Western Australian Government Railways
Owned by the state government, it was renamed a number of times to reflect extra responsibility for tram and ferry operations that it assumed and later relinquished.
Over the next few decades, an extensive network of railway lines throughout Western Australia was built, primarily to service the wheatbelt.
[4] Prior to the expanded use of road transport, the network was of vital importance in the state, particularly for the moving of agricultural, forestry and mining products.
[4] In the late 20th century, the end of restrictions on competing road transport resulted in the WAGR and its successors moving from being a small customer-oriented system to a predominantly main line bulk carrier operation.
The transition from WAGR to Westrail quickly began, with the new name rapidly and almost universally replacing the old one in the vocabulary of staff and the public.
The new building, named the Westrail Centre, was opened by the Premier of Western Australia, Sir Charles Court, on 12 November 1976.
In Perth, Westrail provided the metropolitan area rail service, under contract to another arm of the State government.
[10] In October 1987, it was announced by Premier Brian Burke and Federal Minister for Land Transport & Infrastructure Support, Peter Duncan, that a merger of Westrail with Australian National was being investigated.
[17][18] The WAGR's remaining functions, including owning the rail network and operating regional passenger services,[18] were transferred to the Western Australian Government Railways Commission.
[20] The WAGR was renamed a number of times to reflect extra responsibility for tram and ferry operations that it assumed and later relinquished.
Freight rolling stock and road trucks were painted yellow, and blue was used on all signs, buildings and printed material.
[48] The electric locomotive used on the railway is preserved at the Western Australian Rail Transport Museum in Bassendean, though is currently not on display.
[54] In the early 1970s the WAGR Bus service included seasonal six-day Wildflower Study Tours from Perth and along roads to and from Geraldton through the northern wheatbelt.
[58] From 1928 until the 1970s (excluding a hiatus from 1929 to c. 1933, due to the Great Depression), WAGR ran "reso tours" as a way of publicising WA's natural resources, and the associated industries.
These tours went as far north as Geraldton and east to Kalgoorlie, but most commonly south to the forest areas around Pemberton and that town's timber mills.
The first tour was organised for industry and business leaders from Victoria,[59] but by 1933 they were open to the public and sufficiently popular to have waiting lists.
Most of the steam locomotives were built in the United Kingdom, with the WAGR's Midland Railway Workshops building some from 1915.
The early diesels were mainly built by Beyer, Peacock and Company in England, Clyde Engineering in Sydney, and English Electric in Brisbane.
The lack of uniformity caused difficulties in operation and maintenance, and made necessary a large and widely varying stock of spare parts of limited interchangeability.
[63]: 36 In the early 1950s, the WAGR implemented a replacement program of goods wagons built instead to rigidly standard designs, on only three types of underframes, 5.5, 11.0 and 12.8 metres (18, 36 and 42 ft) in length, respectively.
[63]: 36 The new standard designs provided for increased axle loads and higher tare-load ratios, and the new wagons were also fitted with NCDA-type central drawbars and doubly articulating couplers.
[63]: 36–37 [64] In connection with the gauge conversion of the Eastern and Eastern Goldfields Railways in the late 1960s, the WAGR constructed a stock of standard gauge goods vehicles, including a class of wheat hopper wagons that, with a maximum payload of almost 77 tonnes (170,000 lb), were the largest freight vehicles operated by any Government railway in Australia.
