Morgan railway line

Morgan railway line
Railway over the Gawler River bridge near the beginning of the route (2012)
Overview
System	South Australian Railways
Status	Closed
Termini	Gawler Morgan
Continues from	Gawler line
Operation
Opened	Gawler-Kapunda: 13 August 1860 (1860-08-13) Kapunda-Morgan: 23 September 1878 (1878-09-23)
Closed	Eudunda-Morgan: 2 November 1969 (1969-11-02) Kapunda-Eudunda: 11 March 1994 (1994-03-11)
Operator(s)	South Australian Railways Australian National Australian Southern Railroad
Technical
Line length	129.0 km (80.2 mi)
Track gauge	1,600 mm (5 ft 3 in)
Route map Adelaide Gawler Gawler line formerly to Truro & Penrice Roseworthy Peterborough line to Burra & Peterborough Freeling Fords Kapunda Bagot Well Hansborough Hampden Eudunda Robertstown line to Robertstown Sutherlands Bower Mount Mary Eba Morgan This diagram:

The Morgan railway line or North-West Bend railway was a railway line on the South Australian Railways network.

The first section of the line opened from Gawler. It was built to service the copper mining at Kapunda, opened on 13 August 1860. It was extended to Morgan on 23 September 1878 to provide a more efficient freight and passenger connection between the Murray paddle steamers and both the city of Adelaide and Port Adelaide for ocean transport.

The Eudunda to Morgan section closed on 2 November 1969, followed by the Kapunda to Eudunda section on 11 March 1994. The Gawler to Kapunda section theoretically remains open but has not been used for some years.

The Kapunda railway was the first extension of the line from Adelaide to Gawler. It passed through Roseworthy from where the Peterborough line later branched and Freeling to Kapunda. The extension continued through Eudunda then across the plains adjacent to what is now the Thiele Highway to Morgan. The Robertstown line branch opened in 1914 from Eudunda to Robertstown.

There were proposals to extend the line to connect to Wentworth, New South Wales, and even to Hay to provide a more direct rail route to Sydney.