| Marble Bar Railway | |
| Image Alt: | Petrol rail motor used on Marble Bar Railway from 1934 to 1947. |
| Status: | Closed |
| Stations: | 12 |
| Owner: | WAGR |
| Operator: | WAGR |
| Linelength: | 184km (114miles) |
| Map State: | show |
The Port Hedland–Marble Bar railway was a railway in the Pilbara region of Western Australia, running into the hinterland from the north-west coast.
The Port Hedland-Marble Bar Railway Act 1907, an act by the Parliament of Western Australia assented to on 19 September 1907, authorised the construction of the railway line from Port Hedland to Marble Bar.[1]
The line was a Western Australian Government Railways (WAGR) gauge branch line which was isolated from the rest of the WAGR system. Construction was commenced in 1909, undertaken by the firm of Henry Teesdale Smith, and the line was opened in July 1911.[2] [3]
The line had been proposed for some years before the date of opening.
The closest railhead of the main WAGR rail system was over 1000km (1,000miles) to the south at Meekatharra so most rolling stock and materials were shipped in and out Port Hedland.
Due to heavy losses on the line, the Western Australian government asked 1922 Royal Commission of Inquiry into the Railway Department to make a specific inquiry into the running of the Port Hedland railway. The commissioner found that "the railway cannot be run effectively so long as it is administered by the Railways Department" and recommended, among other things, that the running of the line be handed over to the Commissioner of the North-West.[4] That was not done.
The reputation of the line for its slow running speed lived on long after the railway had closed, with Patsy Adam Smith's 1969 book about early railways noting the use of the ironic name the Spinifex Flyer.[5]
The Railway (Port Hedland-Marble Bar) Discontinuance Act 1950 was granted royal assent on 18 December 1950,[6] and the last train to run out of Port Hedland operated on 25 October 1951. The railway closed on 31 October 1951.
Iron ore railways that have subsequently been constructed in the Pilbara region are standard gauge railways.