevue means "beautiful view" in French. Bellevue or Belle Vue may refer to: Places Australia * Bellevue, Queensland * Bellevue, Western Australia * Bellevue Hill, New South Wales Canada * Bellevue, Alberta * Bellevue, Newfoundlan ...

* Greenmount * Greenmount Quarry siding * Mountain Quarry siding ** Cape Horn a section of line with accidents. *

Boya Boya may refer to: *Boya, Western Australia *Boya, Nepal *Boya people, an ethnic group in Sudan *Boya (caste), Boya caste, Boya caste of India *Mireia Boya Busquet (born 1979), Spanish scientist and politician *Pierre Boya (born 1984), Cameroonian ...

* Hudman Road Quarry siding *

Darlington Darlington is a market town in the Borough of Darlington, County Durham, England. It lies on the River Skerne, west of Middlesbrough and south of Durham. Darlington had a population of 107,800 at the 2021 Census, making it a "large town" ...

(originally Smith's Mill) * Statham Brickworks Siding. * Nyaannia * Zamia (highest point on line at 1,007 feet) * Mundaring *

Mundaring Weir railway line The Mundaring Weir branch railway was constructed from Mundaring, Western Australia to the site of the Mundaring Weir, and opened on 1 June 1898. Overview One of the rail lines constructed by the Public Works Department in the early 20th cen ...

just east of Mundaring railway yard * Sawyers Valley * Mount Helena

Name variation

Connections

Closure

Stopping places and sidings

References

Further reading