The Main West Railway Line runs from Granville to Bourke and 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 solution was a series of deviations to ease the gradients with double tracks (duplications) to increase the traffic capacity. In the metropolitan area the plan was to build a separate network for the goods trains. The programme began around 1910 and was largely completed by 1922. Some sections were not completed until the 1950s.
From the start, the principal material for bridges was bricks, used to form large brick arch culverts, because steel was an expensive import from Britain and bricks complied with a long-standing policy to use local materials so as to contain costs. The establishment of the State Brickworks at Homebush in 1912 greatly increased the supply of bricks when the main period of activity coincided with World War I. Millions of bricks were used including those for the kilometres of solid brick gravity retaining walls. The period 1910-22 can be called the 'era of the brick arch' when around 90 bridge sites had either single or multi-span structures. Thereafter, supplies of imported steel increased and BHP Newcastle was able to meet local demands for structural steel products, and the construction of brick arches ceased.
The Knapsack Gully Underbridge was completed in 1912, and was typical of this practice of using brick construction from local material.
Source: New South Wales Heritage Register.
Tags: bridge viaduct gully crossing railway highway road sandstone stone history historic heritage glenbrook lapstone blue mountains new south wales australia
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The Knapsack Bridge at Lapstone/Glenbrook of the Blue Mountains, New South Wales, has a series of reasonably interesting remnants consisting of a memorial, ruins of a gate keepers cottage, a disused train platform and of course the grand bridge itself; the Knapsack Bridge.
Both Aboriginal and Colonial History is strong in this area.
John Whitton (1820-1898) was engineer in chief of railway development in New South Wales from 1856 until his retirement in 1890. His vision and determination were nowhere displayed to more impressive effect than in the crossing of the Blue Mountains, with two majestic achievements at either end, the Lithgow Zig Zag to the west and the first Knapsack Gully Viaduct to the east.
Despite the significance of his achievements on the western line and elsewhere, Whitton has been signally unrecognised by public monuments. To remedy this, the vigorous efforts of a private enthusiast, J.W. Paddison, a Springwood resident, finally bore fruit in 1980. A site near the gate-keeper’s cottage no.1 on the approach line to the Knapsack Gully Viaduct was approved by Blue Mountains City Council in 1978 and Paddison’s design was approved later that year by the Department of Main Roads, the Police Traffic Branch and the NSW Planning an Environment Commission. In 1979 the John Whitton Memorial fund was opened and in 1980 the monument was erected, largely at the personal expense of Paddison. The obelisk, 7.5 metres (24 feet) high, was built of bluestone over a brick core, bearing five plaques.
Two of these plaques commemorated Whitton ‘who built railways’ and ’who cared for men’, while a third was ‘in memory of men who worked with Whitton’.
Vandals have severely damaged the plaque on the east side and removed the middle plaque on the north side (which showed a red steam engine) and the whole area around the ruined gate-keeper’s cottage and the monument is now in the year 2000 singularly depressed.
Source: New South Wales Heritage Register.
Tags: monument memorial history historic heritage glenbrook lapstone blue mountains new south wales australia
© All Rights Reserved
The Knapsack Bridge at Lapstone/Glenbrook of the Blue Mountains, New South Wales, has a series of reasonably interesting remnants consisting of a memorial, ruins of a gate keepers cottage, a disused train platform and of course the grand bridge itself; the Knapsack Gully Bridge.
Both Aboriginal and Colonial History is strong in this area.
There were twelve level-crossings staffed by gatekeepers who lived in an adjacent cottage on the western railway line between the Nepean River and Mount Victoria. The first of these cottages, built in 1867, lay just over the Nepean, where the railway crossed the road about to climb Mitchell’s Pass. The level crossing was replaced by an overbridge in 1913 when the track was duplicated to cross the new Knapsack Gully Viaduct (G 025), but the Railway Commissioners neither destroyed nor sold the cottage, which was leased as a residence called Green Gables. It was ultimately sold by the railway authorities in 1945 but in 1968 it was severely damaged in a bushfire and lost its roof.
In 1975 the Blue Mountains City Council acquired the ruin and the so-called marshalling yard area adjacent between the railway and the then Great Western Highway which used the 1865 Knapsack Gully Viaduct. The intention to restore the cottage as a tearoom and tourist information bureau was not fulfilled and became inappropriate once Knapsack Gully Viaduct was by-passed by the extension of the M4 motorway in 1992. The cottage remains a ruin surrounded by a wire fence.
Source: New South Wales Heritage Register.
Tags: ruin ruins remnant remains stone sandstone abandoned cottage history historic heritage glenbrook lapstone blue mountains new south wales australia
© All Rights Reserved
The Knapsack Bridge at Lapstone/Glenbrook of the Blue Mountains, New South Wales, has a series of reasonably interesting remnants consisting of a memorial, ruins of a gate keepers cottage, a disused train platform and of course the grand bridge itself; the Knapsack Gully Bridge.
Both Aboriginal and Colonial History is strong in this area.
There were twelve level-crossings staffed by gatekeepers who lived in an adjacent cottage on the western railway line between the Nepean River and Mount Victoria. The first of these cottages, built in 1867, lay just over the Nepean, where the railway crossed the road about to climb Mitchell’s Pass. The level crossing was replaced by an overbridge in 1913 when the track was duplicated to cross the new Knapsack Gully Viaduct (G 025), but the Railway Commissioners neither destroyed nor sold the cottage, which was leased as a residence called Green Gables. It was ultimately sold by the railway authorities in 1945 but in 1968 it was severely damaged in a bushfire and lost its roof.
In 1975 the Blue Mountains City Council acquired the ruin and the so-called marshalling yard area adjacent between the railway and the then Great Western Highway which used the 1865 Knapsack Gully Viaduct. The intention to restore the cottage as a tearoom and tourist information bureau was not fulfilled and became inappropriate once Knapsack Gully Viaduct was by-passed by the extension of the M4 motorway in 1992. The cottage remains a ruin surrounded by a wire fence.
Source: New South Wales Heritage Register.
Tags: ruin ruins remnant remains stone sandstone abandoned cottage history historic heritage glenbrook lapstone blue mountains new south wales australia
© All Rights Reserved
The Knapsack Bridge at Lapstone/Glenbrook of the Blue Mountains, New South Wales, has a series of reasonably interesting remnants consisting of a memorial, ruins of a gate keepers cottage, a disused train platform and of course the grand bridge itself; the Knapsack Gully Bridge.
Both Aboriginal and Colonial History is strong in this area.
John Lucas was a self-made man. Born in Camperdown in 1818, he was trained as a carpenter, but diversified later first as an inn-keeper and then as a building contractor. After two years as a magistrate, he entered politics in 1860, he was a member of the lower house for Canterbury, Hartley and then Canterbury again almost without a break until 1880, when he was appointed to the Leglisative Council. He remained an MLC until his death in 1902 at the age of 83.
Lucas's political career was erratic. With a well-earned reputation for 'mischief and obstruction', a 'bullying manner' and a 'heavy lumbering way', coupled with dubious land-dealings and a notorious claim for compensation amounting to 15 times the value of his resumed land beside Darling Harbour, Lucas was an ambivalent public figure. He was, however, genuinely interested in the protection of open space, was a trustee of the Royal National Park and was instrumental in saving Belmore Park in Sydney and in reserving parkland in country towns throughout the state. He was also regarded in the late 1870s as ‘distinguished for the attention he has paid to inland communication’.
While Minister for Mines under Robertson in 1875-7, Lucas purchased land for a country retreat adjacent to the top road of the Lapstone ZigZag, opened in 1867 for the first trains to reach the Blue Mountains plateau. There he built his house Lucasville. The house, which was situated just to the east of the present RAAF base, has disappeared, but traces of its gardens and access paths are still visible to the west of the ZigZag walking track.
For the convenience of himself, his family and his guests, Lucas used his political clout to have a railway station built on top road. Lucasville Station opened in 1877 and the substantial concrete platform, with rock-cut steps leading west into Lucasville grounds, is still highly legible. There was also a station building which is visible in a distant photograph, but this has now vanished. Unlike Numantia at Faulconbridge, Lucasville was a public platform (for which the government paid), and it was probably used initially also by visitors to Ulinbawn and to W.C. Want's house above Knapsack Gully, although Breakfast Point halt 700 metres to the south gave an alternative.
Lucasville station was located on the dead-end extension of top road, where the trains ended their ascent or began their descent of middle road, stopping and changing direction. Engines of heavy goods trains going to Sydney had to be put into back gear when entering Lucasville station to ensure that they did not plunge into Knapsack Gully about 400 metres ahead.
The Lapstone ZigZag was abandoned in 1892 when the first Glenbrook deviation was opened. Lucas therefore lost his convenient rail link to his country retreat for the last ten years of his life. The station was presumably then allowed to decay.
The history of the house after John Lucas's death in 1902 is not clear. Two of his four sons were prominent wine merchants in Sydney and two were also controversial public servants, appointed by their father's patronage. All four sons and a daughter survived the widowed Lucas and may have inherited and used the house. It was destroyed in a bush-fire, but the date is uncertain.
Source: New South Wales Heritage Register.
Tags: ruin ruins remnant remains abandoned railway station train history historic heritage glenbrook lapstone blue mountains new south wales australia
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