世上最斜的鐵路在哪裡?

SCENIC RAILWAY

Incline
This is a photograph of the Katoomba colliery incline taken on November 5th 1884. During this time the colliery employed 56 men who extracted approximately 20 000 tonnes of coal in the year of 1884.

The coal skips being loaded in the bottom right hand corner of the picture are about to be hauled up one of the two tracks to the top of the incline before transferal to the tramway. A tramway of similar design to the one in the next picture then took the coal a further 2 km to the railway siding at Katoomba. It was then tipped in railway trucks for the journey to Sydney.

Dual tramway
This section of the tramway was photographed in 1892. At this stage 154 men worked at the various mines in the area and they extracted 22 000 tonnes of shale during the course of the year. The cliff in the background of this picture is now the famous Katoomba landslide. This particular section of the tramway ran between the Mt Rennie tunnel through the Narrow Neck and the Daylight tunnel through the old Katoomba coal mine. The skips visible here carried oil shale from The Glen shale mine in the Megalong Valley to the base of the incline, which is now the Scenic Railway.

Mine Broadcast
A radio broadcast was made from inside the mine during the mid 1930’s. Here we can see the broadcast taking place.

The only gentleman dressed in a white coat is the radio technician supervising the broadcast. The gentleman sitting crossed legged in the centre is holding a banjo across his lap to provide the live entertainment. Note the low headroom, as the coal seam was approximately 1 metre high. This gives an indication of the working conditions experienced by the miners and pit ponies. Two of the pit ponies that pulled the skips along the rails visible in the foreground were named Creamy and Smokey.

“Over the top”
This postcard by W. H. Green (Wally) was probably taken in the mid 1940’s. The gentleman on the back right hand side is Gus Benham who was a tour bus driver who became a conductor. Note the haphazard placement of the railway sleepers indicating the rough and ready work practices inherited from the mining days. Modern engineering practice is now vastly improved! The carriage was hauled up and down the incline by a single wire cable breaking strain 28 tonnes and powered by a 80 horse power (approximately 60 kilowatt) electric winch. This carriage was capable of transporting 18 people; today we carry 84 people using 150 kilowatts.

http://www.scenicworld.com.au/images/history/incline.jpg

斜度大概45度

Scenic Raileway原本是一條專門運送煤的路軌,現成為世上最斜的載人鐵路。