Carlingford railway line

The Carlingford railway line was a suburban branch line, running between Clyde and Carlingford in the Parramatta and North-west regions of Sydney. The line was originally served by extensive freight and passenger services, but these declined over the years. The line was closed in January 2020 for partial conversion to a light rail line.

History
The line was opened from Clyde to Subiaco (later renamed Camellia) in January 1885, then by means of the construction of a bridge across the Parramatta River, to Carlingford in April 1896. The line was originally privately owned by two companies, being purchased by the government in 1898. The line was originally fully single track, with several goods sidings at most of the stations. The line was duplicated to Camelia in 1902 and fully electrified in 1959.

The line originally carried both frieght and passenger traffic. Both types of traffic steadily declined over the years. The only freight trains to use the line in its final years were oil trains to the Clyde Refinery, which ceased in 2010. There were few passengers on the line as well, due to the infrequent and inconvenient service.

Passenger trains on the line were originally steam hauled, using Z13 and Z20 class locomotives. CPH railmotors were also used. After electrification, "Standard" and "Sputnik" carriages were used, with S sets, followed by K/M sets in the late years. Services on the line were usually hourly, being upgraded to 30 minutes in 2018. Most services ran a shuttle between Clyde and Carlingford, with some peak hour services in the early years extending to Central or North Sydney.

Due to its low patronage, various proposals have been made for the line since the early 2000s. Most proposals were to extend the line north and south to create a line between Parramatta and Chatswood, running via Carlingford. However, this was never completed and only the section between Epping and Chatswood was built (which is now part of Sydney Metro Northwest). There were also proposals to grade separate the Parramatta Rd level crossing (which caused severe traffic congestion) and to add a passing loop at Rydalmere (to increase the service frequency), which both did not eventuate.

Parramatta Light Rail Conversion
The line was closed on 6th January 2020 for partial conversion to light rail. The Parramatta Light Rail will reuse the former rail corridor between Camelia and Carlingford, with new low-level platforms at each of the former station locations. The entire line will be duplicated, except for one short single track section, which cannot be duplicated due to a narrow underpass.

The section between Camellia and Parramatta Road (including the level crossing) is now disused, with Sydney Metro West possibly using part of the alignment as a stabling yard. The section between Parramatta Road and Clyde remains in use for track machines to access the former Prestressed Concrete Siding (see below). Platform 1 at Clyde is no longer used for passenger services and the crossovers from the main tracks to the Carlingford line tracks have been disabled. An extra service was added to the T5 Cumberland Line, to make use of the 8 cars freed up by the line closure.

Following the closure, all other Sydney Trains lines retained their existing line numbers. The T6 code will not be used to avoid customer confusion.

While the line is being converted, replacement services will be provided by buses on route 535, operating between Parramatta and Carlingford, stopping at each station on the former line, except Clyde and Rosehill. The route is operated by Hillsbus. 535 buses will operate every 15 minutes, providing 4 services per hour as opposed to 2 services per hour provided by trains. More information on the 535 buses can be found here.

Route
The Carlingford railway line branched off the Main Western railway line at Clyde heading north over Parramatta Road on a level crossing, before heading under the M4 Western Motorway. It was a double track line to this point.

Immediately south of Rosehill, the line becomes single track. The Sandown railway line also branched off at this point. At Rosehill, two platforms were provided, one four-car long platform on the Carlingford line and one platform which was approximately sixteen-cars long on the Sandown line track which was used for special events at the racecourse. During large special events at Rosehill Racecourse, such as horse racing meetings, a train was chartered to operate a shuttle service with 20-minute frequency between Clyde and Rosehill only.

The line then headed in a north-easterly direction over the Parramatta River to Carlingford. The stations from Camellia to Carlingford consisted of a single platform of a sufficient length to accommodate four-car suburban trains. There were no further crossing loops on the line, and thus no capacity for trains to pass each other.

Sidings
A number of industrial and car storage sidings have been built on the line. Currently only one still remains in service.

Starting from the Clyde end:
 * 1) Prestressed Concrete Siding - located between Clyde station and the Parramatta Road crossing. Served the railways prestressed concrete manufacturing plant which no longer operates. Currently used to stable an automated track recording vehicle. The junction is on the branch down line with the points facing north (down).
 * 2) Shell Refinery Siding - located between A'Beckett Creek and Rosehill station. The siding and junctions points have been removed. Junction was on the branch up line with the points facing south (up).
 * 3) Rheem Siding and Loop - located at Rydalmere station. Served the Rheem factory. The siding consisted of a short loop line with junctions north and south of the original Rydalmere station and a siding branch into the factory itself at the southern end of the yard. The loop, factory branch and all junctions have been removed. The new Rydalmere station is now situated on the opposite side of the branch line from the original station and occupies the site of the former loop.
 * 4) Electricity Commission Siding - located at the southern end of Carlingford station. The siding was built to move large electrical transformers into the Carlingford Electrical sub-station, one of the major substations distributing electric power to Sydney. The siding and junction points have been removed. The junction was on the run-around loop with the points facing north.
 * 5) Carlingford Produce Siding and Loop - a locomotive run-around loop alongside Carlingford station and a siding serving the Carlingford Produce store. The produce store siding joined the run-around loop at the southern end of the station with the points facing south. The loop and siding, together with all their junctions, have been removed.
 * 6) Carlingford Car Storage Sidings - a two track siding north of Carlingford station connected to both the branch line and the locomotive run-around loop. The sidings and junctions have been removed.

Control
The line was originally controlled from a small wooden signal box at the Parramatta Road level crossing. This was upgraded to centralised traffic control, like all other Sydney Trains lines. Double colour light signalling was used between Rosehill and Clyde, with no further signals for the rest of the line, as there was no way for more than one train to be between Rosehill and Carlingford. Track circuits were used for train detection between Rosehill and Clyde and an axle counter for other section. Consequently, trains were displayed as stopped at Rosehill on realtime tracking apps when travelling between Rosehill and Carlingford.

Limits
As with all other railway lines in the state, the line was built to standard gauge (1435mm). The line was in the wide track width classification. Due to insufficient power supply, H sets operating on the line were limited to 4 cars only and A/B sets were not allowed. The average 12 minute travel time between Clyde and Carlingford allowed a maximum capacity of two trains per hour on this line.

Stations

 * Clyde
 * Rosehill
 * Camellia
 * Rydalmere
 * Dundas
 * Telopea
 * Carlingford