Next, we drove to the Katoomba Scenic Railway, an incline railway that was originally constructed for a coal and oil shale mining operation in the Jamison Valley in the 1880s, in order to haul the coal and shale from the valley floor up to the escarpment above. From 1928 to 1945, it carried coal during the week and passengers at weekends. The coal mine was closed in 1945 after which it remained as a tourist attraction.
“The Scenic Railway makes many claims to be the steepest passenger railway, the steepest funicular, and the steepest incline in the world. However the railway uses a winch system and no counterbalancing carriage, therefore it is an inclined lift rather than a funicular.”
Wikipedia
At the entrance…
… and then we move towards the carriage, and find our seats. This is already feeling like a steep angle!
Batten down the hatches! We’re heading down! Check out this movie…
After arriving at the bottom of the incline, we exit the carriage, and then take a walk along the raised walkway that shows some of the debris from the former mining operation.
In the gallery below, click on an image to view it in a larger format.
At the end of the boardwalk, we encounter a terminus of the Scenic Skyway:
A cable car just arrived, so we hop on…
This is a seriously big cable car!
Unfortunately, the weather we experienced was not as good as in the above photo.
The cable car took us, predictably, to a gift shop, we picked up the bus again, and were taken to Katoomba, where we ate at a very good, Mom & Pop style pie shop, the Bakehouse on Wentworth.
To get to the Bakehouse, from where the bus dropped us off, we had to cross a street called Megalong St. That name appealed to my sense of humour!
Apparently, Australians love their pies — we were told that that’s what they eat at Australian Rules Football games, and elsewhere too. I ate a Steak & Kidney Pie, and it was very good. A lot better than hot dogs and hamburgers!
I went in search of a pharmacy, because I was having cold symptoms (much more about that, later!), found one, and then waited at a cafe, sipping a Long Black, until we could get the bus back to Sydney.
