Port Pirie railway station (Ellen Street)

Port Pirie (Ellen Street) railway station
Ellen Street station building is now a museum owned by the National Trust of South Australia
General information
Location73–77 Ellen Street, Port Pirie, South Australia
Coordinates33°10′33″S 138°00′37″E / 33.1759°S 138.0104°E / -33.1759; 138.0104
Owned bySouth Australian Railways until 1967; now National Trust of South Australia
Line(s)Narrow gauge:
– Port Pirie to Gladstone, built 1875–1878
– to Petersburg 1881
– to New South Wales border 1888
Broad gauge:
– to Redhill 1937
GaugeNarrow (1067 mm / 3 ft 6 in); dual after broad gauge (1600 mm / 5 ft 3 in) added in 1937
StructureSingle-storey Gingerbread / Victorian Pavilion. Materials: stone and brick, with embossed sheet steel facade at front
PlatformNone; ground-level boarding
StoppingAll passenger trains (terminus for Port Pirie)
Opened1902
Closed1967 (now a National Trust museum)

Ellen Street railway station was the second of six stations that operated successively between 1875 and the early 2010s to serve the rural maritime town (later city) of Port Pirie, 216 km (134 mi) by rail north of Adelaide, South Australia. Soon after construction of the line towards Gladstone began in 1875, an impromptu passenger service commenced. The inaugural station, Port Pirie South, was 800 metres (870 yards) from the centre of the town. Since two tracks had already been laid down the middle of Ellen Street to the wharves, a small corrugated iron shed was erected as a ticket and parcels office. The street-side location was unusual for the South Australian Railways. In 1902, when passenger traffic had increased greatly, a stone building was erected in a striking Victorian Pavilion style. After the tracks were removed in 1967 and the station closed, the building's design assured its retention as a museum of the National Trust of South Australia.

Links to the articles about stations in Port Pirie
  Station Duration Gauge
1 Port Pirie (at what became known as Port Pirie South) 1876 to after 1911 ng  
2 Ellen Street (this article) 1902–1967 ng bg*
3 Solomontown 1911–1967 ng
4 Port Pirie Junction – also signposted as, and known colloquially as, Solomontown 1937–1967 ng bg sg
5 Mary Elie Street 1967–1989 bg sg
6 Coonamia stopping place 1st, 1929 to after 1937
2nd, 1989–2010s		 sg
* In 1937, one of the two narrow-gauge tracks along Ellen Street was made dual-gauge by the addition of broad-gauge rails.

Gauges are shown in these colours: narrow, broad and standard.

Port Pirie's six stations and the "multi‑gauge muddle"
At various times during a period of close to 140 years, Port Pirie had six railway stations – never more than two concurrently. During the 45-year period 1937–1982, the city became well known as one of the few locations in the world having three railway gauges.[note 1] This situation was a result of South Australia's slow transition from lightly constructed narrow gauge to heavy-rail broad gauge (which predominated in the state at the time), then to standard gauge when lines between the mainland state capitals were at last unified. As a consequence, all Port Pirie stations that succeeded the inaugural station of 1876 were either built to accommodate a change of gauge or were affected by one. The timeline, reasons for change, and gauges involved are shown in the following graphic.

Timeline of Port Pirie's six railway stations
Smelter workers walking down Ellen Street at the end of the night shift about 1904; a double track is in the middle of the street, smelter sidings ahead, wharf sidings to the right


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