Holdfast Bay Railway Line

Did you know that the Glenelg tram line was once a steam railway and there were two railway lines from the city to Glenelg? In 1873, the Adelaide, Glenelg and Suburban Railway Company opened a line between Adelaide and Glenelg via King William Street and South Terrace to Moseley Square, Glenelg on the route of the present tramway. People weren’t happy with the monopoly arrangement and decided to build another new railway to compete. The Holdfast Bay Railway opened from North Terrace Railway Station to Glenelg in 1880. The line started in the city from the Adelaide railway station following existing lines to Mile End and then followed an almost direct route from Mile End to Glenelg through Richmond and Plympton, ending at a station near Wigley Reserve. Competition was fierce and demand wasn’t enough for two companies - so they were amalgamated in 1881. Things struggled along until The Glenelg Railway Company was acquired by the SAR in 1899 and the Holdfast Bay line was even duplicated from Mile End to St Leonards by 1914 with raised platforms provided at most stations. A branch line running across Bay Road (now Anzac Highway) provided services to Morphettville Racecourse, though the two lines were never connected. In 1924, the railways commissioner, William A. Webb, proposed that the two railways be converted into electric tramways. The new tramway system began operations in December 1929 on the same route from King William Street to Moseley Square and is still running. On the day the conversion was completed, the SAR stopped running trains on the Holdfast Bay line. Parts of the remaining corridor were sold to private holders in 1938, and the remainder to the government in 1940. The MATS Plan in the 60s suggested that an expressway be built in the corridor. Today, part of the corridor has been built over as James Congdon Drive. A big part of corridor remains as the Westside Bikeway rail trail. A platform is all that remains on the site of Plympton station near Marion Road. An original signal from the line is on display in the main pavilion of the National Railway Museum, Port Adelaide. All images public domain courtesy of the National Railway Museum and State Library of South Australia.