Last father's day, my wife Clare gifted me a trip on the Zig Zag Railway, which had reopened in 2023 after a long hiatus. We finally made the trip on the 25th of May 2024. Last time I rode the ZZR was around 2004!
The Zig Zag Railway is a tourist railway built on the roadbed of the former Great Western Line of the NSW Government Railways. Bypassed in 1910, it was reawakend by volunteers in the 1970s, extended in the late 1980s, closed for reaccreditation in 2012, burnt in bushfires, flooded and burnt again but thankfully back in action better than ever before!
The line has phenomenal scenery, steep grades, two tunnels and three large stone viaducts. A return trip is around an hour and a half.
The ZZR wasn't able to source standard gauge rollingstock when they first formed, however modern 3'6" gauge steam locomotives were available from Queensland (and South Australia) so the decision to narrow gauge the line was made.
Our loco for this trip was ex-QR AC16 number 218A. A child of WW2, when seen in 2004 it was under tarps having had sporadic restoration work done on it. It looks and sounds amazing now!
Here it was in 2004!
Our carriage was Ex-QR BUV 1412, a combination guards and passenger carriage. Seen here at Top Points, as the loco runs around the train to set down the middle road.
Way back when, the train would stop at various other locations along the line, with a fair sized picnic area below viaduct number 1. From there you could walk to the base of the huge stone columns, and really get a feel for the engineering involved. I really hope they are able to reopen the picnic areas in due course. As it is now, each train is a sell-out, and you can't head down on one train and back on another a few hours later, as you once could.
Back in 2004, I was able to spend ours with my friend Peter Grace around the workshop area at Bottom Road photographing and measuring rollingstock and equipment. There isn't enough time to do that on the current operating schedule, again, hopefully that will be available in the future too. The big 400 class Garratt has had some work done to it since I saw it in 2004, although that may be asbestos removal rather than any form of restoration. Get the wet asbestos lagging off the boiler and it'll slow the rust monster significantly!
and back in 2004:
It was a great day out! The current modus operandi is a long was off the old, when more than one steam loco was available, and there were lots of places to get off and rejoin the train later making it was a full day event rather than a 2 hour event. However I wish ZZR every luck in the future!
P.S. I think I would like to spend a day photographing and bushwalking the area soon...
