Lapstone Zig-Zag Railway

The route of Lapstone Zig-Zag railway is now a popular walking trail. It can be accessed from Knapsack Street near the RAAF Base at Glenbrook.

As part of the construction of the first railway over the Blue

Mountains, the Zig-Zag Railway was built between 1863 and 1865 to overcome the step gradients (ranging from 1 in 30 to 1 in 33) of the Lapstone Hill.

John Whitton, Chief Engineer, originally wanted to tunnel through the hill. But due to budget constraints way back then, he designed a zig-zag (or switchback). This necessitated reversing the train, up or down, one of the three legs of the zig-zag route.

The photos, above, of the track today give a clear impression of the old zig-zag route.

Along the top points of the zig-zag are the remains of a platform. This was the Lucasville Station which was built in 1878 to service the holiday home of one, Mr John Lucas MLA, Minister for Mines. You can see the steps leading to the property but its exact location is not known.

With the completion of the Lapstone Zig-Zag and the Knapsack Viaduct, the railway line over the Blue Mountains was opened to Weatherboard (now Wentworth Falls) on 13 July 1867.

While this section of the Lapstone line was not to remain the permanent route as time passed, its construction was a significant achievement for John Whitton and his team.

Both Mary and myself have enjoyed the work of putting together the blogs on John Whitton and the Lapstone Hill. It s has taken much research, a few car journeys and lots of walking to piece the story together.

History Services NSW in its Government Contracts and Contractors database has many entries for railway contracts awarded by the NSW Government for the period 1832-1900.

Go the website at:

http://www.historyservices.com.au/govt_contracts.htm

The Knapsack Viaduct

Continuing on from the from the carpark at the end of the Great Western Highway, a walkway along the old railway and highway route brings you to the spectacular Knapsack Viaduct.

The sandstone viaduct was designed by John Whitton and built over the period 1863-1864 to bridge the Knapsack Gully on the first railway route over the Blue Mountains. It was the largest viaduct in Australia being 388 feet long, 120 feet high with five spans of 70 feet and two of 20 feet. It was hailed and a engineering feat by our colonial forebears. It was a landmark for nineteenth century travellers to the Blue Mountains and beyond.

It is a massively impressive structure especially from the gully below. Taking the path from the northern side of the viaduct, we descended below to the creek bed where we

could stand next to the sandstone arches. Then taking the stairs up on the southern flank gives further interesting angular views of the viaduct. Further along is the Knapsack Quarry from where the sandstone was obtained for the construction of the viaduct. From here you can ascend to the Elizabeth Lookout and Zig-Zag Railway.

When the railway was re-routed through the Glenbrook Gorge in 1912, the lower section of the older track including

the Knapsack Viaduct was converted into a road, the Great Western Highway. This was the main road up the Lapstone until the M4 Motorway replaced it in 1993. The viaduct was widened in 1938 by moving the stone parapets outwards and placing them on concrete cantilevered slabs.

History Services NSW in its Government Contracts and Contractors database has many entries for railway contracts awarded by the NSW Government for the period 1832-1900.

Go the website at:

http://www.historyservices.com.au/govt_contracts.htm

HMAS Parramatta I - the Third Part of the Jigsaw

Today we went on on the Hawkesbury River Heritage Cruise, oraganised by Hornsby Shire Council and compered by historian, Tom Richmond.

Despite the teeming rain today, this wonderful river has so many stories to divulge. As Tom put it, the Hawkesbury is a "passing parade of Australian history".

One piece of history which stood out so spectacularly today between two gushing waterfalls was the wreck of the HMAS Parramatta I opposite Milson Island, where it ran aground in 1934.

We have visited this story in a previous Blog, Bow and Stern Miles Apart - HMAS Parramatta I (15 April 2011) when we located the stern at Queens Wharf Reserve on the Parramatta River, and the bow at the Garden Island Naval Base .

From the view today then, we can envisage the bow and the stern fitting neatly back into the jigsaw of the wreck in the photo above.

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If you are in interested in early Australian History or are researching a convict ancestor go to our website at:

http://www.historyservices.com.au/

John Whitton and the Lapstone Hill

In very long grass, just off the carpark at what is now the the end of the Great Western Highway at Emu Plains, is an obelisk of blue-grey stone dedicated to the memory of John Whitton (photos above) .

John Whitton was the "Father of the New South Wales Railways" being the Engineer-in-Chief from 1857-1890.

We had previously visited this monument in

August 1985 when the Great Western Highway

was the main road route up the Lapstone Hill. There is also the remains of a Gatehouse

Cottage (photo at right) nearby. It was burnt out in the fires of 1968.

Although today the monument is in a state of disrepair, it stands as a testament to engineering skills of John Whitton, and "In Memory of the Men who worked with Whitton" and to the "Women who Cared". The latter inscription is no longer extant on the monument and comes from notes that I took in 1985.

The monument was fittingly situated at the foot of the Lapstone Hill.

John Whitton oversaw the construction of the first railway over the Blue Mountains in the 1860's and it was the Lapstone incline that proved to be the first major obstacle. To overcome this Whitton designed the Knapsack Viaduct and the Lapstone Zig_Zag Railway. [See separate Blogs].

There is a statue of John Whitton at Central Railway in Sydney (Photo at right).

History Services NSW in its Government Contracts and Contractors database has many entries for railway contracts awarded by the NSW Government for the period 1832-1900.

Go the website at:

http://www.historyservices.com.au/govt_contracts.htm