We were driving from Port Augusta to Burra in South Australia. On the way we stopped at Orroroo for morning tea (last post) and we stopped at Peterborough to visit the 'Steamtown Heritage Rail Centre.'
Peterborough was settled in 1875. It was called Petersburg but the name changed during WW1 due to anti german sentiment, as were many towns in S.A. They had german names because of the big german migrant population there.
Peterborough is situated in wheat country and has a population of 1,700. It has an interesting rail history. It used to be on the intersection of the east west and north south rail lines. Both lines were narrow gauge (3'6") until 1970 when the east west line changed to standard gauge (4'8½") and the line south to Terowie was converted to broad gauge (5'3"). (One wonders why this happened) However, it made Peterborough become a triple gauge junction there were three in the country at that time. This meant an awful lot of changing trains when travelling across the country. It also meant that triple gauge turntables had to be built at the junctions. Now most of our railways are standard gauge. When the conversions took place lines were also moved and Peterborough was no longer a junction but the east west line, (the Indian Pacific train) still passes through Peterborough.
On the map you can see Adelaide at the bottom and Port Augusta at the top left. You can see the Pich Richi railway to Quorn.(past post) Peterborough is on the right. The red line is the north, south railway with the
"Ghan"train going from Adelaide to Darwin. The blue line is the east/west line with the
"Indian Pacific" train going from Sydney to Perth.
We took a guided tour of the museum. The triple gauge turntable is still in working order. The roundhouse where locomotives were serviced now houses many different heritage engines and carriages.
It was well set out museum with easy access to all the engines and carriages.
Bill and the boys were having fun.
An early diesel engine.
They had a variety of carriages this one was the travelling nurse's carriage.
This one the club car.
It took over an hour to see everything but for an outback town it was a splendid museum.
The centre also provides work for the unemployed who cannot find jobs but are receiving 'the dole' (social security payments.) After so many weeks on the dole they must do some kind of work to continue receiving the dole. So here they help restore old rolling stock.
