South Australian Railways – Standardisation of Railway Gauges -Plan of Conversion 1945

Scarce map of South Australia by Harold Winthrop Clap made for the proposed standardisation of the Australian railway network.

In February 1942, Clapp was appointed Director-General of Land Transport by the Curtin Government to co-ordinate Commonwealth and State road and rail transport. In 1944, he was asked to prepare a report on the standardisation of track gauges in Australia. The Second World War had greatly increased rail traffic through the shipment of men, munitions and supplies around the country and exposed the inefficiency of a national rail system built on different gauges. Multiple break-of-gauge points across the country between 1,067 mm (3 ft 6 in) narrow gauge, 1,435 mm (4 ft 8+1⁄2 in) standard gauge and 1,600 mm (5 ft 3 in) broad gauge compromised the ability of the railways to support the war effort and required upwards of 1,600 men at various break-of-gauge points to transfer cargo from one train to another. Clapp submitted a national rail plan for the complete conversion of the Victorian and South Australian broad-gauge networks to standard gauge, the conversion of the Silverton Tramway and south-east South Australian narrow gauge lines to standard gauge, and the linking of Perth to Kalgoorlie by a new standard gauge link, at a cost of £44,318,000. He further recommended and the linking of Darwin to the national network via a new standard gauge link to be built from Queensland at a cost of £10,898,000, and a new inland standard gauge link through New South Wales and Queensland, cost £21,565,000.

Parochial state interests eventually meant that the plan was never implemented.