The Whitfield railway line was a narrow gauge railway located in north-eastern Victoria, Australia, branching from the main North East railway at Wangaratta to the terminus of Whitfield.
The line was the first of four narrow gauge lines of the Victorian Railways. Unlike the other three narrow gauge lines, it was built through mostly flat, open, agricultural country, following the King River. The line was built as a narrow gauge one because it was thought that it might be extended into the mountainous country to the south, although that never happened. One of the proposed extensions was to Tolmie.
The line relied mostly on local agricultural traffic, and opened with a daily mixed train. By the 1930s that had been reduced to a weekly goods service plus daily mail deliveries, and stayed at the reduced level until the railway closed in 1953. There was only one lineside industry, a dairy at Moyhu, and the majority of stations were nameboards at road crossings.
History Before the railway From the 1870s there was a daily coach service between Wangaratta and Oxley, Moyhu and Edi (then known as Hedi), and a mail service to Whitfield (then Upper King River). Prior to the railway opening the entire Ovens Valley region had a population of about 2,000 residents.
In August 1895 a proposal was submitted for a mile long regular broad gauge railway from Glenrowan railway station to Edi, but this was rejected, along with a later proposal for a line from Benalla railway station. The Parliamentary Standing Committee of Railways noted that the Glenrowan proposal would have cost per mile, and that the line would cover operating expenses but lose overall after taking into account interest payments on the loan to finance construction, to the tune of per year. This report and rejection encouraged residents to consider the reduced cost of a narrow gauge line instead, and the Committee accepted that such a line as far as Edi would probably pay for itself. Additionally, it was argued that an extension to Whitfield would allow farmers from across the tributaries to the King River would bring their produce to Whitfield to enable sales through the northern market regions. Mention was also made of timber demand at the mines in Rutherglen and Chiltern. The Committee at the time noted the land was fairly easy to traverse as far as Edi, difficult beyond that point, and explicitly flagged that the line would eventually be extended to Mansfield but that the cost of a broad gauge railway from Whitfield to Mansfield would be "enormous". Advocacy for a line from Wangaratta started in mid-1896, with a private offer for a private narrow gauge railway following the roadway to Whitfield Post Office, with one intermediate siding at Edi. The line would have been constructed to a gauge of . Early 1897 saw a proper survey completed, and the line was authorised on 24 August 1897. A further survey in 1898 considered an extension from Whitfield towards Mansfield.
Nonetheless, petitions continued for a broad gauge railway citing the costs and risk of damage to livestock and fragile loads during transhipment at Wangaratta, and on 30 June 1898 the Minister of Railways paid a visit to the area to confirm for himself that the works were being progressed in line with the narrow gauge specifications.
Construction of the line Construction started on 1 March 1898, following an instruction on 24 February that the line would be built to gauge instead of .
Rails were recycled from the Melbourne to Adelaide line, which was then being upgraded for heavier express locomotives and carriages on the Intercolonial Express; construction progressed at a rate of about per day. The first Baldwin A Class locomotive and six QR open trucks were delivered from Newport Workshops in the last week of September 1899. By 1 October 1898, of rails had been laid, and some of the line was ballasted. By 14 October six trucks were being used on construction trains, with another six expected shortly, although delays were feared because sleeper contractors had been late in deliveries. A further nine trucks were provided by the end of November and again by the end of December, for a total of thirty. In February 1899 the second A class locomotive, a UU louvred van, and a paired BB and BDBD passenger and passenger/guards van set were also provided. All these vehicles were issued to service without the "N" prefix to indicate narrow gauge; this was appended later, probably around the time the line opened.
Temporary ballast sidings At least two ballast sidings were provided, likely used during construction and possibly for maintenance after opening.
The first was referred to as Laceby Ballast Pits and was probably somewhere near what would eventually be Docker station; it diverged from the mainline when facing Wangaratta, running north for a length of about at various downhill slopes before reaching the ballast pit loading sites. On 21 December 1898 during construction of the line, a collision occurred when one wagon, 24QR loaded with rails, escaped the shunter and ran into two others (28QR and 5QR). There was minor damage to both 24QR and 28QR, and they were returned to Newport Workshops for repair. Simpson described the siding as originally extended to Croppers Creek (now Factory Creek), running south-east on the creek side of the road and possibly crossing the creek by a small wooden trestle bridge to access gravel deposits on the far side, although this geometry does not match the orientation of the December 1898 derailment report.
The second ballast siding was about beyond Edi station; Speed Limit 20 Plus does not say when the siding was built or used, but describes it as running "some length" to the bank of the King River, for sand or gravel. This siding was described by Simpson as running south from the station towards the King River, which would put it in the vicinity of today's Edi Cutting camping ground.
Neither siding appears in the 1927 grades chart, the relevant track diagrams referenced below, or the Weekly Notice transcriptions 1894-1994. The latter source does include mention of eleven other ballast sidings around the state, usually only with reference to the siding being opened and an approximate chainage. Where a closure date is listed, the siding generally remained in use for less than half a year.
Line opening
The first train left Wangaratta for Moyhu on 11 March 1899, with a special train conveying 114 passengers. 114 tickets (of 300 printed) had been sold for each at the annual race meeting the prior Wednesday, and the train departed Wangaratta at 12:45pm. The line was officially opened on 14 March 1899 with the first train leaving Whitfield at 8:45am for a three-hour trip each way, returning around 5:30pm. There was no opening event, though a banquet had been proposed.
Route The line started from the east side forecourt of Wangaratta station, with rails laid in the roadway and a long headshunt extending past the entrance to the main Wangaratta station building. A four-track yard was located to the south of the station, with the mainline down the middle, two sidings on the west for transhipment of goods to and from the rest of the Victorian Railways' network, and one on the east for local goods loading.
During World War II Wangaratta was used as a rest point for troop trains, and portable dining facilities were spread over the narrow gauge yard, with a shelter over the track provided in early 1942. It is not clear whether these troop trains were scheduled at times to avoid conflict with narrow gauge train operations. Beyond the goods yard and the Roy Street level crossing the narrow gauge line diverged for a south-east bearing, passing a siding towards the shared broad and narrow gauge turntable. Any goods between the Whitfield line and the rest of the Victorian Railways network had to be transhipped by hand at Wangaratta goods yard; there were no cranes or other equipment provided to make the task easier or faster, and this added to the operational cost of the line.
Most of the intermediate stations opened with the line, but only a handful had proper names for the first few years of operation. Station Date opened Original name Date Second name By date Final rename Wangaratta - - - - - Targoora Stopping Place No.1 Clarke Laceby Stopping Place No.2 Laceby Oxley - - - - - Skehan Stopping Place No.3 Skehan Docker Laceby Dockers Byrne Stopping Place No.4 Byrne Moyhu - - - - - Angleside Stopping Place No.5 Angleside Claremont Stopping Place No.6 Claremont Dwyer - - - - - Edi - - - - - Hyem After Stopping Place No.8 After Hyem King Valley Stopping Place No.7 Milne Jarrott - - - - - Pieper After Stopping Place No.9 After Pieper Whitfield - - - - -
The line ran south-east from Wangaratta through multiple level crossings and beside One Mile Creek, then ran along the western edge of Wangaratta - Mansfield Road and later the King River. The route was relatively flat, with only brief instances of the ruling grade of 1-in-80. Stations along the line were generally either a simple nameboard in a clearing (Targoora, Laceby, Skehan, Byrne, Angleside, Claremont, Dwyer, Hyem, Jarrott and Pieper), or a passenger shelter with a telephone and limited goods facilities (Oxley, Docker, Moyhu, which gained a further siding for a butter factory in 1920, Edi with water tanks, and King Valley).
Byrne was the only intermediate stopping place on the railway, without a shelter shed, which was some distance away from the nearest cross-roads (since Hodges Lane didn't exist at the time). The reason for this was that, during construction, trains had been stopping at both Arklow and opposite the home of a Mr Andrew Byrne. The railway department refused to continue to serve both places, and the midpoint was the agreed compromise. Despite this, few passengers from the Moyhu side used the station. It is not clear where Arklow was, although the survey plans show an unidentified structure opposite the line at approximately in John Byrne's land, and a church at approximately in Andrew Byrne's land. The midpoint between these two sites is roughly where Byrne's station signboard was eventually built.
In March 1899 only Stopping Place No.1 and 3-7, Oxley, Laceby (later Docker/s), Moyhu, Edi and Whitfield had opened. By 1905 all stations had opened and all the Stopping Places had been given names. In May 1906 Milne (formerly Stopping Place No.7) had been moved about closer to Whitfield, and in August 1908 it was renamed King Valley.
The terminus of Whitfield was the only other substantial yard, with a three-track layout providing the ability to run around trains by the middle track, and locomotive facilities including a two-track timber-framed, iron-clad engine shed beyond the station, which was built in 1900. However, long before the railway closed, engines were habitually stabled outdoors with the shed being used as for parts storage and maintenance.
The Whitfield engine shed was last used to house locomotives in October 1930, after which trains started from and terminated at Wangaratta. The track was cut short from to a chainage of , and in 1933 the building was leased as Whitfield's motor garage in 1933 and remained as such through the 1980s when it was sold privately.
Infrastructure The 1927 grades chart indicates the line was fully fenced, though not in either the post-and-rail or dropper styles, and was provided with combined railway and postal wires along the south side of the line from Wangaratta to Oxley then railway telegraph poles and wires for the remainder of the route to Whitfield.