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As before, click on the image to your left and set into the next paragraph; this opens a full-size view of the controls in a seperate window. Switch between this window with the text, and the large image as we look at its features.

The image to the left is from trackside, and it shows the the permissive 3-position automatic semaphore signal at the entrance to the northern portal of Sleeps Hill tunnel. The upright position of the arm corresponds to a green aspect automatic searchlight signal.

The dual track railway line curving to the left runs into a deviation, the construction of which was completed in late 1919, replacing a route comprising two single track tunnels with a quarry between them, and a single track lattice girder bridge over a very deep ravine, the latter on a very tight curve.

This photograph is a view from well above the trackside, and it shows the northern portal of Sleeps Hill Tunnel.

Taken from high ground on the western side of the railway line, it clearly shows the hillside towering above the the tunnel bore.

Now, in contrast, next we see the entrance to the northern portal of the earlier tunnel system.

This was photographed from ground level, in a late sunny winter afternoon, as were some of the other photographs in this series..

The sloping brickwork above the tunnel mouth serves a similar purpose to the snow sheds of Alpine and Norwegian railways - although while not preventing snow from landing on the tracks, it did prevent debris from the hillside from doing so!

It should be noted that some of the photographs were not of particularly good quality, due in part to the lens system having become loose, and also an intermittently visible scratch. The camera was replaced after several rolls of film shot were processed and found to be faulty. Some later images on this site are obviously taken with a different camera.

From the map here, you may see both the original route, and the one which was opened in April 1919 through the one much longer tunnel which replaced the earlier system with dual track. 4 months after its opening, the second track was placed in service, and 2 months after that electric signalling was brought into use, making it one of the most modern main line railways in Australia.

A significant amount of housing development down hill to the westawrd followed the closure of the two old shorter tunnels

The southern portal of this quite short tunnel under a low spur of hillside is seen here, and the picture shows the much lower level of ground above the tunnel;

With the camera pointing in the opposing direction now, we can see a gentle curve to the left...

and in the distance the northern portal of the second (original) Sleeps Hill tunnel.

On the left hand side, out of view, is a large area excavated through quarrying. This activity continued here for many years after the railway tracks had been removed.

The next shot shows a closer view of the portal, under the actual range of hills itself, with the top being a considerable height above what used to be the the trackbed.

This tunnel has been used for many years for the cultivation of mushrooms, being leased from the State government.

Here we have a view of the outside portal of the southern most of this pair of tunnels, overlooking a deep gorge with a sheer drop to the creek at its base.

The picture is actually a composite of two, as can be seen when you enlarge the image by double-clicking on it.

In earlier times, steam trains travelled on the dual trestle bridge viaduct system that used to span Watiparinga Gorge.

Here we see the fore-runner to the present "Overland", known in those days as the "InterColonial Express". Indeed, many people still refer to the train as the "Melbourne Express". Photo is courtesy the Port Dock Rail Museum archives, and shows two Rx class (Rebuilt R class), the date being around 1910.

Down the bottom of the gorge, one can still see concrete footings and also two wheelsets off a small flat truck from when the viaduct system was dismantledsome 80 years ago.

The entrance to the old tunnel system from the southern end looked like this in 1984 - shot from immediately the other side of the gorge. The right hand picture shows the view from slightly further round the track a few days later when the sun was more in evidence. Here we have tilted the camera up slightly, and are looking towards the township of Belair on the far skyline between the hills, and now the end of suburban Adelaide rail service. While the railway travels through beautiful country side to get there, the main road straight up the hill is built-up with housing all the way.

Watiparinga creek runs from near Belair down through this gorge into the Shepherds' Hill Recreation Park as can be seen in a series of maps accessible here...

From Darlington in the west to Belair National Park map1
from Belair to Mount Lofty including National Park map2
from Long Gully on the eastern edge of National Park to Aldgate map3

These maps are reproduced from the 1:50 000 scale topographic map sheet 6627-IV titled Noarlunga.

The picture to the left is taken from trackside on the dual track line, and to the left can be seen a short cutting where the old route used to swing left on another s-bend, away from the present alignment, heading around to the viaducts.

Here is a pair of interesting shots. During 1984, permission was given by the Train Controllers of the National Railways (who ran long distance trains) and the suburban railways (who ran commuter trains), both of which used this section of railway, for the Scouts with whom I was associated, to cross the railway line during an all-day hike one sunday when maintenance work had closed both tracks of the line for six hours during daylight.

In the picture above we see a group photograph of leaders, parents, and scouts outside the huge south portal of the tunnel, and to the left we see a photograph taken from inside the tunnel looking out at the earth embankment across Watiparinga creek. The gorge was much narrower at this point, and a bridge was thus able to be avoided when the tunnel was constructed in 1918-19. In fact, all of the fill needed for the embankment came from the excavation of the tunnel and the two approaches to it.

It should be stressed that such photographs would be highly dangerous to take in normal circumstances, and that our party had to check in by telephone to Train Control when we had left the area to confirm that all members of the party were accounted for.

Here is an illustration from the cover of an interesting book written by an ex SAR Train Controller, being the script for a lecture he gave to the South Australian Historical Society. The title was "Some Historically insoluble railway problems in South Australia".

The photograph was by the author, Reece Jennings, and pictures Webb steam locomotive 526 leaving the southern portal of Sleeps Hill tunnel with the 16:20 Tailem Bend passenger train ex Adelaide in February 1966.

Just east of the southern tunnel portal (in the gorge itself) there is a small cave where a small party of scouts and I camped about a year later. We had caught the last afternoon train to Bridgewater, and then hiked overnight back from Upper Sturt railway station, through National Park during the hours of darkness, and we found the cave around 3am.

At that time, National Park was not closed to either hiking or camping at night time.

We returned several months later and camped overnight in the cave; in the morning we climbed the hillside to avoid crossing the railway line, and before so doing I took this photograph of an overnight freight train en route into Adelaide from Melbourne.

Continuing our journey up the line that winds its way through the rocky hills towards Belair, we pass through Eden Hills and between that station and Coromandel there is an unusual pair of single track tunnels. Even while the Sleeps Hill tunnel was single track, the line from Adelaide to Mitcham had been duplicated, and that from Eden Hills on to Blackwood and then Belair also was. At the time of the Eden - Blackwood duplication, a decision was made to build a taller tunnel for the second track in case of electrification at a later date. That never happened.

The second track was laid to the westward side of the exisiting one, and in 1995 when the 1600mm (5ft 3ins) main south line from Adelaide to Melbourne was converted to standard gauge, the extra height was useful for the higher loading of modern freight trains. The conversion also required the increasing of tunnel height in all the other tunnels between that point and Murray Bridge too.

The photo above was shot from the front of a train to Bridgewater about a week before the series on the Sleeps Hill tunnel. It was during this journey that the camera lens system became loose.

This is the view presented to the driver at the far end of the Belair crossing loop. The two aspect absolute signal always shows red in the upper aspect (because you cannot proceed at normal speed through the trackwork ahead) and in this instance, the road had not yet been cleared at medium speed to negotiate the set of switches on to the single track line from here on. Had it been cleared, the lower aspect would have shown either green (for clear the next two blocks) or yellow (clear for one block).

The other track is designed for "normal speed" running and therefore has only a single aspect signal.

There are actually three automatic signals placed in the block ahead which terminates in the very short loop for crossing passenger railcars at Long Gully.

Note the red Start of CTC Working boards on both signal posts, and in the distance in the cutting we can see the line swing to the right on a 10 chain radius curve into the Belair National Park, and more s-bends on a continual climb of 1 in 40 (2.5%).

This picture shows the approach to Belair from the opposite direction, some 200 metres ahead, and was taken with a replacement camera some time later. A two-aspect signal, the lower aspect for if the incoming train is to take the loop through the station, and the switches would then have to be taken at medium speed. The End of CTC Working board is visible, and to its left is a white sign which indicates that the train passes from country to city track ownership at that point. There is also a triangular sign without any numbers on it is a temporary speed restriction board, currently out of service.

Here is a photograph unlikely to be be able to be taken these days, as concrete sleepers (ties) are unable to have identifiaction plates nailed to them.

Here we see the letters R and N marked against the switch blades, indicating closure for Normal and Reversed operation.

The two "black boxes" to the right are the switch motor and the switch lock.

Back on the road heading out into the National Park.

We are approaching a beautiful location known as Foster's Corner which has been used for many years to get striking photographs.

and this is the other side of Foster's Corner, in National Park...

Above, on the left, we see a photograph taken by an Australian National staff photographer in 1985, and used by the Port Dock Rail Museum on the cover of their pulication "Line Clear: 100 years of train working Adelaide - Serviceton"

In the centre and on the right, we see two photographs taken by myself 13 years later (and also in the early morning), which was unable to be taken from the same spot because of tree growth in the mean time. While a good shot, the extra height from further up the bank would have captured the shape of the train better as it snaked itself round the s-bend.

An out of focus shot - due to the lens problem described - taken from the driving compartment of a prototype rebuilt train known to commuters and railwaymen alike as a "Super Chook". This is the approach to the western end of the National Park Tunnel. There are actually two tunnels on the line as it traverses National Park - this one (shortly before National Park platform) and the other one just the other side of Long Gully platform loop, which is called Long Gully Tunnel.

These tunnels have an interesting construction feature... there is a smoke gallery above the tunnel roof, which was an engineering attempt to remove the exhaust smoke of steam engines a century and a half ago.

This is shot from the driver's position on the return journey to Adelaide.

It is of the same tunnel, but the eastern portal, photographed while travelling in the reverse direction. Again please note the automatic semaphore signal ahead. Also the effect of the setting sun shining through the trees and reflecting on the windshield of the railcar.

Unfortunately passenger commuter railcar trains no longer run over this track, so it has not been possible to replace the pictures which suffered from the lens problem.

A year or so later I took this shot from the top of the eastern portal of this same tunnel during a weekend I was camping in National Park. The time was around 7.30am on a saturday, and notice the back view of the permissive semaphore signal also showing "clear for at least two blocks ahead".

Normally automatic signals in these blocks will be half up if there is no train accepted into the block, so a shrewd guess suggested that the inbound Overland had already left Mount Lofty and Train Control had cleared the route all the way through to Belair.

I decided to move quickly over the creek ahead of the tunnel, and on to the high ground on the cutting on the right hand side of the track in the distance. My hunch was rewarded about five minutes after arrival at an ideal photo spot of these three images of the "Overland" trundling downgrade very audibly whining in full dynamic brake

National Park platform is just that - an earth platform boxed in with old sleepers (ties). These pictures were taken a number of months later on a scouting trip.

Here we see the accessible end of the platform, reached by a flight of about two hundred steps up from the floor of the park below. It actually sits above Long Gully, which slopes down quite steeply from the station a mile or so ahead, which also used to serve visitors to the park. Long Gully station also has a series of steps down the hillside on the left hand side which were occasionally used by people from the road to the left of the railway line and the few houses along it.

Here we see aparty of Scouts (mine) on the platform, waiting for the railcar coming in the other direction.

The train is a late afternoon Adelaide to Melbourne Jet Freighter hauled by an Australian National BL class 3300hp EMD derivative, working with two Victorian Railways X-class 2000 hp EMD derivatives.

The train has passed me now, and the first locomotive has not yet operated the track circuit which will restore the automatic signal to "stop". Notice the offset lower red aspecton the signal post, which shows it is an automatic "permissive" signal which when at "stop" is able to be passed at slow speed after coming to a complete stop.

As you can see, double stack loading was not part of the Australian scene at that time.

Another tunnel mouth shot, this time as our rail car left Long Gully Tunnel heading east. after a short distance bordered by meadow land, the track enters a deep cutting at Upper Sturt, through another tunnel, and into Mount Lofty station, the summit of the route at 1613 feet above sea level in a distance of 16.45 miles, starting the climb at MP 3.07

You might like to go back and check the map on this one to see where we are... map 3.

Mount Lofty station in August 1945 with engine 525 just six months old.

This was a Saturday afternoon Victor Harbour Express passenger, and was specially posed for the photographer.

Normally the engine would have been much further up the platform, as can be seen by the far end of the train still being on the climbing grade into the station.

Engine 525 was just six months old at the time of the photograph, which comes from the Port Dock Museum archives and is published in "Line Clear" (previously mentioned).

Heading onwards we run downgrade now through what were originally "village" communities at Heathfield, Madurta, Aldgate, Caripook, and finally we see Bridgewater ahead of us as it was in the mid 1980's.

To the right we see a no longer used siding.

We shall take the right hand switch which leads at slow speed into the main platform, platform 1. The station building was burned down by vandals shortly after my visit, and unfortunately I did not get any photographs of it.

The main line goes straight through the station's platform 2 - there is a stabling road on the other side of that platform where two 3-car sets would oftewn be "parked" over the weekend waiting for the Monday morning commuter service.

This photo is taken from the driver's position at the Adelaide end of the train.

This run was on a Saturday so there was another railcar set stabled here. This then makes it possible to compare our train, the SuperChook with the RedHen on the left.

The ancestry of the SuperChook is very evident here, although it was given an external face lift to look more like the Jumbo or Supertrain as we can see in the next picture

The refurbished Red Hen set was overweight unfortunately, and some compensation could be made by removing the trailer car and converting it to a 2-car set.

As the unit was not compatible with any other rollingstock apart from Red Hens, after several years a decision was made to lay the unit up in the railcar depot in Adelaide.

The suburban service beyond Belair was withdrawn in the late 1980s, and with gauge standardisation of the Adelaide to Melbourne route, it is no longer possible to run any Broad Gauge trains beyond Belair, nor to run any standard gauge trains into Adelaide station