The heritge listed Lithgow Underbridge carries the Main West Line over James Street, in Lithgow, NSW. The bridge was designed by John Whitton as the Engineer-in-Chief for Railways and was built in 1869 by contractor, P. Higgins. It is also known as Lithgow (James St) Underbridge. The property is owned by RailCorp, an agency of the Government of New South Wales.
The Main West Railway Line, which runs from Granville to Bourke, was completed in 1885. By 1900 certain sections of John Whitton's single track railway network were operating at or near saturation, these included the famous Zig Zag near Lithgow, the Main West from Emu Plains right through to Bathurst, the Main South from Picton as far as Harden and the Main North between Maitland and Muswellbrook. Also, the metropolitan railways were congested by the combination of suburban and freight traffic. The Line was duplicated through Lithgow to Bowenfels in 1891 and then onto Wallerawang in 1922.
John Whitton chose to use stone arch construction for this and other bridge on the line in the area when denied sufficient funds to use imported wrought iron girders. It is the second oldest railway arch bridge in New South Wales built for two tracks. The James Street railway bridge was built in 1869 as part of the Lithgow to Bathurst railway extension, which was completed in 1875. Economic constraints forced Whitton to build the others on this line for single track. They were progressively bypassed by double track brick arch bridges but the bridge at James Street continues its original function.
The Lithgow Zig Zag is one of the major engineering achievements of the railway era, its construction opened up the western area of New South Wales beyond the Blue Mountains for development with access by rail. It was the major achievement of NSW Railways Chief Engineer John Whitton. At the time of its construction, it was the greatest civil engineering work in Australia and was considered worldwide as an engineering marvel.
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.
The single track Main Western Railway reached Sodwalls and Tarana in April 1872 along a more-or-less direct route from Rydal. This route involved a number of steep grades and crossings of Solitary Creek. Around 1906, a deviation via Sodwalls was put in place at some time to lengthen the route rather than shorten it. The subsequent duplication of this line to Sodwalls was completed in May 1915 and the line later reverted to a single track. The old route retains a number of viaducts, the longest No. 6 Viaduct with four arches (photo above). Bricks for the construction of railway viaducts were made on several properties.
The heritage listed Marrangaroo railway viaduct carries the Main Western line across Marrangaroo Creek at Marrangaroo, near Lithgow, NSW. The Main Western line was built in stages, radiating west from Central station to Parramatta, opened on 26 September 1855; Blacktown on 4 July 1860; Rooty Hill in 1861 and by May 1862, St Marys; Kingswood on 7 July 1862; and Penrith on 18 January 1863; at which point the Nepean River and Blue Mountains were significant barriers.
Various plans were considered to cross the Blue Mountains, with the NSW Government selecting the submission of John Whitton, Chief Engineer of Railways, that involved the construction of the Victoria Bridge over the Nepean, completed in 1867; the Lapstone Zig Zag, completed in 1867; and The Great Zig Zag at Clarence, completed in 1869. The line had reached Bowenfels by 1869 and the section to Wallerawang opened on 1 March 1870. To complete this stage, major crossings were required, of Farmers Creek via the Bowenfels rail viaduct, completed in 1870 and replaced in 1921; Marrangaroo Creek (also known as Middle River) via the Marrangaroo railway viaduct; and the Coxs River via a single-track stone railway bridge at Wallerawang, completed in 1870.
The new Marrangaroo viaduct, built in 1921 as the original bridge's replacement (seen behind)
Located approximately 163 kilometres from Central station, the single-track Marrangaroo railway viaduct comprises eight 9-metre sandstone arches, filled with stone rubble. The viaduct was designed by John Whitton, Chief Engineer of Railways, and built by George McGarvie Donald with convict labour. Crossing Marrangaroo Creek, at the time known as Middle River, Whitton used stone arch construction almost exclusively between Emu Plains and Wallerawang, despite a government decree to use local timber for bridge construction. This was possible due to the availability of local sandstone, which made the introduction of stone viaducts an economical option. While Whitton's stone arch viaducts were replaced by brick bridges during duplication works in the 1920s, many of the original stone bridges remain extant, including the Middle River Bridge at Marrangaroo. The stone viaduct was replaced in 1923, following duplication of the track and construction of a replacement brick and masonry viaduct, comprising four 15-metre spans.
The underbridge at Marrangaroo is one of a small series of early stone arch railway viaducts built in New South Wales in the mid-to-late nineteenth century. The bridge is closely associated with Engineer-in-Chief and ‘father’ of the New South Wales Government Railways, John Whitton. It is an impressive and highly visible curved sandstone structure, and an example of the use of local sandstone during a period of economic restraint but rapid expansion of railway services during which Whitton was required to use local materials as far as possible in bridge construction.
Opened 1st March 1870, the original Marrangaroo Railway Tunnel was a 244 metre single-track tunnel. The line and the tell into disuse when the track was deviated in 1923. The line ans tunnel were closed on 28th October 1923. Access is not possible as the tunnel lies on private property. There was a survey undertaken for a deviation of the tunnels around 1913 which involved the building of another tunnel to the left of Tunnel No.3. However nothing became of those plans and it was not until 1923 when the Bowenfels to Wallerawang section of the Great Western Railway was duplicated and the new route under the Marrangaroo Range was completed.
The entrance to the abandoned No. 3 tunnel today
The replacement 974 metre double-track tunnel was brought into use as part of track deviation in 1923. It was opened on 28th October 1923 and remains in use as part of the Main Western Line. As the surrounding geology is sandstone, there is a considerable flow of underground water which has led to drainage problems within the tunnel. Australian Rail Track Corporation (ARTC) undertook the project to prevent surface water from entering the tunnel at the upstream tunnel portal.
Marrangaroo Army Camp, situated at the end of Reserve Road, used to be a major ammunition depot from 1941 to the late 1980s. It was served by a three kilometre siding that branched off from the Main Western railway line from March 1942 until May 1988. It is now used for demolitions and various training by all three Australian Defence Force services. During World War II it housed chemical warfare facilities; at the time, one of Australia's best kept secrets. Marrangaroo was the administration headquarters for all of the Royal Australian Air Force Chemical Weapon Stores which were kept the tunnel and sidings at Marrangaroo, Glenbrook Tunnel in the Blue Mountains, Clarence Tunnel (that is now part of the Lithgow Zig Zag) and Picton tunnel in Sydney's south.
During the calendar years 1943 to 1945 inclusive, Lithgow Oil Proprietary Ltd, at Marangaroo, produced around 2,000,000 gallons of crude shale oil. Under wartime conditions, that company had designed and constructed its own NTU retorts based on information from a Bureau of Mines publication. The crude shale oil was refined at the Glen Davis Shale Oil Works. The Marangaroo oil shale deposit was small but exceptionally rich, assaying 237 gallons per long ton.
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