The picturesque Bowenfels rail viaducts are a series of heritage-listed railway viaducts and railway bridges over Farmers Creek on the Main Western line in Bowenfels, City of Lithgow, New South Wales. It was designed in two stages - by John Whitton as the Engineer-in-Chief for Railways, in 1870; and by engineering staff of New South Wales Government Railways in 1921; and was built from 1870 to 1921. It is also known as Farmers Creek viaducts. The property is owned by RailCorp, an agency of the Government of New South Wales. It was added to the New South Wales State Heritage Register on 2 April 1999. The viaduct are located approximately 159 kilometres west of Central railway station.
The Farmers Creek stone railway viaduct, immediately upstream of the 1921 brick viaduct, was built for the Lithgow to Bathurst single-track railway extension, 1869 - 1875. It was built for the original single track Great Western Railway over Farmers Creek west of Bowenfels Railway Station. When built it was the eighth longest stone bridge completed in Australia. Together with the viaducts at Middle River and Cox's River, this bridge formed part of the Great Western Railway which followed the great Zig Zag on the western face of the Blue Mountains. The bridge carried two 1.44m gauge rail tracks.
There are nine semi-circular arches 1 metre thick. The piers are solid stone, founded at shallow depth into rock. At the piers, the internal "V" formed by the adjoining arches is filled by stone rubble to about 5 metres and dished to form a drain. By this arrangement the ballasted tracks are drained and do not get water logged. There is a low stone parapet wall on each side of the viaduct. The abutments are solid stonework. It is one of the oldest railway arch bridges in New South Wales but was bypassed by the 1921 double-track brick arch bridges.
At some time bolts have been put through to anchor the spanrdrel walls and prevent them spreading. There are five cruciform anchor plates visible on each arch rib and these form a distinctive feature of the bridge.
By the early 1900s the original single track from Bowenfels to Wallerawang was inadequate for railway operations so plans were made to duplicate that section of line and at the same time ease the grades and flatten some curves. John Whitton chose to use stone arch construction when denied sufficient funds to use imported wrought iron girders. Economic constraints forced Whitton to build single track bridges. They were progressively bypassed by double track brick arch bridges.
A major programme of similar works was begun in 1910 and continued until the mid 1920s but, because steel was an expensive import from Britain, the dominant material for bridging the many waterways was bricks, mostly from the 1912 State Brickworks at Homebush and mostly in the form of large brick arch culverts and viaducts. The quantity of bricks used in the program was enormous and the period could be aptly described as the "era of the brick arch".
The 1921 structure is a brick arch viaduct comprising six 12.2-metre clear spans plus brick wing walls. The viaducts over Farmers Creek are accessible from a local road that was the original Great Western Highway. The pair are two of the most photographed rural railway bridges in New South Wales.
Bowenfels station and residence is the earliest railway station beyond the Blue Mountains and remaining in use with minimal alteration for 105 years. The quality of the stonework and Victorian Rustic Gothic design of the buildings are of aesthetic significance. It is one of the best surviving stone station groups with intact early buildings that represent the first major phase of railway construction over the Blue Mountains during the 1860s and 1870s. Bowenfels railway station remained in use until 1974 when passenger services ceased. Works were undertaken at the station in 1994 to accommodate the Lithgow Visitors' Information Centre, but the railway station building is now unoccupied.
Design by W3layouts
