page_title: Pilbara railways
section_title: History
hierarchical_section_title: Pilbara railways / History
caption_attribution_description: English: BHP Billiton Iron Ore EMD SD70ACe locomotives nos. 4308 Cowra (left) and 4373 (right), at the head of a loaded train at Nelson Point yard, Port Hedland, the northern end of the Mount Newman railway, Western Australia.
context_page_description: The Pilbara railways are a collection of railways in the Pilbara region of North-West Western Australia.
context_section_description: In 1887, the Cossack Tram opened followed by the Western Australian Government Railways's (WAGR) Marble Bar Railway in 1911. However these had closed by the 1950s.
  Following the opening up (by the WA government) of the Pilbara region for mining in the 1960s, four companies began to mine and export the iron ore. Because of the distances from the mines to the sea ports, railways were built as the most economical method  to transport the ore. Unlike other lines in Western Australia that were built to narrow-gauge, all of the Pilbara lines were built to the Association of American Railroads' standard-gauge for both track and rollingstock loading gauge. This came about because it was determined by the iron ore industry that the required duty was going to be "heavy-haul" and it was considered that the track structure and rollingstock needed to be to standard-gauge scale. These "railroads" (as they were called) were built by a U.S. railroad construction joint venture, Morrison-Knudsen-Mannix-Oman (MKMO).
  
  The first company to commence operations in June 1966 was Goldsworthy Mining Ltd with a line from Mount Goldsworthy to Finucane Island. In August 1966, Hamersley Iron (a Rio Tinto company) opened a 298-kilometre line from Mount Tom Price to a new port at East Intercourse Island, near Dampier. This was extended shortly after by 100 kilometres to a second mine at Paraburdoo. In March 1969, the Mount Newman Mining Pty Ltd joint venture began operating a 427-kilometre line from its Mount Whaleback mine to Port Hedland. The Cliffs Robe River Iron Associates joint venture opened a 162-kilometre line from Mount Enid to Cape Lambert, near Wickham, in July 1972.
  Since then, the iron ore trackage has been expanded as new mines have opened. With mergers and takeovers, there has been considerable consolidation of mine (and railroad trackage) ownership, particularly with BHP Billiton Iron Ore Pty Ltd and Rio Tinto.
  On 21 June 2001, eight BHP Billiton GE AC6000CWs combined to set the world record for the longest and heaviest train; hauling a 682-car, 99,734 gross-tonne (82,000 tonnes of ore), 7.3 kilometre-long  train.
  In April 2008, Fortescue Metals Group opened a line from Cloud Break mine to Port Hedland. In November 2015, Hancock Prospecting will open a 344 kilometre line from Roy Hill.
  As at early 2014, iron ore trackage in the Pilbara was 2,295 kilometres long. It accounted for 94% of all Australian iron ore exports.
  In 2013, Aurizon in conjunction with Brockman Mining and Atlas Iron under an Alliance Study Agreement, completed a study for a new independent iron ore railway in the Pilbara.
caption: BHP Billiton EMD SD70ACes in April 2012
exif: {"Image Make": "NIKON CORPORATION", "Image Model": "NIKON D50", "Image Orientation": "Horizontal (normal)", "Image XResolution": "300", "Image YResolution": "300", "Image ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Image Software": "Ver.1.00", "Image DateTime": "2011:04:30 10:33:05", "Image YCbCrPositioning": "Co-sited", "Image ExifOffset": "216", "Thumbnail Compression": "JPEG (old-style)", "Thumbnail XResolution": "300", "Thumbnail YResolution": "300", "Thumbnail ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormat": "31532", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormatLength": "9280", "Thumbnail YCbCrPositioning": "Co-sited", "EXIF ExposureTime": "1/1250", "EXIF FNumber": "9/2", "EXIF ExposureProgram": "Unidentified", "EXIF ExifVersion": "0221", "EXIF DateTimeOriginal": "2011:04:30 10:33:05", "EXIF DateTimeDigitized": "2011:04:30 10:33:05", "EXIF ComponentsConfiguration": "YCbCr", "EXIF CompressedBitsPerPixel": "2", "EXIF ExposureBiasValue": "0", "EXIF MaxApertureValue": "41/10", "EXIF MeteringMode": "Pattern", "EXIF LightSource": "Unknown", "EXIF Flash": "Flash did not fire, compulsory flash mode", "EXIF FocalLength": "105", "EXIF SubSecTime": "20", "EXIF SubSecTimeOriginal": "20", "EXIF SubSecTimeDigitized": "20", "EXIF FlashPixVersion": "0100", "EXIF ColorSpace": "sRGB", "EXIF ExifImageWidth": "3008", "EXIF ExifImageLength": "2000", "Interoperability InteroperabilityIndex": "R98", "Interoperability InteroperabilityVersion": "[48, 49, 48, 48]", "EXIF InteroperabilityOffset": "31394", "EXIF SensingMethod": "One-chip color area", "EXIF FileSource": "Digital Camera", "EXIF SceneType": "Directly Photographed", "EXIF CVAPattern": "[0, 2, 0, 2, 2, 1, 1, 0]", "EXIF CustomRendered": "Normal", "EXIF ExposureMode": "Auto Exposure", "EXIF WhiteBalance": "Auto", "EXIF DigitalZoomRatio": "1", "EXIF FocalLengthIn35mmFilm": "157", "EXIF SceneCaptureType": "Standard", "EXIF GainControl": "None", "EXIF Contrast": "Normal", "EXIF Saturation": "Normal", "EXIF Sharpness": "Hard", "EXIF SubjectDistanceRange": "0"}