page_title: Western Australian Government Railways
section_title: History of operations
hierarchical_section_title: Western Australian Government Railways / History of operations
caption_attribution_description: English: Commonwealth Engineering-built WCA905, sporting an unofficial "THE SPEC" livery on its front end (due to a mismatch between the old WAGR livery on the gangway connection cover and the then new Westrail livery on the rest of the front end), leads a Perth Terminal-bound daylight The Prospector across the bridge over the Swan River at Guildford, Western Australia. Kodachrome slide converted by Kaiser Baas Photo Maker Pro into a digital image.
context_page_description: Western Australian Government Railways was the operator of railway services in the state of Western Australia between October 1890 and June 2003. 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. Its freight operations were privatised in December 2000 with the remaining passenger operations transferred to the Public Transport Authority in July 2003.
context_section_description: The first WAGR line opened on 26 July 1879 between Geraldton and Northampton. it was followed by the Eastern Railway from Fremantle to Guildford via Perth on 1 March 1881. The WAGR adopted the narrow gauge of 3 ft 6 in (1,067 mm) in order to reduce construction costs.
  Over the next few decades, an extensive network of main lines and branches throughout Western Australia would be built, primarily to service the wheatbelt. 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.
  The WAGR network was joined to that of the rest of mainland Australia, albeit to 4 ft 8 ¹⁄₂ in (1,435 mm) standard gauge, a different gauge, in October 1917 with the opening of the Commonwealth Railways' Trans-Australian Railway to Kalgoorlie.
  Legislative restrictions were implemented to limit competition from road transport, most notably from the 1930s through to the 1950s, when the Transport Co-ordination Board kept strict control over commercial road traffic through powers vested by the State Transport Co-ordination Act 1933. As road transportation expanded and losses escalated, many lines closed from 1949.
  The network peaked in 1937 at 6,600 kilometres. Unusually for such a large network, only one tunnel was required, the Swan View Tunnel. A few isolated lines were operated, such as the Marble Bar line in the Pilbara and the Hopetoun-Ravensthorpe line on the South Coast. With many lines in need of heavy maintenance, rolling stock in need of replacement and heavy losses being incurred, during the 1950s many branches closed with 1,320 kilometres of the network so treated in 1956/57, although 275 kilometres were subsequently reopened on a seasonal basis.
  In the late 1960s, the Eastern and Eastern Goldfields lines between Perth and Kalgoorlie was gauge converted to allow through operation of trains from the eastern states along with the Esperance & Menzies lines, with sections through the Avon River and east of Southern Cross built on new alignments. A concerted program of dieselisation saw diesel locomotives replace the last steam locomotives in March 1972.
  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. This resulted in many smaller communities losing their facilities. However, in the wheatbelt, bulk handling of grain continued despite the changes.
caption: The Prospector crossing the Swan River at Guildford in April 1986
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