Railways and Tramways of Australia

Climbing the hill

 

The Glenbrook Gorge railway deviation in the Blue Mountains of New South Wales opened on 11 May 1913.

 

Three different railway routes have ascended Lapstone Hill in the lower Blue Mountains. The first route involved a zig zag, where trains reversed twice as they climbed, before continuing further west. The Lapstone zig zag was considerably smaller than the Great Zig Zag near Lithgow, which opened in 1869.

 

The original route was replaced by a new alignment, which opened in 1892. This route included a tunnel with a length of 660 metres on a gradient of 1 in 33. Wheels sometimes slipped and trains stalled inside the tunnel.

 

Increasing railway traffic brought momentum to duplicate the railway line. A new deviation was built along Glenbrook Gorge, becoming the third railway route in the area. This route increased the through distance by two miles and 54 chains (4.3 km) but reduced the gradient to 1 in 60.

 

Construction involved considerable work. Workmen used ropes to climb down the side of cliffs. A rock shelf was built 200 feet below the top of the cliff and 300 feet above Glenbrook Creek. A new double-track tunnel was built. Because of the inaccessibility of the area, materials were delivered via a temporary construction railway and a funicular down to the worksite. A brick viaduct was built across Knapsack Gully, and a new site was found for Glenbrook station.

 

The westbound line was opened for traffic on 11 May 1913 and the eastbound line on 25 September. This route still carries the Main Western Line over the Blue Mountains today.

 

The section through Glenbrook Gorge is one of the most scenic sections of the line as it climbs Lapstone Hill and the Blue Mountains.

 

Bibliography

‘Avoiding the tunnel: Glenbrook deviation: new line opened’, The Daily Telegraph, 12 May 1913, p 6.

WA Bayley, Lapstone zig zag railway, Austrail, Bulli, 1972.

M Langdon, Conquering the Blue Mountains, Eveleigh Press, Sydney, 2006.

New South Wales Government Railways and Tramways, Report of the Chief Commissioner for the year ended 30 June 1913, Government Printer,

     Sydney, 1913.

N Pollard and G Harper, ‘Conquering Lapstone Hill: a fresh look at the history of the Emu Plains–Blaxland section of the Main Western Line’, Australian Railway History, no. 866, December 2009, pp 387–415.

CC Singleton, ‘The ascents of Lapstone Hill’, Australian Railway Historical Society Bulletin, no. 227, September 1956, pp 117–531.