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Distance from Port Augusta: 40 kms, 24¾ miles from Peterborough: 130 kms, 80½ miles
Major manned station and junction on the Hawker Line and the Peterborough-Quorn Line and until 1932 a vital part of the Transcontinental Railway from Sydney to Perth.
Multiple loops and sidings for station, goods, grain and fuel depot plus loco servicing facilities.
From the 1880s Quorn was the junction between the Great Northern Line (Port Augusta to Oodnadatta) and the Peterborough-Quorn Line, both operated by the SAR. In the 1920s the Great Northern Line was transferred to the Commonwealth Railways and was extended to Alice Springs. It then became known as the Central Australia Railway .
In the 1950s the lower portion of the Central Australia Railway from Port Augusta to Maree was replaced by a new standard gauge (4ft8½in - 1435mm) line on a completely different alignment that bypassed Quorn and most of the original narrow gauge line. The bypassed line was closed except for the section from Quorn to Hawker which became known as the Hawker Line . This eliminated virtually all traffic passing through Quorn and significantly reduced the traffic on the Peterborough-Quorn Line.
Passenger services ended in 1969 but heritage excursion trains from Peterborough continued to run until the mid 1980s.
In 1972 the Hawker Line was closed and in 1974 Quorn became the operations centre for the Pichi Richi Railway, a narrow gauge steam preservation railway. The Pichi Richi Railway initially ran heritage trains between Quorn and Summit, a few kms towards Port Augusta, but by 2001 they had restored the entire line to Port Augusta.
The Peterborough-Quorn Line was closed in 1987 but the Pichi Richi Railway is still in operation running narrow gauge heritage tourist trains between Quorn and Port Augusta.
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