The Powelltown tramway was a narrow gauge tramway that operated between Powelltown and Yarra Junction, Victoria, Australia, between 1913 and 1945. The tramway was owned by the sawmill at Powelltown and its primary role was to move sawn timber from the mill to the main railway system. However, it also operated a timetabled passenger service, and carried goods as a common carrier. The tramway also operated a number of logging tramways into the forest east of Powelltown. The right-of-way has been converted into the Powelltown Tramway Rail Trail. It is on private property and there is limited access to the line.

Location

The timber railway connected the Victorian Railways at Yarra Junction. There was a sawmill in Powelltown, and the line ran from there to the forest areas further east. The track ran through a 313 m tunnel, constructed in 1925, and over several large trestle bridges.

History

Construction

The Powelltown tramway was built in 1912–13 by Victorian Powell Wood Process Ltd (VPWP). Although the forest railways to Beech Forest, Gembrook and Walhalla were built with a gauge, existing horse-drawn railways with wooden rails in the Powelltown area used a gauge, so the decision was made to conform with that, meaning that timber on long timber trucks could be transported without transhipment. The construction of the 3- and 5-ton trucks was similar to that of those in Western Australia which, however, had a track gauge of. Bridges over watercourses were almost identical to those seen in Western Australia.

Operation

Trains ran three times a day to transport long timber. To be on the safe side, the long timber trolleys were decoupled from the locomotive on the incline and they were retarded using brakes attached to the trolleys. The steam locomotive then followed at its maximum speed. Around 30 giant eucalyptus trees, containing around 30,000 super feet (70 cubic metres) of timber, were felled and sawn each day. There were also scheduled passenger services, using mixed passenger and freight trains.

Change of ownership

The Powell wood preservation process used by the VPWP was unsuccessful, so the company became insolvent in 1914. Its assets were taken over by the Victorian Hardwood Milling & Seasoning Company, which had far less capital than its predecessor.

Usage today

The right-of-way of the former railway now forms a 45-km-long hiking trail, the Powelltown Tramway Rail Trail. It runs on private land, so access is limited to the path itself. It has been removed from the Victorian Heritage Register. Two piles of sawdust, an old winch, and a steam boiler are all that is left to pinpoint the locations of the former bush mills along this section.

Locomotives

The forest railway was initially operated with two brand-new steam locomotives specially built for it: They also purchased four-second-hand locomotive: With the exception of Squirt, which was withdrawn from service and dismantled in the 1930s, all steam locomotives were used until the forest railway was closed in 1944. Only Powellite was later used on the Nauru narrow-gauge railway to transport phosphate.

Surviving