Mount Barker Junction railway station is a disused station on the
Adelaide to Wolseley line serving the
South Australia
South Australia (commonly abbreviated as SA) is a state in the southern central part of Australia. It covers some of the most arid parts of the country. With a total land area of , it is the fourth-largest of Australia's states and territories ...
n city of
Mount Barker.
History
Mount Barker Junction station opened in 1883, and consisted of a main platform with a timber station building identical to the one at
Balhannah
Balhannah is a town in the Adelaide Hills about 30 km southeast of Adelaide, the capital of South Australia. It was established in 1839 as a farming community by James Turnbull Thomson, who built the first hotel. The town soon grew to inc ...
, with a tall signal box next to the building. An island platform was built as well. The timber building and signal box were replaced with the current brick building in 1943. The island platform was demolished around the time the station closed to passengers by 1984 when the passenger service to
Victor Harbor ceased.
It became a
junction station ''Junction station'' usually refers to a railway station situated on or close to a junction where lines to several destinations diverge. The usual minimum is three incoming lines. At a station with platforms running from left to right, the minimum ...
when the
Victor Harbor line opened. When the
Adelaide-Wolseley line was
gauge converted
Gauge conversion is the changing of one railway track gauge (the distance between the running rails) to another.
Sleepers
If tracks are converted to a narrower gauge, the existing sleepers (ties) may be used. However, replacement is required if ...
to
standard gauge
A standard-gauge railway is a railway with a track gauge of . The standard gauge is also called Stephenson gauge (after George Stephenson), International gauge, UIC gauge, uniform gauge, normal gauge and European gauge in Europe, and SGR in Ea ...
in 1995, the Victor Harbor line was isolated from the rest of the
Australian National network.
SteamRanger
The SteamRanger Heritage Railway is a long broad gauge tourist railway, formerly the Victor Harbor railway line of the South Australian Railways (SAR). It is operated by the not-for-profit South Australian Division of the Australian Railway ...
subsequently relocated from
Dry Creek to
Mount Barker, and runs broad gauge services south on the line from
Mount Barker station. Until 2005, SteamRanger ran a ''Junction Jogger'' service from
Mount Barker station to this location, but ceased probably due to a worn-out track along this section.
Mount Barker Junction
SteamRanger
References
{{Reflist
External links
Disused railway stations in South Australia
Railway stations in Australia opened in 1883