Mount Edwards railway line

The Mount Edwards railway line was a branch railway in the Scenic Rim region of South East Queensland, Australia. The lines serves a number of small towns in the Fassifern Valley. The first stage of the Mount Edwards line opened from Munbilla to Engelsburg (now Kalbar) on 17 April 1916, but the next stage to Mount Edwards was not completed until 7 October 1922. The line closed on 1 November 1960.

Geography The 25 km long line branched off the Dugandan line at the rural locality of Munbilla 38 km south of the city of Ipswich. The line then proceeded in a generally south-westerly direction to the locality of Mount Edwards near the village of Aratula.

History The line was intended to form part of a via recta (Latin, "straight route") between Brisbane and Sydney via the break-of-gauge border town of Wallangarra. Before the completion of the New South Wales North Coast Line in 1930, rail traffic between the two state capitals travelled west from Brisbane to Toowoomba then south to Wallangarra via Warwick. The via recta was to incorporate the Mount Edwards line and the Maryvale line on the other side of the Great Dividing Range to produce a direct route southwest from Brisbane to Warwick, shaving around 95 km off the interstate journey. However, the via recta was never completed.

Route +Stations on the Mount Edwards railway lineDistance from IpswichNameCoordinatesAltitudeNotesJunction with Dugundan lineImmediately south-west of Munbilla railway station.WarpertaOn Munbillla Road (now in Kents Lagoon).KalbarAt the western end of Railway Street in Kalbar.WarumkarieOn Warumkarie Road (now in the south of Kalbar).Fassifern ValleyOn Lake Moogerah Road.MorwinchaOn the bend in Morwincha Road.AratulaAt the eastern end of Sawmill Road.Mount EdwardsTerminus, on the southern corner of the Cunningham Highway and Lake Moogerah Road

Mount Edwards railway line

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