"Mini Profile Series No. 12 - Steaming Through the Pass - Port Augusta to Woolshed Flat"
By Steve McNicol
Paperback cover 20 pages colour photos
INTRODUCTION
Continuing our journey on the Pichi Pichi Railway we start at Port Augusta and travel through the pass to Woolshed Flat. This part of the railway was reopened in sections, firstly from Woolshed Flat to Saltia and Stirling North in 1999 and then final section to Port Augusta in 2001.
We commence at Port Augusta and then travel through the saltbush plains until we reach the rugged scenery in the pass, then on to Woolshed Flat. Although trains from Port Augusta normally continue on to Quorn we return at this point and retrace our steps back to Port Augusta.
The Port Augusta extension was one of the biggest undertakings by a railway preservation group in this country and was only made possible by council and government financial support. The track had to be laid on a new formation from Stirling North to Port Augusta which necessitated an underpass under the standard gauge railway line to Leigh Creek.