Peterborough railway station is located on the Crystal Brook-Broken Hill line in

Peterborough, South Australia 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 Australian place na ...

History

Peterborough originally opened in January 1880 as Petersburg when a narrow gauge line opened from

Port Pirie Port Pirie is a small city on the east coast of the Spencer Gulf in South Australia, north of the state capital, Adelaide. Port Pirie is the largest city and the main retail centre of the Mid North region of South Australia. The city has an ex ...

to the west. In November 1881, a line arrived from Terowie and the south, in 1882 it was extended north to

Quorn Quorn is a brand of meat substitute products. Quorn originated in the UK and is sold primarily in Europe, but is available in 11 countries. The brand is owned by parent company Monde Nissin. Quorn is sold as both a cooking ingredient and as ...

. In 1888, a line was built eastwards to

Broken Hill Broken Hill is a city in the Far West (New South Wales), far west region of outback New South Wales, Australia. An inland mining city, it is near the border with South Australia on the crossing of the Barrier Highway (A32) and the Silver City Hi ...

.Peterborough
National Railway Museum Thus Petersburg became a four-way

junction station ''Junction station'' usually refers to a railway station situated either on or close to a rail junction, where lines to two or more destinations diverge. Many junction stations have multiple platform faces to enable trains for multiple destinatio ...

(all narrow gauge) and the town was the headquarters for the

South Australian Railways South Australian Railways (SAR) was the organisation 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 Natio ...

narrow gauge network, with an extensive locomotive depot. A roundhouse was added in 1927. The roundhouse and turntable are listed on the

South Australian Heritage Register The South Australian Heritage Register, also known as the SA Heritage Register, is a statutory register of historic places in South Australia. It extends legal protection regarding demolition and development under the ''Heritage Places Act 1993'' ...

. 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 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 railroad car, rolling stock g ...

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 Adelaide ( , ; ) is the list of Australian capital cities, capital and most populous city of South Australia, as well as the list of cities in Australia by population, fifth-most populous city in Australia. The name "Adelaide" may refer to ei ...

resulting in Peterborough having all three South Australian track gauges. 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. Today the former roundhouse is home to the

Steamtown Heritage Rail Centre The Steamtown Heritage Rail Centre ("Centre") is a static railway museum based in the former railway workshops located in Peterborough, South Australia. Peterborough railway station, South Australia, Peterborough was the administrative and s ...

Services

Journey Beyond's weekly ''

Indian Pacific The ''Indian Pacific'' is a weekly experiential tourism-oriented passenger train service that runs in Australia's east–west rail corridor between Sydney, on the shore of the Pacific Ocean, and Perth, on the shore of the Indian Ocean – ...

'' service passes Peterborough on its route but does not stop at the station.

References

External links

{{commons category, Peterborough railway station, South Australia
Flickr gallery
Johnny's Pages gallery

Johnny's Pages gallery Disused railway stations in South Australia Railway stations in Australia opened in 1881