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| A D255 locomotive at Bowenfels, c.1885 |
Introduction
During the 19th Century, improvements in transport and
communication were of vital significance for the development of New South Wales. In 1815
it took Governor Macquarie nine days to travel by coach from Sydney
to Bathurst.
This time was substantially reduced during the next thirty years as
improvements were made both to the Western
Road and to the type of coaches operating along
it. However, travel and the transportation of goods remained uncomfortable,
hazardous and sometimes impossible in bad weather. The construction of the
railway to make transport to and from the west both more reliable and more
rapid was seen as essential for the future of the state. This would have a dramatic
impact upon the development of the Blue Mountains area, opening it up to those
with the resources and the leisure to enjoy the environment for its health and
recreational value; as well as providing the means for exploiting the coal and
shale resources being discovered there, and ultimately making it practical to
commute to work in the city.
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| Baldwin 4-6-0 locomotive c.1900 |
Construction, Problems and Later
Improvements
From the late 1840’s there emerged a strong demand for the building of
railways in
Australia,
which was strengthened by the discovery of gold. From the 1850’s railway
construction began which transformed eastern
Australia. New lines opened from
Sydney to
Parramatta
(1855), Campbelltown (1858) and from the
Port of Newcastle
to Maitland. Maitland had become the centre of trade for most of northern
New South Wales and was
the first section of what was to become the Great Northern Railway. Extension
of the railway westward from
Sydney to
Bathurst was also considered a priority to tap the rich
natural and rural products of the
Bathurst
plains and western areas, although there would be significant obstacles to
overcome. Indeed in 1857 a survey of a route across the Blue Mountains stated
that, “a direct line between
Sydney and
Bathurst cannot be
obtained” (Royal Engineers Report, 24.1.1857). However by January 1863, the
Western Railway was completed as far as Penrith and for the next four years
this was to be the train terminus and departure point for the coach services to
Bathurst. As
they had been earlier, the
Blue Mountains were
again seen as a major barrier to westward progress, for the extension of the
railway line was proving difficult.
Three alternative routes were
considered by government planners:
1. Bell’s Line of Road via Mount
Tomah and Kurrajong.
2. Grose Valley to its head and
proceed by way of a tunnel to Hartley Vale.
3. The three explorers' route already favoured by the road builders.
The third alternative was finally chosen as the one offering the least
problems, both physical and financial. But, as in the case of the road, the
difficulties of ascent and descent at each extremity of the mountain barrier
were to occupy the technical and imaginative talents of those concerned for
many years. A railway requires easier grades than a road, so the problem was a
formidable one.
John Whitton, a man with considerable experience in railway construction in England, had
been appointed Engineer-in-Chief of the N.S.W. Railways in 1856: to him fell
responsibility for finding a solution to the problem. While he personally
favoured the construction of a tunnel through Lapstone Hill, the finance
available could not match the expense. As an alternative, Whitton and his staff
designed a Zig-zag railway with two reversing points. It ascended the
escarpment with a grade of 1 in 30 to 1 in 33, and incorporated a magnificent
seven-arched sandstone viaduct across Knapsack Gully.
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| Knapsack viaduct, c1870 |
By July 1867, the railway was completed as far as Weatherboard (Wentworth Falls),
and by May the following year had reached Mount Victoria.
Whitton again employed the zig zag technique to descend the Blue
Mountains in the west as the route down diverged from that of the
main road lines and offered no possibility of a suitable grade.
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| The Great Zig-zag, Lithgow c.1870 |
The Lithgow or Great Zig Zag is an impressive piece of engineering. Two
reversing points were again employed, but being considerably larger than its
Lapstone equivalent, it required the construction of three large viaducts. Work
on it began in 1866 and by October 1869, the railway line was completed as far
as Bowenfels.
The top of the main ridge is the only viable route to cross the Blue Mountains. It was necessary, therefore, that the railway
shared this often extremely narrow area with the road. This resulted in the
railway crossing the road at various points and also meant that in some places
the road itself had to be moved to make the best use of the limited space
available. Such places are often indicated where the present road closely hugs
the railway boundary.
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| Valley Heights station with gate-keeper's cottage c.1880 |
At locations where the original railway crossed the
Bathurst Road, level crossings were
constructed. There were twelve of these between Emu Plains and Mount Victoria,
all numbered for easy identification and all except one, No. 7 at Springwood,
provided with stone gatehouses. When the major part of the
Blue
Mountains line was duplicated in 1902, most of these original
level crossings were removed and replaced by under bridges or over-bridges. At
the time of duplication many of the present station buildings (e.g. Blaxland,
Faulconbridge, and
Valley
Heights) were demolished
and the original stations converted into island platforms. Indeed, Springwood,
Wentworth Falls
and
Mount Victoria were the only brick station
buildings then existing to survive duplication.
Originally of light construction, the railway line over the Blue
Mountains was characterised by steep grades and curves imposed by
the Government’s emphasis upon economy. As traffic increased over the years,
considerable relocation work has taken place where possible, to ease grades and
straighten curves. While it is difficult in many places to identify the
original centre line, the abandoned cuttings and formations can still be seen.
For example, between Linden
and Woodford, the line was moved from the original deep cuttings during
extensive relocation work in 1896, removing several bad curves. In some areas
the abandoned rail route has been used to improve the alignment of the highway,
as seen in the Lapstone-Glenbrook area.
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| Glenbrook Tunnel construction |
As with the road approaches to the
Blue Mountains,
significant modifications have also occurred over the years to these sections
of the railway:
1. Lithgow end: by 1885, westbound traffic caused a bottleneck and a deviation
to avoid the Zig-zag came under consideration. A new route involving extensive
tunneling was opened in October, 1910.
2. Lapstone end: increases in rail traffic caused similar bottlenecks to those
occurring in the west, while the shortness of the reversing stations meant a
limit on the length of trains. This posed a severe disadvantage as freight
increased and more powerful engines were introduced. In December 1892, a
deviation avoiding the Zig-zag and incorporating a tunnel through the Lapstone
Hill was opened. Evidence of the original Zig-zag route remains on Lapstone
Hill. By 1911, because of the discomforts caused by the tunnel ‘spoor
ventilation, the severe 1 in 30 to 1 in 31 grades, and the bottlenecks that
occurred following the duplication of the line from Glenbrook to Mount
Victoria, a further deviation following the gorge of Glenbrook Creek,
incorporating a new tunnel through The Bluff and a new brick viaduct across
Knapsack Gully, remains the present rail route. The grade was improved to 1 in
60. The old tunnel still exists and much of the old rail route, including the
old Knapsack Viaduct, has been incorporated into the Great Western Highway.
Stimulus To and Influence Upon Town
Settlement and Development
In the decades that followed the opening of the railway line, a large number of
the present Mountains townships emerged and took shape around the new railway
platforms. The railway provided incentives for town growth and development in a
variety of ways:-
Various inns spread at intervals
along the Western Road
provided the nucleus for the sparse settlement occurring during the first half
of the 19th century. With the development of the railway, many of the early
platforms were located in close proximity to established places of
accommodation, thus reinforcing the early stages of human occupation.
• Blaxland began as Wascoe’s in 1867. John Outrim Wascoe
was the current landlord of the “Pilgrim Inn”.
• Springwood was established in 1867 near the popular Springwood Inn, better
known as Boland’s Inn.
• Woodford was opened in 1868 as Buss’s Platform. William Buss had been the
popular licensee of the King’s Arms Hotel, or Buss’s Inn
as it was more generally known, until his death in October, 1867.
• Lawson began as Blue
Mountain in 1867. The
Blue Mountain Inn, established in 1840, was nearby.
• Wentworth Falls opened as Weatherboard in 1867.
The Weatherboard Inn was one of the oldest of the mountain inns, established in
1827. This was for a time the railway terminus, and a bustling itinerant community
developed around it.
• Blackheath had a railway platform built in 1869. This was the location of the
Scotch Thistle Inn, though evidence suggests it was closed at this time.
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| Rail accident, Springwood 1923 |
During the 1870’s, the more
reliable and rapid travel provided by the railway encouraged Sydney’s more
affluent people (judges, politicians, businessmen, etc.) to purchase land and
build country residences in the Blue Mountains. For a number of these, private
railway platforms were provided to service their families, while others
established their estates in proximity to already existing stations. The “country
estate” trend soon attracted others including the businesses and services
required to satisfy the needs of new communities. Many of these large
properties were eventually subdivided in the later nineteenth and early
twentieth centuries.
Various specific railway activities
provided growth incentives to those areas in which they were located. Water was
essential for the operation of steam engines and a regular supply had to be
maintained until electrification was introduced. Thus at a number of points along
the railway line facilities for water storage and reticulation were
established. From 1867 at Glenbrook (Watertank) water was gravitated from the
lagoon to a tank by the rail line, while dammed supplies were constructed at
Woodford/Linden (from 1885), Lawson (from 1867), Wentworth Falls
(from 1878) and Blackheath (from 1867). The supply at Linden
eventually became public, serving towns on the Lower Blue Mountains, while
Glenbrook and Wentworth
Falls were converted to
public recreation lakes and Lawson and Blackheath to public swimming pools.
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| Katoomba platform and staff c.1880 |
With grades varying from 1 in 33 to 1 in 66, the climb between
Valley Heights
and Katoomba is one of the steepest in
Australia. During the age of steam,
both Katoomba and
Valley
Heights, with their
turntable facilities, benefited as terminus points for the pilot engines.
Valley Heights
still retains its significance in relation to the railway with its roundhouse
and workshops.
Mount
Victoria’s position as a terminus for
both tourist rail traffic to Jenolan
Caves and commuter trains
contributed to its early growth. For many years Mount Victoria
was also one of the principal refreshment stops on the western line. Full meals
were served in the substantial refreshment rooms built in 1868 and now occupied
by the historical museum.
The numerous railway navvies and
labourers who worked on the Mountain line also contributed to the growth and
development of the towns along its route. For example:
·
In 1866-67, while the railway was being built,
labour had to be supplied. At Weatherboard (Wentworth Falls)
for example, Charles Wilson erected an accommodation house on the site of the
present post office, which served the railway workers as a hotel, store,
butcher’s shop and baker’s shop.
·
In the 1870’s the Springwood area contained a
large proportion of railway families whose numbers contributed significantly to
the early establishment of a public school in 1878 and, to business growth in
the town around this time.
·
A similar stimulus for town development occurred
at Glenbrook where a public school was established in 1892 in response to the
many children in the work camps during deviation work to replace the old Zig
Zag. Glenbrook-Lapstone was again the site of major construction camps during
the 1913 deviation.
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| Lapstone Zig Zag |
A further influence the railway has had on the pattern of development in the
Blue Mountains arises from re-emphasis of the earlier
division already imposed on the landscape by the road. The road and the railway
both dominate the crest of the ridge, the principal area where settlement could
occur. Many of the towns that developed found themselves bisected by the road-rail
route. Additionally, many parish boundaries (e.g., Coomassie and Magdala;
Linden and Woodford;
Blackheath and Kanimbla) had been partly defined by the road route and many
towns have grown half in one parish and half in another. As a result of this
bisection there have been, in some towns, noticeable variations in settlement
patterns on either side of the road-rail. Towns such as Katoomba and
Blackheath, where a Crown subdivision was established on one side of the
railway, separate from those areas where development occurred through
subdivision of earlier grants.
Electrification of the suburban
line between Parramatta
and Penrith in 1915 was completed in 1955. By the end of the following year, an
electric service was operating to Valley
Heights and this was
extended by the end of 1957 to Lithgow. Electrification of the railway had
considerable effect upon development in the Blue Mountains.
Along with the improved performance and general ownership of motor cars, it
encouraged a shift in tourist emphasis from the extended holiday to the one-day
excursion, an effect felt most in the Upper Mountains.
Also, by improving access to the city and its western suburbs, it stimulated
the trend to “commuter” or “dormitory” settlements, an effect most noticeable
in the Lower Blue Mountains.
Reference:
Blue Mountains Heritage Study –
Final Report, Croft & Associates with Meredith Walker, for Blue Mountains City Council, 1982.
Links: http://www.slideshare.net/srnsw/ble-mountains-railway-the-train-that-thought-it-could
John Merriman, Local Studies Librarian
Blue Mountains City Library
