Summit Tank | |||||||||||
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| Platform ←Unanderra ·Mount Murray → | |||||||||||
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| General information | |||||||||||
| Location | Fire trail,Avon New South Wales Australia | ||||||||||
| Coordinates | 34°30′45″S150°42′22″E / 34.5125°S 150.7061°E /-34.5125; 150.7061 | ||||||||||
| Line(s) | Unanderra–Moss Vale | ||||||||||
| Distance | 108.14 km fromCentral[1] | ||||||||||
| Platforms | 1 | ||||||||||
| Tracks | 2 plusperway siding[1] | ||||||||||
| Construction | |||||||||||
| Structure type | At-grade | ||||||||||
| History | |||||||||||
| Opened | 20 August 1932[2] | ||||||||||
| Services | |||||||||||
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Summit Tank is a railway platform on theUnanderra–Moss Vale line in theSouthern Highlands ofNew South Wales,Australia. The platform is located on the main line; there is an active passing loop andperway siding beside it.[1]
In the late 1920s, it was decided by the then New South Wales Government that a railway line was needed betweenMoss Vale andWollongong to get freight trains from southern locations directly toPort Kembla and away from the increasing passenger train services in southern and south western Sydney. A right of way was surveyed fromUnanderra just south of Wollongong through the southern part ofFarmborough Heights on a gradient of 1 in 33 to Moss Vale.
Summit Tank is a location wherebanker or pusher engines were taken off Moss Vale bound trains and for extra braking were added to heavy Wollongong or Port Kembla bound trains. Summit Tank had a passenger platform, train crew amenities and a 60-foot (18 m) manualturntable for turning locomotives and ash pits.
Summit Tank still sees the occasional bank engine with heavy steel trains regularly using the Unanderra to Moss Vale line to gain access to the Main South Line to Melbourne. Other traffic on the line includes container trains, bulk wheat and other grain trains, mostly from southern New South Wales; coal trains from Tahmoor; western coal trains using the line during Illawarra line trackwork; limestone trains from Medway, as well as the once-a-monthCockatoo Run to and from Sydney.
Summit Tank has a mainline andpassing loop with a platform for safeworking duties including a local control panel and radio antenna for train operations. Further towards Moss Vale there is a platform where Cockatoo Run passengers can alight to visit a scenic look-out on the edge of theIllawarra Escarpment, with views overLake Illawarra and thePacific Ocean.