Peterborough is a railway town at the junction of the Port Pirie to Broken Hill line and the Adelaide to Quorn, Port Augusta, Hawker, Leigh Creek and Marree line. The town services an important grain-growing and pastoral region. Peterborough station originally opened in January 1880 as Petersburg when a narrow gauge line opened from Port Pirie to the west. In November 1881, a line arrived from Terowie and the south, in 1882 it was extended north to Quorn. In 1888, a line was built eastwards to Broken Hill.
Thus Peterborough became a four-way junction station (all narrow gauge) and the town was the headquarters for the South Australian Railways 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 station along with the town, was renamed Peterborough in 1917.
Peterborough was the administrative and service centre for the Peterborough Division of the South Australian Railways, employing up to 1,500 people in the workshops during its heyday. The railway workshops covered an extensive area mainly to the west of the township, and it is in these original buildings that the exhibits of the Steamtown Heritage Rail Centre are displayed.
The Peterborough railway line extended from a junction at Roseworthy on the Morgan railway line through Hamley Bridge, Riverton, initially to Tarlee, then extended in stages to Peterborough. 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 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 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 to use the remaining line to Burra was a SteamRanger tour hauled by former SAR steam locomotive 621 on 19 September 1992.
Peterbrough's greatest claim to fame is that it is one of only two places in Australia (the other is Gladstone) where three railway gauges met. After track rationalisation some years ago, only the standard-gauge is active and most of the other two gauges on the ground have been lifted and are gone from the active mainline trackage area at Peterborough. A few multi-gauge points and small sections of track have survived. The Indian Pacific is the only passenger train to pass through Peterborough these days, but it does not stop.
It is entirely appropriate that one of the main attraction in this old railway town should be its railway museum - Steamtown - housed in the former Australian National railway workshop. Formed in 1977, Steamtown railway museum was created to run a steam train service between Peterborough and Quorn with rolling stock dating from 1920s. Four years after the society's foundation, on 17 April 1981, it ran its first public train. Subsequently, an average of six trips a year were made between Peterborough and Orroroo, and Peterborough and Eurelia. The peak operating year was 1981, when the society ran a total of 27 trains, including a notable trip over the former interstate narrow-gauge route to Quorn. A lack of funds to carry our rolling stock, locomotive and track maintenance, and skilled volunteers to run the service led to its closure.
It had been expected that when the local council took over managing Steamtown's assets in 2003, the society would again operate rail trips, however, those ambitions were unfulfilled on account of soaring public liability insurance premiums. Efforts were then focused on developing the Peterborough roundhouse and diesel shop that Steamtown had moved into when Australian National withdrew its operations from the town.
Steamtown
The Museum's heritage listed Roundhouse with its 23 bays, a 3 gauge turntable (the only one left in the world) and parts of the original workshops now display a wide range of historic rolling stock, mainly from the original Ghan which passed through the town. After dark, visitors can watch South Australia's first and only Sound and Light Show, from a historic Transcontinental carriage, now transformed into a viewing car and placed on the 27 metre long turntable. There's nothing like it anywhere in the country, and worth making an overnight stop in Peterbough to see. Ph. (08) 8651 3355.
Triple gauge turntable, Peterborough, SA
The turntable and roundhouse are the main features of the exhibit. The turntable is unusual in that it accommodates three rail gauges: Narrow gauge (1,067 mm (3 ft 6 in)), standard gauge (1,435 mm (4 ft 8 1 D2 in)) and broad gauge (1,600 mm (5 ft 3 in)). In Australia there were only two similar turntables (located at Port Pirie and Gladstone); all three were on the same line, with the one at Peterborough the only one remaining. This unique situation arose from the standardisation project of the late 1960s. At this time the broad gauge line was extended from Terowie to Peterborough and the Port Pirie to Broken Hill section (passing through Peterborough) was replaced by standard gauge line. The Peterborough to Quorn section remained narrow gauge.
The different tracks at a 'break of gauge' railway station at Peterborough, South Australia, now part of the Steamtown Heritage Railway Centre
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