Railways and snow are two things that rarely go together in Australia. In a country with
no permanent snow - and very few railways at high altitudes, actually seeing a train running through
cold white stuff is a pretty rare experience. The Blue Mountains line in NSW can occasionally
be subjected to snowstorms – as can the higher parts of the Tasmanian network, and very rarely
some lines in my home state of Victoria can get a light covering. But there's only one true alpine
railway in the country, and that is: Skitube – a unique electrified rack railway, isolated in
the mountains of southern New South Wales. Now if there's one thing Australia isn't known for,
it's mountains. However the Great Dividing Range does get a decent covering of snow during winter
in southern NSW and Victoria, supporting a substantial ski industry. Tucked into the Snowy Mountains
a couple of hours south of Canberra is the winter resort town of Jindabyne.
Not far from that is the Perisher Valley ski fields – a stone's throw from Australia's highest mountain,
Mt Kosciuszko – which stands at a modest – by world standards – 2,228m above sea level.
In the late 1970s Perisher was starting to become a pretty busy place, and the Kosciuszko road was
getting congested and dangerous. It's probably worth mentioning that very few Australians are
experienced winter drivers, with many of us never even seeing snow until well into adulthood,
let alone driving a car in it. In addition to the pressures of traffic bound for Perisher,
a new ski resort was about to open on Mt Blue Cow, just a few kilometres up from Perisher,
so a proper transport solution was urgently needed. Inspiration was sought from the country
that has perfected alpine transport (and transport in general): Switzerland. Various options were
considered including a cable car, a funicular, and a surface level narrow gauge railway,
but ultimately a mostly underground standard gauge rack railway was chosen as the best option, with
the lower terminal located just below the snow line. A major benefit of the underground route
was to minimise environmental damage caused by the new alignment – an essential consideration as
the route falls entirely within the beautiful and ecologically significant Kosciuszko National Park.
Going underground also has obvious benefits when it comes to operating in extreme alpine weather.
The railway opened in two stages in 1987 an '88, becoming Australia's first entirely rack equipped railway
although two other railways had historically existed in the country using a rack
for part of their length, those being the Mt Morgan line in Queensland and the Mt Lyell line in Tasmania
the latter of which has since been restored to operation as the West Coast Wilderness Railway
so you can still ride it today. There were also a couple of small industrial rack
railways in New South Wales. You can read about all Australia's rack railways in great detail, in this book.
The line was electrified at 1500v DC, making it the same voltage (and gauge ) as
the Sydney suburban network – although that's where the similarities end. The line begins
at Bullocks Flat, about 20km along the Alpine Way from Jindabyne, and 1,132m above sea level.
Shortly after departure, trains cross the Thredbo River on a low bridge, before getting stuck into
the steep 1 in 8 gradient (that's 12.5%), which is maintained all the way up to Perisher Valley.
The line crosses a substantial curved viaduct, and then continues to climb to a short crossing loop,
known as Loop A. Having now travelled 2.2km from Bullocks Flat, this is the last place you will
see sunlight anywhere on the line, as trains now plunge into the 3.3km long Bilston tunnel,
which climbs in a mostly straight line up to Perisher Valley. The tunnel was named after Ken Bilston,
the engineer who came up with the initial proposal for the line
(although it sounds like he borrowed a lot of ideas from another proposal by John Dunn at Comeng).
Somewhere in this tunnel is the deepest point below ground of any railway in Australia, where
the line reaches about 550m below the surface, passing under the Ramshead Range. Midway up the
tunnel, space was allowed for a second crossing loop to be built – presumably Loop B - however
this never eventuated. Perisher Valley station – 1,716m above sea level - is an island platform,
with an additional platform on one side. Trains from Bullocks Flat terminate here, with the line
beyond to Blue Cow operated as a shuttle – so the centre platform allows for passengers to change
directly between the two trains. On departure from Perisher, there is a very noticeable change
in tunnel style. While the Bilston tunnel is a smooth tube dug by a tunnel boring machine,
the 2.6km Blue Cow tunnel up to the summit was dug using the 'drill and blast' technique,
apparently due to some less stable geology in this area. This results in a very interesting rough-cut
shape to the tunnel profile. Leaving Perisher, the line drops down-grade briefly to dive under
the Perisher Creek then climbs at a relatively sedate 1 in 33 grade, before a final pinch of 1 in 8
up to the summit. The terminus at Blue Cow is a simple dead end with a single platform.
The far end of the platform is used for unloading supplies, and loading rubbish into the line's
solitary operating goods wagon, which was built on the frames of a former State Rail Authority bogie
guard's van. Blue Cow has no road access at all in winter, so just like a good Swiss alpine railway,
a goods wagon is propelled up the mountain by one of the passenger trains on a regular basis, which
is also arguably the only remaining example of a regular 'mixed' train operating anywhere in the
country. Early plans actually suggested closing the road to Perisher Valley in winter too, and in
that scenario the railway was going to be double track, but sadly that never happened.
Blue Cow station is 1,893m above sea level, making it by far the highest point on any railway in Australia,
and there are some pretty spectacular views of the alps to be had a short walk from the station.
Both Blue Cow and Perisher Valley stations were built using the cut and cover technique with a building
over the top, making them effectively underground stations – a practical choice for protection from
extreme weather and heavy snowfalls. You might have noticed I've already mentioned several
national records held by this railway. So far we have: Australia's only electrified rack railway,
only railway with a rack over its entire length, deepest railway tunnel, highest altitude railway..
Oh and it's also the longest railway tunnel in Australia – even if you count the tunnels either
side of Perisher separately, the two tunnels are both individually longer than the next
longest example. Although this record is soon to be roughly equalled by a new tunnel through
Queensland's Toowomba Range being built as part of the Inland Rail project.
Skitube is operated by a small fleet of Electric Multiple Units, designed by everyone's favourite Australian rollingstock
manufacturer, Comeng, and the bodies were built in their factory at Granville in suburban Sydney.
Many components relating to the rack operation, including the motor bogies, were provided by Swiss
company SLM, who's name you will see all over the European rack railway scene.
11 carriages were built, with a mixture of motor cars, trailer cars, and driving trailers making up four trains.
The cars don't have any obvious numbering system, and the sets simply carry the numbers 1 to 4.
Set No.1 is a three car set, made up of a motor car, a trailer and a driving trailer.
Set 2 is a four car set, with two intermediate trailer cars. Sets 3 and 4 are both short 2 car sets,
consisting of just a motor and a driving trailer. As with most rack railways, the trains are all
oriented with the motor car at the downhill end of the train. The trains are limited to 40km/h,
with four car sets limited to 34km/h when climbing the 1 in 8 grade – I'm not sure why that applies
to 4 car sets only. Running down the 1 in 8, all trains are limited to a much more cautions 21km/h.
These very specific speeds are dictated by the Swiss regulations for rack railway operation.
During busy periods trains 3 and 4 usually operate coupled as a four car set.
And the usual arrangement seems to be Set 1 operating the Blue Cow shuttle, while the two four car sets run
the lower half of the line, crossing at the loop just outside the tunnel portal. It's interesting
to consider that the train made up of sets 3 and 4 would have a substantially higher
power-to-weight ratio than set 2, with double the motor cars for the same length of train.
These trains have a lot of unusual design features – they are just under 3.8m wide, making them
I think – the widest passenger cars anywhere in the world. They are built to a high capacity
metro-style layout, with 6 doors per side, minimal seating, and lots of handrails for standees.
There is no carpet or upholstery of any kind, which is necessary as the car interiors get very wet from
all the snow melt running off people's clothing an equipment – and you can see the same thing at
the stations. These things across the middle of the cars are crush barriers, designed to reduce
injuries if the train has to stop suddenly with lots of standing passengers. This isn't a problem
on normal adhesion railways, but rack trains are capable of stopping very quickly in an emergency.
Oddly, there's no dedicated space for skis and snowboards in the trains, so everyone just has
to hang onto them – although many people hire their equipment up the top anyway.
Like most trains that spend a lot of time underground, an emergency exit door is fitted
to the front of the cab, complete with a narrow end platform and steps down to ground level.
There's no space in the tunnels to evacuate out the side doors, so you can see why the end doors
are needed. Unusually for an alpine train, they have no significant snow plow – just a
tiny little one mounted to the front of the bogie. Obviously the snow never gets particularly deep on
the above ground section of the line. The driver sits on the right, which is a strange choice given
left hand drive is standard on the main New South Wales rail network. You might think this is part
of the Swiss design influence, but no – trains in Switzerland are also usually driven from the left.
The motor cars are extremely powerful, rated at 1,240kw/1,660hp each, and it's been suggested that
this might make them the most powerful electric rack railcars in the world. The traction motors
power the cog wheels only, with the regular wheels on the running rails just free-wheeling,
so these trains actually can't move without a rack. There is some rack-free trackage within
the workshops, and a small diesel shunter is used to move the trains in this area.
A slightly less positive record held by Skitube, is that it is by far, the most expensive 17km
round-trip rail journey in Australia. Everything about downhill skiing is expensive,
and this railway is no exception. For most people, the fare for the train is built into their skiing
pass or holiday package, but if you're mad like me and just want to go for a ride on the train,
you have to fork out an eye-watering $110. Given they don't really expect people to
just go for joy rides, this cost also includes access to the resort and National Park fees,
but even so.. it's remarkably expensive. So for just over three decades now, Skitube has been
doing a pretty great job of filling this very niche transport need, and is a great example of
how adaptable rail transport can be. The line only operates during the ski season – usually June to
October – and hibernates for the rest of the year. The environmental and safety benefits of this
line are huge, dramatically reducing car milage on the mountain – which amongst other things,
is great news for the alpine wildlife. It's much harder to get run over by a slowly moving train
carrying 800 people, than by the several hundred cars those people would otherwise be driving.
The above ground footprint of the line is quite minimal,
and certainly less than the road going up the mountain – or in fact the ski runs themselves.
The system is very energy efficient: Trains running downhill use regenerative braking,
producing power that can then be used by trains running uphill – something that's very well suited
to this line given trains are often running in both directions simultaneously. However,
there is one big giveaway that this isn't a fully Swiss operation. Just about every rack railway
in Europe connects with a mainline railway at the lower terminus, integrating them into the
broader transport network. Skitube however is still very much a car-dependent operation, with
Bullocks Flat essentially being just a big park 'n' ride. In fact, adding to my previous comment
about the line having a pretty small footprint: by far the biggest part of that, is the car park.
The only public transport connection is a Greyhound bus which operates once a
day between Sydney and Thredbo via Canberra. It arrives at Bullocks Flat at 2 in the afternoon
and heads back at 2:45, so not viable for any kind of day trip. It's not even that cheap,
so I'd be interested to know who the target market for this service actually is. I personally think
it would be cool if the line continued 20-odd k's up the valley to Jindabyne, that way people could
stay in the town and not have to drive back and forth each day. This bit would ideally need to
be a regular adhesion railway to allow higher speeds, so you'd need trains capable of running
both with and without a rack, as is common on many Swiss lines. In fact, an extension to Jindabyne
was actually included as an option in some of the early sketches for the route. Anyway, if
you're ever in the mountains and feel like riding a train that's as interesting as it is expensive,
I do recommend a trip up to Blue Cow – even if it's just to admire the view. Thanks for watching!