Sleeps Hill railway station, Adelaide

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Sleeps Hill was the location of a number of quarries which became the source of ballast stone for the South Australian Railways (SAR). From 1909, a branch line, parallel to the main line and the Clapham branch line, served the Sleeps Hill quarries. The branch became the second main line in 1915, and the quarries were worked by a back-shunt from Eden Hills. For a short time, from 1916, Sleeps Hill was the Southern limit of SAR suburban train workings, until the double track passed through the new tunnels to Eden Hills. The station platforms were relocated to the South of the quarry sidings in the 1940s, and removed when Lynton station was opened soon after World War II. The foundations of the station buildings, the trees from the station gardens, some of the quarry siding, and the ruins of various pieces of quarry-working and stone-loading equipment remain.

In 1995 the western track of the double broad gauge track was converted to standard gauge, and the eastern track was doubled to provide one of the four crossing points on the current Adelaide-Belair passenger service.

[edit] References

• Callaghan WH. The overland railway. ARHS NSW, St James. 1992.
• Jennings R. Line clear: 100 years of train working Adelaide-Serviceton. Mile End Railway Museum, Roseworthy. 1986.