User:Yeti Hunter/Sandbox 2

Mount Pleasant railway line

Early agitations for a railway to connect Eden Valley the Adelaide and the Murray focused on a direct route via Gumeracha, and either the Torrens Gorge or Tea Tree Gully, but surveys indicated the route to be impractical on a broad gauge, and ruinously expensive even on a narrow gauge (construction cost was estimated at £840,000)

Originally concieved as the first leg of a railway to access the Murray Flats at Sedan; the railway was to have continued northeast from Mount Pleasant, descending the range via the Sanderston Gully.

After initial difficulties, with the train taking anything from 3-5 hours to cover the 49 miles to Adelaide, a convenient service began in 1921?? with a single railmotor providing a convenient double-trip per day to link up with the throguh-train to Adelaide at Balhannah. This was soon changed to a single direct trip to Adelaide, with the railmotor departing later and arriving earlier, thus leaving travellers with little time to conduct any business in the city.

The initial service was notoriously inconvenient for passengers. The mixed service departed Adelaide to Mount Pleasant in the morning, returning in the afternoon. It therefore required two nights accommodation for hills residents to transact a single day's business in Adelaide.

Proposed closing 1932, as it was not covering expenses. However closure would adversely affect earnings on the mainline, due to the volumes of freight and passengers collected by the branchline. Review by SAR decided against closure, as by the time of the review it was found that the railway was earning a modest operating surplus of £400.