Year: 2018

Many people are surprised to hear the steepest railway in the work is right here in New South Wales. Located at Scenic World in Katoomba, the “Scenic Railway” isn’t your standard everyday train line.

The short and steep line forms one of many attractions at Scenic World in Katoomba, which also includes the worlds steepest cable car. Guests can access the line for a fee, with services every 10 minutes between 9am and 5pm.

The cutting for the railway in 1884

Passengers on the railway in 1945

The line was originally bulit as a freight line to haul coal and oil shale from mines on the floor of the Jamieson Valley up to the escarpment above back in 1878. From 1928, the miners began supplementing their income by operating services for passengers on weekends. This service continued until the closure of the mine in 1945.

Since then the line has operated as a tourist attraction, with multiple major refurbishments of the line being conducted. The original steam winch train used for passenger services back in 1928 was named Jessie carried 12 passengers. Jessie was replaced by the Mountain Devil, a 23 passenger electric winch trains in 1935. By 1952 these trains had been replaced by newer 28 passenger trains. Newer, larger trains were again introduced in 1974 and 1994. Most recently all the tracks and the rolling stock were replaced in early 2013. This saw the number of carriages increased to four, carrying 84 passengers.

The line is what is known as an Incline Cable Railway, which means that the trains on the line are hauled by a cable. The line has an incline of 52° or 122% on its steepest section, which is the steepest incline on any railway in the world. In the 310 metres the line travels, it loses 205 metres in elevation whilst travelling at 4m/s.

Sydney was once home to one of the largest tramway network in the world. Back at the hight of the operation, over 400 million journeys were made each year over 291km of track. Today we take a look back at the development of the Sydney Tramways.

The first tramway opened in Sydney in 1861. It was a horse drawn line between the Old Sydney Railway Station in Redfern and Circular Quay along Pitt Street. It was short lived and closed in 1866 after complaints about the damage the tracks caused to wagons and a fatal accident.

In 1879 the tramways returned, this time with a steam tram line between Redfern Station and Hunter Street in the Northern CBD. The success of this line quickly lead to many lines being developed throughout inner Sydney. Initially throughout the 1880s and 90s, the lines were built as steam lines.

From 1898 the network began to be electrified, with most of the System converted by 1910. Lines from Circular Quay to the Eastern and Inner Western suburbs throughout the life of the network. Many well known lines included the one to Bondi, which reached the Beach in 1894. The lines to Coogee and La Perouse line, which opening in Stages from 1880, being the first Suburban tram line in Sydney and containing what may have been the first tram balloon loop in the world. The lines reached Coogee in 1883 and La Perouse in 1902.  The line to Ryde was the longest line in the network, at nearly 20km long.

From 1886 lines operated on the North Shore from Millions Point, until the Sydney Harbour Bridge opened in 1932, when most services were redirected to Wynyard and connected with the mains system south of the harbour. Lines from Manly began in 1903, and operated along the Northern Beaches seperate from the main system. Also isolated from the main system were the Southern suburbs lines, operating as rail feeder services for the Illawarra line.

The Tramway network reached its fullest extent in 1923, with over 291km of track. At the time nearly 1600 cars were in service at any one time. The network was the second largest in the Commonwealth of Nations, after London and the largest in Australia.

This article just scratches the surface in the development. For information on a specific line, let us know and we will give you information. 

The continuous 85 years that the State government has run bus services wasn’t actually the first time that Government had run bus services. Back in 1905, the Government Railway Commissioners began a motor omnibus service.

The Government Motor Omnibus Act, 1905, allowed the Railway Commissioner the power to construct, purchase or lease motor omnibuses and operate them on routes as approved by the governor. Orders were placed for four steam buses for Clarkson Ltd, of Chelmsford, England and were bodied by Angus & Son in Newtown. This practise of importing Chassis and locally building bodies continues with the government bus services today.

The first two buses, 18 passenger single deck 1M and 2M inaugurated government bus services in Sydney on 4 December 1905. They operated between Potts Point and Taylor Square on Oxford Street in Darlinghurst, a distance of just under 2 kilometres. One bus would operate the service whilst the other would act as a standby in case of a breakdown. High costs coupled with low revenue saw the service ceased by 7 April 1906.

On 23 April 1906,  double deckers 3M and 4M began their short lived life operating a 2.5 kilometre route between Dulwich Hill and Enmore. These busses were even more short lived than the original route, dealings service on 29 May 1906 due to the unsuitability of the chassis to the type of work.

After racking up losses of more than £6600 over just six months of operation, the buses were scraped at Randwick Workshops. This left the Railway commissioner to focus on Tramway and Railway operation and the bus network to a myriad of private operator for the next 26 years.