Peterborough | |||||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Station in March 2009 | |||||||||||||||||||||
| General information | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Location | Main Street, Peterborough Australia | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Coordinates | 32°58′27″S138°50′11″E / 32.9742°S 138.8364°E | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Line(s) | Crystal Brook-Broken Hill | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Distance | 247.50 kilometres from Adelaide | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Platforms | 1 | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Construction | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Structure type | Ground | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Other information | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Status | Unstaffed | ||||||||||||||||||||
| History | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Opened | January 1881 | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Previous names | Petersburg | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Services | |||||||||||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||||||||||
Peterborough railway station is located on the Crystal Brook-Broken Hill line in Peterborough, South Australia. [1]
Peterborough originally opened in January 1880 as Petersburg when a narrow gauge line opened from Port Pirie to the west. In November 1881, a line arrived from Terowie and the south, in 1882 it was extended north to Quorn. In 1888, a line was built eastwards to Broken Hill. [2] [3]
Thus Petersburg became a four-way junction station (all narrow gauge) and the town was the headquarters for the South Australian Railways narrow gauge network, with an extensive locomotive depot. A roundhouse was added in 1927. [3] [4] The roundhouse and turntable are listed on the South Australian Heritage Register. [5] The station along with the town, was renamed Peterborough in 1917.
As part of the standardisation project, the line between Port Augusta and Broken Hill was converted to standard gauge in 1970, thus Peterborough became a break of gauge station. As part of the project, the narrow gauge from Terowie was converted to broad gauge to match the rest of the line to Terowie from Adelaide resulting in Peterborough having all three South Australian track gauges. [3]
Following the conversion of the Adelaide to Crystal Brook line to standard gauge in 1982, Peterborough's importance diminished. By 1988, both the narrow gauge line to the north and broad gauge line to the south had closed. [3] Today the former roundhouse is home to the Steamtown Heritage Rail Centre.
Journey Beyond's weekly Indian Pacific service passes Peterborough on its route but does not stop at the station. [6]
Gladstone is a small rural town in the Mid North of South Australia in the approach to the lower Flinders Ranges. At the 2006 census, Gladstone had a population of 629.
Peterborough is a town in the mid north of South Australia, in wheat country, just off the Barrier Highway. It was originally named Petersburg after the landowner, Peter Doecke, who sold land to create the town. It was one of 69 places in South Australia renamed in 1917 due to anti-German sentiments during World War I.
Australians generally assumed in the 1850s that railways would be built by the private sector. Private companies built railways in the then colonies of Victoria, opened in 1854, and New South Wales, where the company was taken over by the government before completion in 1855, due to bankruptcy. South Australia's railways were government owned from the beginning, including a horse-drawn line opened in 1854 and a steam-powered line opened in 1856. In Victoria, the private railways were soon found not to be financially viable, and existing rail networks and their expansion were taken over by the colony. Government ownership also enabled railways to be built to promote development, even if not apparently viable in strictly financial terms. The railway systems spread from the colonial capitals, except for a few lines that hauled commodities to a rural port.
Terowie is a small town in the Mid North region of South Australia located 220 kilometres (137 mi) north of the state capital of Adelaide. It is located in the Regional Council of Goyder. Terowie retains a number of authentic and well preserved 1880s buildings, and has been declared a "historic town". It also remains a town of interest to those interested in rail history. Although now a very small town with few facilities, Terowie remains a popular destination for photographers, historians, and rail buffs.
The first railway in colonial South Australia was a line from the port of Goolwa on the River Murray to an ocean harbour at Port Elliot, which first operated in December 1853, before its completion in May 1854.
The Gawler line, also known as the Gawler Central line, is a suburban commuter railway line in the city of Adelaide, South Australia. The Gawler Line is the most frequent and heavily patronised line in the Adelaide rail network.
Rail gauges in Australia display significant variations, which has presented an extremely difficult problem for rail transport on the Australian continent since the 19th century. As of 2022, there are 11,914 kilometres (7,403 mi) of narrow-gauge railways, 18,007 kilometres (11,189 mi) of standard gauge railways and 2,685 kilometres (1,668 mi) of broad gauge railways. In the 19th century, each of the colonies of Australia adopted their own gauges.
South Australian Railways (SAR) was the statutory corporation through which the Government of South Australia built and operated railways in South Australia from 1854 until March 1978, when its non-urban railways were incorporated into Australian National, and its Adelaide urban lines were transferred to the State Transport Authority.
The Steamtown Peterborough Railway Preservation Society Inc. was a not-for-profit incorporated society that operated a heritage steam railway from Peterborough, South Australia, north along a section of the Peterborough to Quorn railway line, between 1977 and 2002. The society based its operations on the former South Australian Railways roundhouse at Peterborough and purpose-built sheds and yard at Peterborough West.
The Silverton Tramway was a 58-kilometre-long 1,067 mm railway line running from Cockburn on the South Australian state border to Broken Hill in New South Wales. Operating between 1888 and 1970, it served the mines in Broken Hill, and formed the link between the 1,435 mmstandard gauge New South Wales Government Railways and the narrow gauge South Australian Railways lines. It was owned and operated by the Silverton Tramway Company (STC).
The Crystal Brook–Broken Hill railway line is a 371 kilometre line running from Crystal Brook to Broken Hill on the Australian Rail Track Corporation network.
The Adelaide–Port Augusta railway line is the main route for northbound rail traffic out of Adelaide, South Australia. The line, 315 kilometres long, is part of the Adelaide–Darwin rail corridor and the Sydney–Perth rail corridor.
The Steamtown Heritage Rail Centre ("Centre") is a static railway museum based in the former railway workshops located in Peterborough, South Australia.
The 700 class is a class of six diesel-electric locomotives based on the Alco DL500G model, built by AE Goodwin, Auburn, New South Wales for the South Australian Railways. They are virtually identical to the New South Wales 442 class locomotive.
Gladstone railway station is located on the Crystal Brook-Broken Hill line in Gladstone, South Australia.
Port Augusta railway station is a rail station located on the Adelaide-Port Augusta railway line in Port Augusta, South Australia.
Port Pirie railway station (Mary Elie Street) was the fifth of six railway stations for passengers that operated at various times from 1876 to serve the small maritime town (later city) of Port Pirie, 216 kilometres (134 miles) by rail north of Adelaide, South Australia. As with several of Port Pirie's other stations before it, the station was built to accommodate a change of track gauge on railway lines leading into the town.
Terowie railway station was located on the Roseworthy–Peterborough line in the South Australian town of Terowie.
Mount Gambier railway station was the junction station for the Naracoorte–Millicent and Mount Gambier-Heywood lines in the South Australian city of Mount Gambier. It was last used in 2006, and has since been transformed into a public community space.
The Roseworthy–Peterborough railway line was a railway line on the South Australian Railways network. It extended from a junction at Roseworthy on the Morgan railway line through Hamley Bridge, Riverton, initially to Tarlee, then extended in stages to Peterborough.
