Copley railway station was located on the Central Australia Railway, and later the Marree railway line serving the small South Australian outback town of Copley.
Copley | ||||||||||||||||
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 The station building at Copley railway station in January 2021. | ||||||||||||||||
| General information | ||||||||||||||||
| Coordinates | 30°33′15″S 138°25′28″E / 30.5541°S 138.4244°E | |||||||||||||||
| Operated by | South Australian Railways 1882–1926 Commonwealth Railways1926–1975 Australian National 1975–1987 | |||||||||||||||
| Line(s) | Central Australia Railway, Marree railway line | |||||||||||||||
| Distance | 596 kilometres from Adelaide | |||||||||||||||
| Platforms | 1 | |||||||||||||||
| Construction | ||||||||||||||||
| Structure type | Ground | |||||||||||||||
| Other information | ||||||||||||||||
| Status | Closed | |||||||||||||||
| History | ||||||||||||||||
| Opened | 1881 - 1882 | |||||||||||||||
| Closed | Mid 1990s | |||||||||||||||
| Rebuilt | 27 July 1957 | |||||||||||||||
| Previous names | Leigh Creek | |||||||||||||||
| Services | ||||||||||||||||
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History edit
Early history edit
The Copley railway station was opened between 1881 and 1882 as Leigh Creek railway station during the construction of the railway from Port Augusta to Government Gums (now Farina).[1] It was located south of Telford railway station. The town of Leigh Creek was built next to Telford railway station to support the coal mine, while the town of Copley was built next to Leigh Creek railway station. This prompted the renaming of the station to Copley in 1916.[2]
Conversion to standard gauge edit
The narrow-gauge railway south of Leigh Creek was under pressure from coal trains, with the coal trains getting heavier as time went on. A solution was needed to help increase capacity for the coal trains, with multiple options being identified for a standard gauge railway. These included upgrading the existing line to Leigh Creek or making a new railway that ran to the west of the Flinders Ranges, bypassing the Pichi Richi Pass. It was eventually chosen to build the new railway, and it opened to Leigh Creek in 1956 and Marree in 1957, with Copley being one of the places where the 2 lines crossed over.[3] From then on, the original narrow-gauge alignment was progressively abandoned, with the Port Augusta to Hawker alignment finally being closed in 1972.[4] As part of the new standard-gauge railway, the station was rebuilt with a brick station building similar to those at Telford and Marree, and a goods platform.
Decline and closure edit
Regular passenger services through the town ceased when The Ghan was rerouted via Tarcoola, ending the need for an SG connection service through Copley. However, passengers could still use the station via a mixed goods service operating through to Marree until 1985, when this was replaced by a goods-only service.[5] The service was curtailed to Copley in June 1987 and stopped operating in the mid-1990s. This left the Leigh Creek coal train as the only service on the line, but this did not service Copley. The coal train's only customer, the coal-fired power stations near Port Augusta closed in 2016. Mining at the coalfields ceased in 2015, though trains continued to transport the remainder of the coal until 2016.[6]
Present Day edit
Today, the standard gauge station building, goods platform, and water column survive. The line from Stirling North to Telford Cut remains intact, and Flinders Power handed the line back to the state government in 2017.[7]
References edit
- ^ Farina Restoration Group. "History". Farina Restoration Group. Retrieved 23 June 2021.
- ^ SA Department of the Premier and Cabinet. "Leigh Creek mine remediation". SA Government Department for Energy and Mining. Retrieved 25 June 2021.
- ^ Flinders Ranges History. "Coal". Flinders Ranges History. Retrieved 25 June 2021.
- ^ Hawker Visitor Information. "Hawker Railway Station". Hawker Visitor Information. Retrieved 25 June 2021.
- ^ FLINDERS RANGES HERITAGE SURVEY VOLUME 6 Department of Environment and Natural Resources
- ^ Flinders Power. "Leigh Creek Railway". Flinders Power. Retrieved 25 June 2021.
- ^ "Leigh Creek Railway". Flinders Power. Retrieved 13 April 2023.