Chert Railway relics - Mt Victoria

[Webguy]

heya all, had a look for this old location many years ago, but never found it, does someone have more detailed "info/landmarks" to help find the old chert incline at Mt Vic? I'd love to go photograph it.

[DaveNoble]

Google does bring some info - e.g.

http://www.lrrsa.org.au/LR063_14_17.pdf

http://mountainmistbooks.com/_assets/do ... sample.pdf

http://infobluemountains.net.au/rail/up ... ncline.htm

Looks interesting - but it seems most of the formation (trestles etc) was burnt out in a 1952 bushfire.

Dave

[Webguy]

Thanks Dave. Will be going to have a look next week.

[Grabeach]

A few decades back, in my early days of bushwalking, I was involved with Jim Smith and Wilf Hilder in clearing the Kinderan Track into the valley and attended the reopening walk. At this time finding the start of the bottom section of the railway was easy. Following it up to the base of the cliffs was a bit more difficult. Following the base of the cliffs north to Fairy Bower was horrible.
I've never seen the top section. I tagged along with Wilf to have a quick look late one afternoon, but despite his having been there before, he could not locate it at the time. I remember Wilf being somewhat embarrassed by this, bush railways being one of his specialities. I never got around to having another look. Unless someone has since pushed a track down in the approprate place, I would expect it will be difficult to find.

[Webguy]

Yeah, won't be easy, I looked briefly many years ago, but going to have 3 or 4 of us this time so, should be able to cover a bit of ground. I shall report success or failure next week.

[PocketPal2013]

G'day. Check out www.mountainmistbooks.com for my guidebook produced last year, Great Walks at Mount Victoria. It has instructions for accessing the chert incline top and bottom. Since writing that I have continued research and now have a lot more information.

[Webguy]

Hi Keith, thanks for your input. I had not realised that you were still writing as I have not seen the guides on the usual shelves lately, the new book looks good.

Pity I am heading up tomorrow afternoon and won't have a chance in hell of getting a copy delivered.

[FatCanyoner]

The other person to make contact with is Philip Hammon. He wrote an amazing book on the mining history of the Blue Mountains. He also has some obvious interest in incline railways etc. And as an old mate of Wilf Hilder, he probably has some good insights on spots like this one. Perhaps one to contact if there isn't much success with the walk tomorrow.

[Webguy]

As in Hammon of scenic world family?

[FatCanyoner]

As in Hammon of scenic world family?

That's the one. Hence his passion for all things mining / incline railway / Blue Mountains history.

[PocketPal2013]

If you get to read this before you go! . . . Park at Fairy Bower picnic area, Walk beside railway 600m. look for large concrete blocks 20m in bush on right(south). This was the winding engine base. here is the chert siding and to south of big stump you will find track which meets the incline path down to cliff. Don't try to go down the last bit as it is wet and dangerous.
Return to FB take walking track to bridge. 20m beyond bridge is the dam for the steam engine. 30m before The Corner, take the KInderan track down for 15-20m. Look for orange ribbons tagging rough track to left. Cross creek at point under big log. Follow tags and ribbon to benched path that leads you all the way to the spot here the incline railway came off the cliff onto a long timber trestle. I found this track in Oct last. Follow ribbons to where trestle ended and ten the path of incline is easy to follow down to the terminus. 3 rails from top to about 2/3 way. Passing loop at end of trestle. At flat area 2/3 down follow ribbons at left up steep slope to a rock where you see a narrow benched path left, This widens to where a tramway along the contour was being built but never finished. Turn right at the rock and follow ribbons to the chert quarry. Return to incline path which was 2 rails only on final section.
There's still lots that I don't know! Return up the Kinderan track tagged by Jim Smith in 80s. Watch out for leeches in lower sections!

[Webguy]

Thanks so much.

[Webguy]

Well, 5 of us went for a wander yesterday afternoon. Was easy to find the winding house foundations and so close to the rail road as well. Followed the old rail bed till the deadmans stop, found no relics around there but did not go down the actual slope at the end.

Found the old railway route down the hill, noting the odd sleeper and telegraph post still in place. Entered the gully and was good to see what was still left in place, certainly would have been quite a sight when the rest of the trestle was in place, quite slippery down to the drop off, so we used a rope to get closer to the edge with some safety. A bit of a drop off at the end there and quite wet, slimy and slippery, so did not look over the actual drop.

Noticed an aging abseil anchor point bolted to the wall of the gully, don't think I would trust those rusting bolts.

On the way back up found a single hole drilled into the top of a rock which I assume was a continuation of the telegraph line into the valley?

Going to pick a day suitable soon and abseil into the valley and then walk back out the more traditional route, looking forward to getting a look around down below.

[PocketPal2013]

Great that you got that far. One of the guys with me several weeks ago noticed that hole in the rock. There is also a groove at the edge of the rock towards the incline path where a cable has rubbed. Phil Hammon was with us (his first trip there) and he spotted a steel post in the bank opposite and up higher. I then saw there was a second one. There's also some old looped cable fragments. Some sort of setup for lowering stuff.
You probably need a multi-pitch abseil as there is a cliff of roughly 10-15m, then a wide ledge followed by another cliff.
Unfortunately I am out of action at the moment after prostate surgery! But I have a big list of things to check out. Let me know when you are going again anyway.

[Webguy]

May be a couple of weeks, got another walk planned soon and I think I will need a few hours of exploring down in the valley...

I picked up copies of the missing two books of yours for my collection. Not started to read yet.

[Webguy]

Looking back up from near the drop.


Looking down towards the drop off.

[PocketPal2013]

I like the photo looking back up. I have not ventured that far!
We now think that the photo in my book was not of the trestle below the cliff but was actually the "gantry" to take the skips of chert over the top of the standard gauge siding to unload into hoppers that would then unload into NSWGR wagons. There were three rails from the top down to the end of the cliff trestle. Then a passing loop, then another section of 3 rails, then just two rails to the bottom terminus and sawmill. It was 2'6" gauge.

[Webguy]

Our rope did not quite reach right to the dropoff, I was about 2-3 mtrs still back, probably a good thing, it is very slippery. Have not had a chance to read the Mt Vic book yet, one of my walking companions nabbed it and I am yet to get it back.

[PocketPal2013]

I hope to get the all clear from the doctor next week after recent prostate surgery. And I want to get back to the chert siding area to look for a rail sidetrack that appears to be in an old photo.
So I have marked Saturday April 6th on my calendar. There's a few other things I want to check around the top area also. I won't be physically up to going down the bottom section just yet.
Let me know if anyone wants to come. greatguides@mountainmistbooks.com

[PocketPal2013]

A recent discovery at the chert siding is the fact that there was a sidetrack railway along the ground to the northwest of where the 3-rail track went up onto a timber gantry/trestle. The line appears in the bottom of an old photo and sure enough site investigation reveals enough evidence on the ground with some benching and then some post stumps, and more benched area beside and below part of the standard gauge siding. Does anybody know where their coalmine was? I suspect it was in the gully below Mt Boyce. Have any climbers noticed anything down there? Ran out of time today trying to get through the "jungle" there!