The Hamersley & Robe River railway, majority-owned by Rio Tinto, and operated by its subsidiary Pilbara Iron, is a private rail network in the Pilbara region of Western Australia for the purpose of carrying iron ore. The network is larger than any other Australian heavy freight rail network in private ownership. The total length of its track is about .
There are four other iron ore rail lines in the Pilbara. BHP operate the Goldsworthy and Mount Newman railways, Fortescue Metals Group operate the Fortescue railway and Hancock Prospecting the Roy Hill railway.
History
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.
In April 1965, a joint venture of Morrison-Knudsen, Mannix Contractors of Canada and McDonald Constructions of Australia was appointed to build the line 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.
The original track for the Hamersley railway was rails manufactured in Japan, laid on sleepers of jarrah and wandoo timber from Western Australia with dog spike fastenings and ballasted with of crushed stone. For most of the construction period, track was laid at a rate of per day. On 23 June 1966, the first ore train ran from Tom Price to the coast, and on 1 July 1966 the line was officially opened by the Minister for Industrial Development, Charles Court.
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.