The Peterborough railway line was a railway line on the

South Australian Railways 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 Aust ...

network. It extended from a junction at Roseworthy on the

Morgan railway line The Morgan railway line or North-West Bend railway was a railway line on the South Australian Railways network. History The first section of the line opened from Gawler. It was built to service the copper mining at Kapunda, opened on 13 Augus ...

through Hamley Bridge, Riverton, initially to Tarlee, then extended in stages to

Peterborough Peterborough () is a cathedral city in Cambridgeshire, east of England. It is the largest part of the City of Peterborough unitary authority district (which covers a larger area than Peterborough itself). It was part of Northamptonshire until ...

History

The Burra Burra railway was initially proposed as early as 1850, before any other railways north from Port Adelaide. Before anything was done about this, the Gawler railway line was built in 1857, and extended to

Kapunda Kapunda is a town on the Light River and near the Barossa Valley in South Australia. It was established after a discovery in 1842 of significant copper deposits. The population was 2,917 at the 2016 Australian census. The southern entrance t ...

in 1860 (and eventually to Morgan in 1878, see

). The first stage of the broad gauge Burra line from a junction at Roseworthy to Forresters (now Tarlee) opened on 3 July 1869. It extended to Manoora on 21 February 1870, Burra on 29 August 1870, Hallett on 10 March 1878 and Terowie on 14 December 1880. Terowie was a

break of gauge With railways, a break of gauge occurs where a line of one track gauge (the distance between the rails, or between the wheels of trains designed to run on those rails) meets a line of a different gauge. Trains and rolling stock generally cannot ...

station with the line continuing north to

as a narrow gauge line, opening on 11 May 1881. On 12 January 1970, this 22.9-kilometre section was converted to broad gauge in 1970, thus making Peterborough the break of gauge point with the narrow gauge Peterborough to Quorn and standard gauge Port Pirie to Broken Hill lines. Regular Australian National passenger services ceased in December 1986, with the line north of Hallett closed on 26 July 1988, followed by the Burra to Hallett section on 14 November 1990. The line north of Burra was removed in 1992/93. The last passenger train to operate to Peterborough was a Steamrail tour using Victorian locomotive R761, while the last passenger train on the line was a

SteamRanger The SteamRanger Heritage Railway is a long broad gauge tourist railway, formerly the Victor Harbor railway line, South Australia, Victor Harbor railway line of the South Australian Railways (SAR). It is operated by the not-for-profit South ...

train to Burra hauled by South Australian locomotive 621 on 19 September 1992. On the 1st of November 1997, Australian Southern Railroad acquired a 50-year lease on the line as part of Australian National's South Australian freight assets sale to ASR. Grain services all the way to Burra last operated in January 1999, with the line from Saddleworth to Burra last used by an Australian Railroad Group (formerly ASR) locomotive in March 2004. The last grain train to Saddleworth operated in 2006, with the last train on the line being a Roseworthy grain operated by Genesee and Wyoming Australia (formerly ARG) in 2007. In theory the line remains open in a dormant condition but has not seen a train in many years. Various sections of the line have been damaged by floods and bushfires, with the track being severed at several road crossings. One Rail Australia (formerly GWA) continue to clear vegetation on the line to meet its lease agreement with the South Australian Government, although the track itself has not been maintained since line closure.

References

{{Reflist Closed railway lines in South Australia Railway lines opened in 1869