Summit Tank railway station

Summit Tank is a railway platform on the Unanderra–Moss Vale line in the Southern Highlands of New South Wales, Australia. The platform is located on the main line; there is an active passing loop and perway siding beside it.[1]

Summit Tank
Platform
Unanderra · Mount Murray
A heritage train stops at Summit Tank platform
General information
LocationFire trail, Avon
New South Wales
Australia
Coordinates34°30′45″S 150°42′22″E / 34.5125°S 150.7061°E / -34.5125; 150.7061
Line(s)Unanderra–Moss Vale
Distance108.14 km from Central[1]
Platforms1
Tracks2 plus perway siding[1]
Construction
Structure typeAt-grade
History
Opened20 August 1932[2]
Services
Preceding station Former services Following station
Mount Murray
towards Moss Vale
Unanderra–Moss Vale Line Unanderra
Terminus

History

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In the late 1920s it was decided by the then New South Wales Government that a railway line was needed between Moss Vale and Wollongong to get freight trains from southern locations directly to Port Kembla and away from the increasing passenger train services in southern and south western Sydney. A right of way was surveyed from Unanderra just south of Wollongong through the southern part of Farmborough Heights on a gradient of 1 in 33 to Moss Vale.

Traffic

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Summit Tank is a location where banker or pusher engines were taken off Moss Vale bound trains and for extra braking were added to heavy Wollongong or Port Kembla bound trains. Summit Tank had a passenger platform, train crew amenities and a 60-foot (18 m) manual turntable for turning locomotives and ash pits.

Summit Tank still sees the occasional bank engine with heavy steel trains regularly using the Unanderra to Moss Vale line to gain access to the Main South Line to Melbourne. Other traffic on the line includes container trains, bulk wheat and other grain trains, mostly from southern New South Wales; coal trains from Tahmoor; western coal trains using the line during Illawarra line trackwork; limestone trains from Medway, as well as the once-a-month Cockatoo Run to and from Sydney.

Summit Tank has a mainline and passing loop with a platform for safeworking duties including a local control panel and radio antenna for train operations. Further towards Moss Vale there is a platform where Cockatoo Run passengers can alight to visit a scenic look-out on the edge of the Illawarra Escarpment, with views over Lake Illawarra and the Pacific Ocean.

References

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  1. ^ a b c Australian Rail Track Corporation (June 2015). "North–south corridor network diagram 1" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 23 September 2015.
  2. ^ Bozier, Rolfe. "NSWrail.net: Summit Tank Platform".