Peterborough is a town in the mid north of South Australia, in wheat country. It was originally named Petersburg after the landowner, Peter Doecke, who sold land to create the town, and renamed in 1917 due to anti-German sentiments.

Railways

Peterborough was originally sited at the intersection of an East-West railway linking Port Pirie and Broken Hill, and a North-South railway linking Adelaide and Alice Springs, both narrow gauge (3' 6") lines.

In 1970, the East-West line was converted to standard gauge (4' 8&frac12"), and the line south of Peterborough to Terowie to broad gauge (5' 3"). Thus Peterborough became a rare 3-gauge break-of-gauge junction. The broad gauge line was closed in the early 1980s, and the narrow gauge line was only used by tourist trains from Steamtown Peterborough. Their rail operations closed in 2002. The roundhouse is still open for inspection with a number of locomotives.

External links

Steamtown Walkabout - Peterborough