Vlog 232: Sydney Freight Train Compilation

The Sydney Freight Network is a network of dedicated railway lines for freight in Sydney, Australia linking the state's rural and interstate rail network with the city's main yard at Enfield and Port Botany. Its primary components are the Southern Sydney Freight Line (SSFL) and a line from Sefton to Enfield and Port Botany. The Network has been managed by the Australian Rail Track Corporation (ARTC) since 2012. Prior to the completion of the SSFL, it was managed by RailCorp as the Metropolitan Freight Network. One arm of the network starts behind the Flemington Maintenance Depot while another starts at Sefton with both merging at Enfield. Services from the state's north and west approach via the former and from the south via the latter. From Enfield the line heads south to Campsie where it turns east and runs parallel to the Bankstown passenger line as far as Marrickville. From here a connection to the Illawarra line provides a link to a sea terminal at Port Kembla, south of Sydney. From Marrickville the line continues on its own alignment to the Cooks River and Port Botany container terminals. There was previously a loop line that completed a circuitous route of the inner suburbs. Diverging at Dulwich Hill it headed north beneath the Main Suburban line at Lewisham to Lilyfield before heading east to Rozelle and Pyrmont, and then south under Railway Square through NSW's oldest tunnel to join the Main Suburban line outside Central. This line served the ports at Glebe Island (diverging via a spur from Lilyfield) and Darling Harbour. With the exception of the Marrickville to Port Botany and Lilyfield to Central sections, the network was electrified in stages. The Dulwich Hill to Rozelle section was electrified in October 1967 while the Marrickville to Tempe section was completed in 1985. But with electric haulage of freight trains ceasing in the late 1990s this infrastructure is no longer used and has been removed in parts. As of December 2018, the only remaining sections of overhead wires are a short section from the tunnel under the Bankstown line to Tempe, along the Down line from Dulwich Hill to Campsie and both tracks from Campsie to where the line separates from the Bankstown line. The line had connections to allow suburban passenger services to operate on it including accessing the Canterbury Park Racecourse sidings on race days but these were out of use by the mid 1980s and have since been removed.