Ethelton station is located on the Outer Harbor line. Situated in the north-western

Adelaide Adelaide ( ) is the list of Australian capital cities, capital city of South Australia, the state's largest city and the list of cities in Australia by population, fifth-most populous city in Australia. "Adelaide" may refer to either Greater A ...

suburb of Ethelton, it is 13.1 kilometres from Adelaide station.

History

Ethelton station opened in 1916, following construction of the Commercial Road

viaduct A viaduct is a specific type of bridge that consists of a series of arches, piers or columns supporting a long elevated railway or road. Typically a viaduct connects two points of roughly equal elevation, allowing direct overpass across a wide va ...

Port Adelaide Port Adelaide is a port-side region of Adelaide, approximately northwest of the Adelaide CBD. It is also the namesake of the City of Port Adelaide Enfield council, a suburb, a federal and state electoral division and is the main port for the ...

and a new bridge across 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 ...

. This new line diverted trains from

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 ar ...

and Outer Harbor away from the congested rail yards at Port Dock station and to avoid heavy traffic along St Vincents Street in the centre of Port Adelaide. It has been unstaffed since the ticket office closed in 1980, and there is a small interchange for local buses adjacent to the station. The

railway track A railway track (British English and UIC terminology) or railroad track (American English), also known as permanent way or simply track, is the structure on a railway or railroad consisting of the rails, fasteners, railroad ties (sleepers ...

s through Ethelton are

dual gauge In railway engineering, " gauge" is the transverse distance between the inner surfaces of the heads of two rails, which for the vast majority of railway lines is the number of rails in place. However, it is sometimes necessary for track to ...

and capable of carrying both

broad gauge A broad-gauge railway is a railway with a track gauge (the distance between the rails) broader than the used by standard-gauge railways. Broad gauge of , commonly known as Russian gauge, is the dominant track gauge in former Soviet Union (CIS ...

and trains. Until July 2008, the

tracks were used by

freight train Rail freight transport is the use of rail transport, railroads and trains to transport cargo as opposed to human passengers. A freight train, cargo train, or goods train is a group of Railroad car#Freight cars, freight cars (US) or goods wagon ...

s from Dry Creek and the Rosewater loop which passed through Ethelton to access industrial facilities on 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 ...

and the

container terminal A container port or container terminal is a facility where cargo containers are transshipped between different transport vehicles, for onward transportation. The transshipment may be between container ships and land vehicles, for example train ...

at Pelican Point. All freight services through the station ceased when the new

Mary Mackillop Bridge The Mary MacKillop Bridge is a bascule bridge in Adelaide, Australia that carries the Dry Creek-Port Adelaide railway line over the Port River. In July 2005, Abigroup was awarded a contract to build a railway bridge and the adjoining Tom 'Di ...

opened.Premier Mike Rann opens the Diver Derrick and Mary Mackillop road and rail bridges at Pt Adel
''

ABC News ABC News is the journalism, news division of the American broadcast network American Broadcasting Company, ABC. Its flagship program is the daily evening newscast ''ABC World News Tonight, ABC World News Tonight with David Muir''; other progra ...

'' 1 August 2008 The disused standard gauge rails have been removed, however the dual gauge

sleepers ''Sleepers'' is a 1996 American legal crime drama film written, produced, and directed by Barry Levinson, and based on Lorenzo Carcaterra's 1995 book of the same name. The film stars Kevin Bacon, Jason Patric, Brad Pitt, Robert De Niro, Dustin Ho ...

remain in place. Sections of the platform were replaced in 2014, and the station's seating and shelters were replaced in 2017.

Services by platform

References

* ''Rails Through Swamp and Sand – A History of the Port Adelaide Railway.'' M. Thompson pub. Port Dock Station Railway Museum (1988)

External links

{{Adelaide Metro railway stations, Outer Harbor=y, state=collapsed Railway stations in Adelaide Railway stations in Australia opened in 1916 Lefevre Peninsula