Lithgow Zig Zag
| The Great Zig Zag | |
|---|---|
| Lithgow Zig Zag | |
Top, middle, and bottom parts of the Zig Zag railway
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| Locale | Western Blue Mountains, New South Wales |
| Coordinates | 33°28′33″S 150°11′52″E / 33.475882°S 150.197875°ECoordinates: 33°28′33″S 150°11′52″E / 33.475882°S 150.197875°E |
| Commercial operations | |
| Name |
NSW Government Railways Great Western Railway |
| Built by | Patrick Higgins (contractor for NSWGR) |
| Original gauge | 4 ft 8 1⁄2 in (1,435 mm) |
| Preserved operations | |
| Operated by | Zig Zag Railway Cooperative (established 1972) as Zig Zag Railway |
| Stations | Clarence, Mt Sinai Halt, No1 Viaduct, Top Points, Cockerton, Bottom Points |
| Length | 7 kilometres (4.3 mi) |
| Preserved gauge | 3 ft 6 in (1,067 mm) |
| Commercial history | |
| Opened | 18 October 1869 |
| Closed | 16 October 1910 (bypassed by the Ten-Tunnels deviation) |
| Website | |
| Zig Zag railway website | |
The Lithgow Zig Zag was a zig zag railway built near Lithgow on the Great Western Railway of New South Wales in Australia which operated between 1870 and 1910, to overcome an otherwise insurmountable climb up the western side of the Blue Mountains. The Lithgow Zig Zag is listed on the NSW State Heritage Register.
It is now used by the Zig Zag Railway, a narrow gauge tourist railway.
The original plan by the Engineer-in-Charge of New South Wales Government Railways, John Whitton, had been to build a 2-mile (3.2 km) tunnel. However, this was beyond the resources of the Colonial Government at the time. The zig zag alternative still required several short tunnels and some viaducts.
On the eastern side of the range, the Lapstone Zig Zag, also designed under the supervision of John Whitton, opened near Glenbrook in 1867. The Lapstone Zig Zag ascended Lapstone Hill on a gradient of 1:30 to 1:33 (~ 3 - 3.3%), which contoured up the side of the range with comparatively light earthworks.
By contrast, the Lithgow Zig Zag railway, built between 1866 and 1869, required much heavier engineering, including four large rock cuttings, three fine stone viaducts with 30-foot (9.1 m) semi-circular arches (originally four were planned, but one was built as an embankment instead) and a short tunnel (three tunnels were planned, but two were daylighted during construction due to leaks, becoming two of the four cuttings mentioned above). In the descent of the middle road, the line dropped 101 feet (31 m) between the reversing points, being part of the 550 feet (170 m) descent from Clarence. The whole route had a ruling grade of 1:42 (~2.38%).
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Wikipedia