Hamersley & Robe River railway line

region. The Hamersley & Robe River Railway is in green . Dash 9-44CW 9435 in August 2013 in April 2011 Hamersley railway The first part of the Pilbara Iron rail network to be constructed was a line known as the Hamersley railway, between a newly opened mine at Tom Price and a newly constructed port (now the port of Dampier) at King Bay. The Hamersley railway project began in December 1964, when Japanese steel mills agreed to purchase iron ore from Hamersley Iron over 16 years beginning in August 1966. The railway's route was chosen after two aerial surveys and comparisons of numerous possible alternatives. of 180 miles, for $15,680,000. Excavations commenced at Dampier on 16 June 1965. Until the completion of a service wharf at that location, cargo had to be brought ashore on lighters, or unloaded at Point Samson. On 6 September 1965, the freighter Katsura Maru became the first vessel to berth at the service wharf; its cargo included the railway's first four locomotives. In 1970, construction began on an extension of the Hamersley railway from Wombat Junction, just north of Tom Price, to a second mine, at Paraburdoo, about south west of Tom Price. Engineering design and construction management for the extension was undertaken by Minenco; the contractors were a joint venture known as Morrison-Knudsen-Mannix-Oman (MKMO). The Paraburdoo extension incorporated a number of design improvements. In particular, the track was made from heavier, rail sections, which were flashbutt and thermit welded into continuous rails, and attached by pandrol clips to timber sleepers. Construction was completed in March 1972, and the first official Paraburdoo train ran on 5 May 1972. In 1972, a programme of rerailing the original railway began. In that year, of track and dog spikes were replaced with track and pandrol clips. The replacement programme continued until its completion in 1977. Hamersley Iron also arranged for test installation of concrete sleepers at various locations from November 1973. The tests were successful, and in 1980 work commenced on the re-sleepering of the original railway with concrete sleepers, a task completed in 1986. The Hamersley railway was subsequently expanded with the construction of spur lines to Marandoo, Brockman and the Yandicoogina mines. Robe River railway The other main component of the Pilbara Iron network is the Robe River railway, which was constructed for a joint venture known as Cliffs Robe River Iron Associates. This railway originally linked the joint venture's first mine, near Pannawonica in the Robe River valley, with a pelletising plant and port at Cape Lambert. The Robe River railway project was given the go ahead on 1 July 1970. The construction contract was awarded to the MKMO joint venture. In May 1971, the first track materials were unloaded at the service wharf at Cape Lambert. Tracklaying from Cape Lambert to Pannawonica then proceeded between January and May 1972. The first Robe River ore train, operating under test conditions, ran on 6 July 1972. The first official train carrying production ore followed on 8 August 1972; it consisted of 75 wagons hauled by two locomotives. One week later, the Robe River railway was finally accepted from the contractor. In 2004, Rio Tinto announced that Hamersley and Robe would start merging the rest of its operations under a new Pilbara Iron entity. Pilbara Rail was folded into Pilbara Iron in 2005. In January 2008, another application was lodged by FMG, this time for access to the Robe River railway. Earlier, in June 2004, the council had received an application from FMG to use of part of BHP's Mount Newman railway and also part of the Goldsworthy railway. In May 2008, Rio Tinto suffered a setback when the Federal Court of Australia rejected an attempt by Rio to block Fortescue from using their rail network. Following this, in June 2010, the Australian Competition Tribunal ruled that Fortescue would be granted access to the Robe River line and BHP Billiton's Goldsworthy line but not to the busier Hamersley and Mount Newman lines. Treasurer Wayne Swan suggested that several advantages would accrue from access to the rail lines by third parties. It would increase competition, reduce duplication of infrastructure, and reduce environmental damage. Access to the rail networks by third parties is governed by the State Agreements Act. ==Operations==