Disused dual gauge track near Port Pirie

Port Pirie sub looking East from over roadway bridge. Port Pirie (Solomontown) station was located here. The track on the right is the main line to the main standard gauge network

Port Pirie has had five railway stations over the years. The last one opened in 1967 and saw the last of the trains down the main street. The station had two different gauges, Standard on one side to Port Augusta (Commonwealth Railways) and Broad on the other from Adelaide (South Australian Railways) Then in 1978 SAR & CR where combined into Australian National Railways.

Historically the railway has been the life blood of most Australian country towns. Railway stations were often built in the flush of optimism and expectations of ever increasing trade, so were ornate and imposing. The Port Pirie in Ellen Street, which incorporates the foundations of an 1886 building, is such a building.
The railway line to Crystal Brook, which passes through Port Pirie, was opened in 1875. At that time the railway track in Ellen Street was merely an extension from the goods yard to the jetty and provided no passenger service. In 1879 the town's first station was built adjacent to the goods yard and known as Pirie South. This is the site of the present station. The Ellen Street station was opened without ceremony in 1902. The building is now a National Trust of South Australia museum. It was the change over point for all passengers travelling west as the line gauge altered here.
The line had firstly been narrow gauge, then a broad gauge line was added, with tracks running down the centre of the street from 1875 to 1967. Between 1960 and 1980, Port Pirie had a bogie exchange between standard and broad gauge tracks.
In 1970, the line from Port Pirie to Broken Hill was converted to standard gauge. The change created new three-gauge stations at Gladstone and Peterborough. In 1982, the line to Adelaide was also converted to standard gauge, and Port Pirie became a single gauge station.
Changes to the National railway system made the Port Pirie platform redundant and in 1992 the baggage room was converted to an Art Gallery. In 1994 a major refurbishment was undertaken and the Regional Tourism and Arts Centre was created. It now includes an Art Gallery, a tourist centre, a bus terminal, a Training Restaurant housed in an old sleeper car and a model train track one kilometre in length showing the trip from Port Pirie to Broken Hill.
The Great Southern Railway trains, The Ghan and the Indian Pacific still stop at Port Pirie, although at a halt in the suburb of Coonamia, some 5 km outside of the centre of the town, which avoids a reversal of direction. There are two services for each train each week in each direction.