Roseworthy-Peterborough railway line

Roseworthy-Peterborough railway line
Bridge over the Light River at Hamley Bridge (2010)
Overview
System	South Australian Railways
Status	Closed
Termini	Roseworthy Peterborough
Continues from	Morgan line
Continues as	Peterborough-Quorn line
Operation
Opened	Roseworthy-Forresters: 3 July 1869 Forresters-Manoora: 21 February 1870 Manoora-Burra: 29 August 1870 Burra-Hallett: 10 March 1878 Hallett-Terowie: 14 December 1880 Terowie-Peterborough: 11 May 1881
Closed	Hallett-Peterborough: 26 July 1988 Burra-Hallet: 14 November 1990
Operator(s)	South Australian Railways Australian National Australian Southern Railroad
Technical
Line length	199.1 km (123.7 mi)
Track gauge	1,600 mm (5 ft 3 in)
Old gauge	1,067 mm (3 ft 6 in) north of Terowie until 1970
Route map Blue represents standard gauge since 1970 Peterborough Crystal Brook-Broken Hill Terowie break of gauge until 1970 Yarcowie Ulooloo Hallett Mount Bryan Burra Hanson Farrell Flat Mintaro Wakefield River Manoora Saddleworth Spalding line Riverton Gilbert River Tarlee Stockport Hamley Bridge-Gladstone line Hamley Bridge Light River Wasleys Morgan line Roseworthy to Gawler & Adelaide [1]

The Roseworthy-Peterborough railway line was a railway line on the South Australian Railways network. It extended from a junction at Roseworthy on the Morgan railway line through Hamley Bridge, Riverton, initially to Tarlee, then extended in stages to Peterborough.

History

The Burra Burra railway was initially proposed as early as 1850, before any other railways north from Port Adelaide.^[2] Before anything was done about this, the Gawler railway line was built in 1857, and extended to Kapunda in 1860 (and eventually to Morgan in 1878, see Morgan railway line).^[3] The first stage of the broad gauge Burra line from a junction at Roseworthy to Forresters (now Tarlee) opened on 3 July 1869.^[4] It extended to Manoora on 21 February 1870, Burra on 29 August 1870,^[5] Hallett on 10 March 1878 and Terowie on 14 December 1880.^[6][7]

Terowie was a break of gauge station with the line continuing north to Peterborough as a narrow gauge line, opening on 11 May 1881. On 12 January 1970, this 22.9 kilometre section was converted to broad gauge, 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 Hallet section on 14 November 1990.^[7][8] The line north of Burra was removed in 1992/93.

The last passenger train was a SteamRanger train hauled by steam locomotive 621 on 19 September 1992. Grain services last operated in January 1999, with the line last used by an Australian Southern Railroad locomotive in March 2004.^[9]

References