North Coast railway line, New South Wales

Paterson bridge under construction in 1910

Official opening of the Kyogle Interstate Railway Line by Mrs AE Moore, wife of Queensland Premier at South Brisbane

The first North Coast railway was opened between Murwillumbah, Byron Bay and Lismore in 1894 and extended to Casino in 1903 and Grafton in 1905. A branch line was built to Kyogle in 1910 and extended to South Brisbane in 1930.

The line was built between 1905 and 1932, and when completed, bypassed the Main North line and provided a quicker route up the eastern seaboard. The development of the line was hampered by the many large rivers that flow through the North Coast. The line also features the Cougal Spiral, which is one of only two spirals in New South Wales.

A railway was built from Maitland to Paterson and Dungog in 1911. It was extended to Gloucester and Taree in 1913 and Wauchope, Kempsey, Coffs Harbour, Glenreagh and South Grafton (now Grafton station) in 1915.[4]

The Clarence River was the most difficult river to cross and it was not crossed until 1932.[4][5] In the meantime services were connected by rail ferry that carried the carriages across the river. The opening of the Grafton Bridge in 1932 completed the Sydney – Brisbane line as the first standard gauge inter-capital link.

The completion of the Sydney–Brisbane link saw the Casino–Murwillumbah line become a branch line.[6] In 1930 a branch line had been added to Ballina but this closed in 1949.[7] The Murwillumbah branch closed in 2004.

A picturesque branch was opened from Glenreagh to Dorrigo in 1924, but was difficult to maintain due to the steep terrain and high rainfall and it was closed in 1972 after a washaway.[8] The Glenreagh to Ulong section is proposed for reopening as a heritage tourist railway by the Glenreagh Mountain Railway. The Dorrigo Steam Railway & Museum is also being set up in Dorrigo as a museum and working exhibit.

When the Main North Line was closed north of Armidale in 1988, super-freighters to Brisbane began using the North Coast Line, operated by the State Rail Authority, then National Rail. Today, freight services on the North Coast Line are operated by Pacific National and SCT Logistics. These superfreighters do not serve any of the towns they pass through - in the government railways era, there would be regular freight services to towns such as Kempsey, Grafton and Casino.

The only freight train that regularly services the North Coast Line is a cement and sugar train for Grafton, Operated by Pacific National.

The North Coast Line has significant curvature, equivalent to turning through 150 circles – 75.5 to the right and 74.5 to the left heading north, the difference of one circle due to the Cougal Spiral in the Border Ranges. Of course the curves are unevenly distributed meaning that maximum speeds change hundreds of times usually within the range of 60 km/hr and 115 km/hr for freight trains.

The Australian Rail Track Corporation has recently resleepered the track with concrete sleepers, upgraded the signals and installed new loops to increase efficiency. In mid-2011 they eased about 58 sections of curves on the line, increasing line speed for the XPT and freight trains. The curve easing was done without land purchases, so the track changes would be minor, staying within the existing corridor.

This is a list of all the locations and crossing loops on the North Coast line.

• Rail transport in New South Wales