Spalding railway line

It was a railway that had been mooted in the 1860s,^[2] but was deemed to be too costly on account of the hilly nature of the Clare region. In 1870 railways were constructed to the east (Burra), and the west (Hoyleton) of the Clare region. In 1875 a Railway Commission was established to recommend appropriate expansion of the South Australian railway network, but recommended against a branch line to Clare because no point in the region was more than 15 miles (24 km) from a railway station. The communities of Clare, Watervale and Auburn continued to agitate for the railway. At the start of the 1910s, their cause was championed by Sir Richard Butler, who had briefly been South Australian Premier, and was then Commissioner of Public Works in Archibald Peake's administration. A Royal Commission examined the proposal and determined that a branch-line to Clare would not generate revenue sufficient to cover costs, but extending the line further north towards Spalding would facilitate closer settlement of the pastoral estates, which would in turn generate more revenue. The Riverton to Spalding Railway Act was passed in 1913.

The line was built with economies that doomed it to inefficient operation.^[3] There were tight curves (15 chains (990 ft; 300 m) radius north of Clare), 1:60 grades, second-hand 60 lb (27 kg) rails, and reinforced concrete bridges that were designed for light axle loading. When larger locomotives were introduced on the South Australian Railways in 1926, the Spalding line was unable to carry their greater weight. The motive power up to 1950 was mainly Rx class engines, with the occasional Q class and S class. Commencing early 1951, the line was worked mainly by 750 class locomotives. From 1960 the line was worked by 830 class diesel-electric locomotives.

There was a major bridge over the Broughton River, just south of Spalding. It still stands, and in 1993 it was heritage^[4] listed. That listing was a consequence of the inclusion of the bridge in the 1985 book by Colin O'Connor "Spanning Two Centuries - Historic Bridges of Australia". O'Connor's^[5] book contains inaccuracies in relation to this bridge. It attributes its design to Alexander Moncrieff, but the contract drawing^[6] is signed by Alex's brother Joseph. When the bridge was designed, Alex Moncrieff had not worked for the South Australian Railways for two years. Its 5-arch design was, by engineering standards, more than a decade obsolete when the contract was signed in 1918. Australia's expert on ferro-concrete construction, John Monash, had abandoned that style of bridge by 1906. When the Broughton River bridge was completed in 1919 there was a dispute over payments to the contractor, Joseph Dixon. The matter went to the High Court of Australia, which was critical of Joseph Moncrieff's handling of the contract, yet by a majority the High Court found in favour of the South Australian Railways.

From 1918 to 1922, the safeworking system was the telephone block. With the opening of the line to Spalding in 1922, the line was worked under permissive block conditions. From January 1944 the line was worked by the train order system, operated by Train Control in Adelaide.^[7]