Zig Zag Railway

Zig Zag Railway - Lithgow

The Great Zig Zog is internationally acclaimed as one of the great railway engineering constructions of the 19th century and consists of three ramps forming the letter "Z" known as Top, Middle and Bottom Roads with an average gradient of 1 in 42. The Great Zig Zag was designed by Engineer-in-Chief of the NSW Government Railways John Whitton and built by contractor Patrick Higgins whose contract commenced on the west side of Clarence tunnel, finished at Wallerawang.

The cost of construction was between 20000 pounds and 25000 pounds ($40000 to $50000) per mile.
Construction was carried out between 1866 and 1869 without the benefit of machines. The workers drilled vertical holes in the sandstone using a hammer and hardened drill. When the holes were sufficiently deep, explosive was inserted and detonated, forming the vertical walls of the cuttings. The blast to create the ledge between No.2 and No.3 viaducts removed 40000 tonnes of rock and was the first to be electrically fired in Austratia. In some places it was necessary for workers to hang by ropes to carry out their duties.

Higgins employed over 700 workers, some of whom lived here on site in tents and were paid l/3d (12c.) per day and if they brought a horse to assist another 6d. (5c.) It was quite a spartan life but we are told, good wages at the time. In those days, the area was quite isolated with the nearest Settlements being Hartley and Lithgow. The viaducts were formed out of local sandstone from a quarry near Mt Sinai and built in the Roman style.
By 1907 the increase in freight and passenger numbers on the railway led to bottleneck conditions on the Zig Zag. It was decided to replace the Zig Zag with a new 9km double track deviation with a gradient of 1 in 90. This was opened on October 16th, 1910 and lead to a time reduction of 30 minutes.

Source: On Site Information Board

AUSTRALIA