The Newnes railway line (also called Wolgan Valley Railway) is a closed and dismantled railway line in

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, Australia. The line ran for from the Main Western line to the township of Newnes. Along the way, it passed through a tunnel now known as the Glowworm Tunnel, because it is famous for its glow-worms. The tunnel is now contained within the

Wollemi National Park The Wollemi National Park () is a protected national park and wilderness area that is located in the northern Blue Mountains and Lower Hunter regions of New South Wales, in eastern Australia. The park, the second largest national park in New ...

Description and history

The line was constructed and operated by the

Commonwealth Oil Corporation Commonwealth Oil Corporation Limited was an English-owned Australian company associated with the production and refining of petroleum products derived from oil shale, during the early years of the 20th century. It is associated with Newnes, Hartley ...

for their Newnes

Oil Shale Oil shale is an organic-rich fine-grained sedimentary rock containing kerogen (a solid mixture of organic chemical compounds) from which liquid hydrocarbons can be produced. In addition to kerogen, general composition of oil shales constitut ...

mine. Surveying and construction was overseen by Henry Deane. The line opened in 1907 and closed in 1932. It was primarily intended to carry goods to and from the mine, but also provided passenger services. The New South Wales Division of

Australian Railway Historical Society The Australian Railway Historical Society (ARHS) aims to foster an interest in the railways, and record and preserve many facets of railway operations. It had divisions in every state and the Australian Capital Territory, although the ACT divis ...

published The Shale Railways of New South Wales in 1974 which includes a detailed history of this line. Allan Watson, the Lessee of the old Newnes Hotel, has a comprehensive websit
here
The steep 1 in 25 (4 %)

gradients In vector calculus, the gradient of a scalar-valued differentiable function of several variables is the vector field (or vector-valued function) \nabla f whose value at a point p is the "direction and rate of fastest increase". If the grad ...

along the descent towards Newnes required a different type of steam locomotive. 4 Shay locomotives were imported from the

Lima Locomotive Works Lima Locomotive Works was an American firm that manufactured railroad locomotives from the 1870s through the 1950s. The company took the most distinctive part of its name from its main shop's location in Lima, Ohio. The shops were located between ...

in the USA. Although rather slow, their unique build which uses crankshafts to propel the wheels made them very suitable, and if a train had to stop on a steep uphill grade, the train could easily start again and keep moving. After the line closed, part of its route was used by a section of the pipeline that carried refined petroleum from the

Glen Davis Shale Oil Works The Glen Davis Shale Oil Works was a shale oil extraction plant, in the Capertee Valley, at Glen Davis, New South Wales, Australia, which operated from 1940 until 1952. It was the last oil-shale operation in Australia, until the Stuart Oil Shal ...

to Newnes Junction. In 1940–1941, the rails were lifted; most were shipped to North Africa for use as anti-tank traps and gun emplacement reinforcements but some of the bullhead rails were reused for structures and supports of the oil pipeline. Other iron fittings from the line were used as scrap for munitions.

Description and history

See also

References

Further reading