Outer Harbor railway station is the terminus station of the Outer Harbor line. Situated in the north-western

Adelaide Adelaide ( ) is the capital city of South Australia, the state's largest city and the fifth-most populous city in Australia. "Adelaide" may refer to either Greater Adelaide (including the Adelaide Hills) or the Adelaide city centre. The dem ...

suburb of North Haven, it is 21.9 kilometres from Adelaide station.

History

Port facilities at Outer Harbor were constructed during the first decade of the 20th century. This involved reclamation of

marshland A marsh is a wetland that is dominated by herbaceous rather than woody plant species.Keddy, P.A. 2010. Wetland Ecology: Principles and Conservation (2nd edition). Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, UK. 497 p Marshes can often be found at ...

and the building of

wharves A wharf, quay (, also ), staith, or staithe is a structure on the shore of a harbour or on the bank of a river or canal where ships may dock to load and unload cargo or passengers. Such a structure includes one or more berths (mooring location ...

and

breakwaters A breakwater is a permanent structure constructed at a coastal area to protect against tides, currents, waves, and storm surges. Part of a coastal management system, breakwaters are installed to minimize erosion, and to protect anchorages, h ...

. A railway line was built northwards from

Largs Largs ( gd, An Leargaidh Ghallda) is a town on the Firth of Clyde in North Ayrshire, Scotland, about from Glasgow. The original name means "the slopes" (''An Leargaidh'') in Scottish Gaelic. A popular seaside resort with a pier, the town mark ...

in 1903 to facilitate this construction. The line was initially single track and used by

goods train Rail freight transport is the use of railroads and trains to transport cargo as opposed to human passengers. A freight train, cargo train, or goods train is a group of freight cars (US) or goods wagons (International Union of Railways) hauled ...

s only. As the harbour project reached completion, a station was erected alongside the wharf at Outer Harbor and a passenger service was introduced in late 1907. Outer Harbor opened to ocean-going shipping in January 1908.

Current location

In 1926, a new passenger station with brick buildings was built on the present site and allowed the lines closer to the wharf to concentrate on handling goods traffic. The original station was closer to the wharf than the current station location, in the area now occupied by the modern

Overseas Passenger Terminal The Overseas Passenger Terminal (OPT), known officially as the Sydney Cove Passenger Terminal, is a public passenger terminal servicing cruise ships and ocean liners located in Circular Quay, Sydney, Australia. Whilst commercial shipping operati ...

. There were various goods lines on the wharf in addition to the passenger facilities, and a sizeable

balloon loop A balloon loop, turning loop, or reversing loop ( North American Terminology) allows a rail vehicle or train to reverse direction without having to shunt or stop. Balloon loops can be useful for passenger trains and unit freight trains. Bal ...

which around the circumference of the North Haven Golf Course and allowed passenger trains to continue back towards

without reversing. Before the 1950s, the train service to Outer Harbor comprised: * A regular all-stations shuttle service along the peninsula which connected at Glanville with the suburban trains between Adelaide and

Semaphore Semaphore (; ) is the use of an apparatus to create a visual signal transmitted over distance. A semaphore can be performed with devices including: fire, lights, flags, sunlight, and moving arms. Semaphores can be used for telegraphy when arra ...

. * Several peak-hour local trains between Adelaide and Outer Harbor. * Special express

boat train A boat train is a passenger train operating to a port for the specific purpose of making connection with a passenger ship, such as a ferry, ocean liner, or cruise ship. Through ticketing is normally available. __NOTOC__ Notable named boat trains ...

s which ran to and from Outer Harbor to connect with the arrival and departure of ocean-going ships. Many of these trains were shunted onto the wharf lines to enable passengers to transfer directly to and from the ships. In 1959, increasing traffic from stations along the

Lefevre Peninsula The Lefevre Peninsula is a peninsula located in the Australian state of South Australia located about northwest of the Adelaide city centre. It is a narrow sand spit of about running north from its connection to the mainland. The name given t ...

resulted in the Outer Harbor line becoming the main line, with most trains running to or from Adelaide, with the Semaphore trains then operating as a shuttle service from Glanville. However, during the late 1960s and 1970s, the importance of the passenger facilities decreased. Today, the Overseas Passenger Terminal is now used only for short stop-overs by occasional

cruise ships Cruise ships are large passenger ships used mainly for vacationing. Unlike ocean liners, which are used for transport, cruise ships typically embark on round-trip voyages to various ports-of-call, where passengers may go on tours known as "s ...

. The last boat train ran to Outer Harbor in 1971, and the ticket office at was closed in 1979. The goods lines directly into the wharf were disconnected in 1974 when the railway lines approaching Outer Harbor were relocated to the northern side of Lady Ruthven Drive. Goods trains continued to access the wharf by reversing from the north end of the balloon loop. In the mid-1970s, a separate freight line was built to service the port area at Outer Harbor. This was an extension of the industrial line at

Osborne Osborne may refer to: * Osborne (name) Places Australia * Osborne, South Australia (disambiguation), places associated with the suburb in the Adelaide metropolitan area * Osborne, New South Wales, a rural community in the Riverina region Can ...

and followed the western bank of the

Port River The Port River (officially known as the Port Adelaide River) is part of a tidal estuary located north of the Adelaide city centre in the Australian state of South Australia. It has been used as a shipping channel since the beginning of European ...

to Pelican Point. By 1982, all freight trains used the industrial line. The connection between the wharves and Outer Harbor station was removed and the Outer Harbor line was used solely by suburban passenger trains. In the late 1980s, a resignalling scheme resulted in decommissioning of the balloon loop and the singling of the last three kilometres of track north of Midlunga.

Services by platform

References

External links

*
Flickr gallery
{{Adelaide Metro railway stations, Outer Harbor=y, state=collapsed Railway stations in Adelaide Railway stations in Australia opened in 1926 Lefevre Peninsula