Silverton Tramway - History - Gauge Conversion

Gauge Conversion

After the completion of the Trans-Australian Railway, the Silverton Tramway and the South Australian line to Port Pirie was a missing link in an unbroken Sydney to Perth rail journey (Perth to Kalgoorlie, Western Australia was the other). Moves towards conversion of the line to standard gauge were made with the passing of the Railway Standardisation Agreement Act of 1944, in which the New South Wales government would acquire the Silverton Tramway Company, then pass it to the South Australian Railway Commissioner. This agreement lapsed, with a new one made in 1949, in which the Commonwealth would be responsible for the acquisition.

The New South Wales government did not wish the Company to remain as a main line operator, or to purchase it themselves; while South Australian train crews were not happy to work trains across the state border due to a loss of favourable industrial conditions. When the Company purchased its diesel locomotives, a number of structures, including bridges, were modified to carry standard gauge, as the company ordered the wider bogies needed to operate on standard gauge. By 1967 the Silverton Tramway Company offered to build a standard gauge line for a fixed sum, and transfer the line to New South Wales soon after. This line would run from Cockburn to Broken Hill on an alignment that had some interaction with the existing Crystal Street station, but the Commonwealth Government rejected it as they wished for the line to be built on a totally new alignment away from the Company lines. By 1968 South Australia believed that they would have gauge converted their portion of the line before the short section to Broken Hill was even finished.