Lost Railways: Camden Branch Line
Camden Branch: Campbelltown to Camden. Length: 12.8 km. Opened: 10 Mar 1882. Closed: 1 Jan 1963. LiftedThe Camden line extended from Campbelltown to Camden and was built to move agricultural produce from farms in the Camden area to Sydney. However for much of its lifetime its most important cargo was coal from nearby coalfields. When an alternate loader was constructed at Glenlee, the line was closed. The line branched off the main Macarthur line after it crossed Fishers Creek. It followed the northern side of Narellan Road (then called Camden Road), then Camden Valley Way (then called Hume Highway and Gt. Southern Road) terminating in Camden between Elizabeth and Edward Streets. Access was via Station Street. A notable feature of the line was the very steep Kenny Hill (1 in 19 grade) which was climbed after crossing Bow Bowing Creek. Long trains often failed to make it to the top the first time, and had to either back up and try again, or divide the train.
The branch line was authorised by an Act of Parliament on 28 April 1880, the line following the contour of the land, running beside the road to Narellan, and climbing Kenny s Hill on the steepest grade in New South Wales. The line, called the Camden Tramway, was opened by the Minister for Works, Hon. John Lackey, on Friday 10 March, 1882, construction having begun in June 1881. The tram departed from a dock on the east platform after passengers had walked across from the mainline train to the tram.
The original timetable showed three return trips daily. Departing Campbelltown to Camden at 5.20am, 11.00am and 7.00pm. Trips to Campbelltown from Camden also numbered three with the train departing Camden at 6.20am, 9.00am and 2.45pm on weekdays. Later in the trains life it was accounting for up to six return trips per day, the journey taking roughly 40 minutes. After the first World war, trains also began carrying milk as the Dairy Farmers siding in Camden opened in 1930. The trains carried all goods to Camden and up to 40 trucks of hay in the starving stock periods. But despite this traffic including passengers, the line was still in trouble as it wasn t paying its way. Records dating back to 1904 show the train was not paying its way. Because this lost all requests for alterations or improvements were denied by the Railway Authority, even the departure time of the train could not be alteres by 2 minutes.
Special trains would run to Maryfields station each Good Friday, so people could attend the Via Crucis ceremony at the nearby Franciscan Brothers Monastery. Other stations were at Narellan (at the end of Sharman Close), Graham s Hill (cnr. Graham Hill Road), Kirkham (cnr. Kirkham Lane) and Elderslie (opposite Macarthur Road). There were also stations at Kenny Hill and Currans Hill alongside Narellan Road that were operational until the 1940s. Apart from the Kenny Hill cutting and some of the formations near where the Maryfields and Kirkham stations once stood, all evidence of the line has been buried beneath widened roads and buildings.
As early as June 1957, the closing of the train line was being considered. With an increase in cars, fewer people were using the train and coal loading was moving to Campbelltown and Glenlee. An extra blow came in 1961 when a bus service was set up between Campbelltown and Camden. The Rail Authority had avoided this situation before when a man by the name of Herbert Miles set up a bus service in 1925. A Transport Bill was past in Legislative Assembly in 1931 which put the Camden bus service off the road. In 1961 it was back and no legislation was able to stop it. The bus service began operating as of 23 February, 1961.
The Dairy Farmers Camden Depot had an arrangement for their milk to be transported to Sydney by road as from 1 January 1963. The last train departed Campbelltown Station a couple of minutes past midnight on New Years Day 1963, and arrived at Camden Station at 12.55am. The final trip was marked by someone putting grease on the track going up Kenny Hill and someone else setting fire to Kirkham Station.
