Yass Junction railway station

Yass Junction railway station is a heritage-listed railway station on the Main South line in New South Wales, Australia. It serves the town of Yass. The station is not in the town itself but is located approximately four kilometres away near the Hume Highway. The station was listed on the New South Wales State Heritage Register on 2 April 1999.[1]

Yass Junction
Southbound view in May 2013
Location	Faulder Avenue, Yass
Coordinates	34°48′32″S 148°54′55″E
Owned by	Transport Asset Holding Entity
Operated by	NSW TrainLink
Line(s)	Main South Yass Tramway
Distance	318.01 kilometres from Central
Platforms	2 side
Tracks	2
Construction
Structure type	Ground
Other information
Station code	YAS
History
Opened	3 July 1876
Previous names	Yass
Services
Preceding station NSW TrainLink Following station Harden toward Griffith NSW TrainLink Southern Line Griffith Xplorer Gunning toward Sydney Harden toward Melbourne NSW TrainLink Southern Line Morning Melbourne XPT NSW TrainLink Southern Line Evening Melbourne XPT Goulburn toward Sydney
Former services Preceding station Former Services Following station Former NSW Main line services Bowning towards Albury Main Southern Line Coolalie towards Sydney

History

Yass Junction station is located outside of Yass due to the refusal of the Engineer-in-Chief of the New South Wales Railways, John Whitton to build the Main South line through the middle of Yass itself. After a visit on 8 December 1871, to investigate possible routes for the extension of the line from Goulburn, Whitton remarked that "to bring the station to North Yass would increase the length of the line by about three quarters of a mile; that the cost would be considerably more than I had recommended, probably £30,000 or £40,000 for works alone; and that in an engineering point of view [a] divergence to North Yass could not be entertained.[2]

Despite continuous objections, none of Whitton's working plans or other Government surveys were able to find a suitable route for the railway to pass through Yass. Instead, the present route from Gunning to Bowning was chosen which passed four kilometres to the north, with the station opening on 3 July 1876 as Yass.[2][3]

The Yass Tramway

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After a Government Bill was passed "to authorise the construction of tramways along certain streets and highways in the city and suburbs of Sydney and elsewhere", a tramway was built from to Yass Town to convey passengers. The trams departed from a small dock platform behind Platform 2 (the south bound platform). The line opened on 20 April 1892, with Yass station renamed Yass Junction on the same day. On 18 May 1914 the line from Coolalie was duplicated.[4][5]

It seems that, around 1917, some consideration was given to extending the line from Yass to Canberra—as part of a grander plan of extending a railway to Jervis Bay—and this work went as far as determining a proposed route.[6][7]

Services on the Yass Tramway were suspended on the line on 1 January 1957, started again on 1 December 1957, but again suspended on 18 May 1958.[8] A private bus service continued to carry passengers between the two locations but it also ceased on 18 May 1967.[8] The final services were three steam specials hauled by locomotives 1210 and 3112 on 29 October 1988, before the line was formally closed on 14 November 1988.[9][10] In 1990, Yass Town station was leased to the Australian Railway Historical Society.[11][12]

Services

Yass Junction is served by two daily NSW TrainLink XPT services in each direction operating between Sydney and Melbourne, and a twice weekly NSW TrainLink Xplorer between Griffith and Sydney split from Canberrra services at Goulburn. NSW TrainLink also operate a road coach service from Queanbeyan to Cootamundra via Yass Junction station.[13] This station is a request stop for the evening Melbourne XPT trains, so these services only stop here if passengers have booked to board/alight here.

Platform	Line	Stopping pattern	Notes
1	Southern Region	services to Sydney Central, Griffith & Melbourne	evening return Melbourne XPT request stop (booked passengers only)

Heritage listing

Yass Junction is an important site with the earliest surviving station building on the main southern railway (though altered). The site illustrates the changes from early construction with single track operation to duplication and the need for a second platform with additional facilities including refreshment rooms. These facilities in a remote location indicated concern by the railways to provide a modicum of redress to the citizens of Yass when engineering difficulties meant their town was to be by-passed by the southern railway. The site is significant because of the group of buildings including signal box, footbridge, station buildings and residence.

Yass Junction railway station was listed on the New South Wales State Heritage Register on 2 April 1999 having satisfied the criteria that the place possesses uncommon, rare or endangered aspects of the cultural or natural history of New South Wales. It was assessed as historically, architecturally and socially rare.[1]

References

1. "Yass Junction Railway Station group". New South Wales State Heritage Register. Office of Environment and Heritage. H01291. Retrieved 28 May 2018.
2. Forsyth, J.H. (ed.) (1988–93), Stations & Tracks; Vol. 3A: "Southern Branch Lines". State Rail Authority of New South Wales: Sydney, p. 101.
3. Yass Junction Station NSWrail.net
4. Forsyth, J.H. (ed.) (1988–93), Stations & Tracks; Vol. 3A: "Southern Branch Lines". State Rail Authority of New South Wales: Sydney, p. 103.
5. Yass Junction Railway Precinct NSW Environment & Heritage
6. "Proposed railway routes between Yass and Canberra". Trove. Retrieved 16 January 2021.
7. "Yass-Canberra to Jervis Bay Railway". Shoalhaven Telegraph (NSW : 1881 - 1937). 6 June 1917. p. 12. Retrieved 16 January 2021.
8. Forsyth, J.H. (ed.) (1988–93), Stations & Tracks; Vol. 3A: "Southern Branch Lines". State Rail Authority of New South Wales: Sydney, p. 97.
9. Forsyth, J.H. (ed.) (1988–93), Stations & Tracks; Vol. 3A: "Southern Branch Lines". State Rail Authority of New South Wales: Sydney, p. 96.
10. "Signalling & Safeworking" Railway Digest January 1989 page 28
11. "Yass Branch" Railway Digest July 1990 page 258
12. Home Yass Railway Museum
13. "Southern timetable". NSW Trainlink. 7 September 2019.

Attribution

• This Wikipedia article contains material from Yass Junction Railway Station group, entry number 01291 in the New South Wales State Heritage Register published by the State of New South Wales and Office of Environment and Heritage 2018 under CC-BY 4.0 licence, accessed on 28 May 2018.

External links

• Yass Junction details Transport for New South Wales