Too much railway history…..

…..is never enough!!
A couple of years ago I blipped the magnificent Lithgow Zig Zag, an engineering masterpiece from the 1860s that enabled the western line to descend the western escarpment of the Blue Mountains. As we all know for something to come down, it must have somehow got up there already. In this case it’s via the much lesser known Lapstone Zig Zag on the eastern escarpment which was possibly slightly less of an engineering challenge but has an even deeper and more interesting history (which I will shorten in an attempt to keep my few remaining followers).
The highlight is the Knapsack Gully Viaduct built in 1863 for the single track railway, was replaced by the Glenbrook Gorge Deviation in 1912, and remained abandoned up to 1926 when it came back into use for the Great Western Highway when Mitchell’s Pass became insufficient for the increasing traffic. It was widened in 1939 and carried the GWH up until the opening of the M4 extension in 1993 (and again went into retirement).
Although it’s only 200m from the motorway, it’s not visible from any direction (except from the train) and is now just an interesting relic on a lovely bush walk.