Overview | |
---|---|
Location | Swan View, Western Australia |
Coordinates | 31°52′59.3″S116°4′10.3″E / 31.883139°S 116.069528°E |
Status | Converted to rail trail |
Start | 31°52′56.1″S116°4′15.5″E / 31.882250°S 116.070972°E |
End | 31°53′2.8″S116°4′5.0″E / 31.884111°S 116.068056°E |
Operation | |
Opened | 22 February 1895 |
Closed | 13 February 1966 |
Owner | Department of Parks & Wildlife |
Operator | Western Australian Government Railways |
Technical | |
Line length | 340 metres |
No. of tracks | 1 |
Track gauge | 1,067 mm (3 ft 6 in) |
The Swan View Tunnel is a former railway tunnel located on the southern side of the Jane Brook valley in the outer Perth suburb of Swan View in the John Forrest National Park on the edge of the Darling Scarp. After its closure as a railway tunnel, it reopened as part of the John Forrest Heritage Trail, a rail trail.
Prior to the construction of tunnels and the sinking of the Subiaco railway station in 1999, the Swan View Tunnel was the only tunnel on the Western Australian railway network.
Swan View Tunnel was built on an alignment which replaced the original Eastern Railway passing through Smiths Mill, (now Glen Forrest), and Mundaring. The project to build the new line, including the Swan View Tunnel, was managed by the Western Australian Government Railways Engineer-in-Chief, C. Y. O'Connor.
The tunnel was erroneously stated in contemporary reporting to be 13 chains long, which is 261.5184 m (858 ft). [1] Modern authorities give the length as 340 m (1,120 ft). [2] Inspection of open source aerial imagery confirms that the tunnel is 340.7 metres (1,118 ft) in length.
Work began in 1894, with the two bores meeting on 18 April 1895. [3] The tunnel opened on 22 February 1896. [4] [5] The unstable nature of the jointed granite, along with clay seams, caused difficulties during construction of the tunnel. A masonry-lined face prevented rock falls, but reduced the inner diameter.
The deviation from the original railway line, and the tunnel in particular, was a "significant technical feat for the time"; Engineers Australia awarded the deviation an Engineering Heritage Marker as part of its Engineering Heritage Recognition Program. [6]
The tunnel's small diameter combined with the steep gradient (1:49) caused smoke accumulation. Incidents involving near-asphyxiation of train crews started in 1896, and continued throughout the tunnel's operating life. [7] [8] [9] The first serious incident of this nature was in 1903. [10]
The tunnel's design was incompatible with the ASG class Garratt steam locomotives used by the Western Australian Government Railways in the 1940s. The subsequent Royal Commission into the ASG dealt with design of the locomotive, and the very dangerous clearances. [11] [12]
The cause of industrial trouble arose in regard to the taking of the ASG locomotives through the Swan View tunnel. This tunnel was constructed many years ago and provides very little clearance for a modern locomotive. In the case of the ASG the distance between the sides and top of the locomotive and the structure of the tunnel is a matter of inches. [13] [14]
The worst accident in the tunnel was on 5 November 1942, when both drivers and firemen were overcome by carbon monoxide, one driver dying, when a fully laden double-header train passed through the tunnel at walking pace. [15] [16] [17] Further cases occurred in 1943 [18] and 1944 on up trains. [19]
Subsequent industrial strikes, a Royal Commission and union agitation for the locomotives' withdrawal was a significant issue in the 1940s. [20] [21] [22] [23]
Between 1934 and 1945, a signal cabin was located at Tunnel Junction, on the eastern end of the tunnel, for managing the transition from the tunnel's single line to the dual lines of the system. [24]
The single line tunnel was considered unsafe for eastbound (climbing) trains, [25] [26] and a diversion was added on the northern side of the hill that the tunnel passed through.
It was known as the deviation, and due to rock instability included a fence of 16 wires to be used as a detector of rock falls. [5] [27] The diversion was completed on 25 November 1945. [28]
The railway line through the tunnel was lifted after the closing of the older and steeper Eastern Railway and the opening of the Avon Valley diversion that opened in February 1966.
After the 1960s, gates/doors[ which? ] were put at either end of the tunnel though these were later removed. [29]
The tunnel remains intact and has reopened as part of the John Forrest Heritage Trail, part of the larger Railway Reserve Heritage Trail. [30] During the 1990s, the government authority in which the tunnel land was vested, the Department of Environment and Conservation allowed a number of night time "ghost walks" in the tunnel as part of the Hills Forest programmes.
John Forrest National Park is a national park in the Darling Scarp, 24 km (15 mi) east of Perth, Western Australia. Proclaimed as a national park in November 1900, it was the first national park in Western Australia and the second in Australia after Royal National Park.
Mundaring is a suburb located 34 km east of Perth, Western Australia on the Great Eastern Highway. The suburb is located within the Shire of Mundaring.
Southern Cross is a town in Western Australia, 371 kilometres east of state capital Perth on the Great Eastern Highway. It was founded by gold prospectors in 1888, and gazetted in 1890. It is the major town and administrative centre of the Shire of Yilgarn. At the 2016 census, Southern Cross had a population of 680.
Darlington, Western Australia, is a locality in the Shire of Mundaring on the Darling Scarp, bisected by Nyaania Creek and north of the Helena River.
The Eastern Railway is the main railway route between Fremantle and Northam in Western Australia. It opened in stages between 1881 and 1893. The line continues east to Kalgoorlie as the Eastern Goldfields Railway.
Greenmount is a locality and a geographical feature in the Shire of Mundaring, Western Australia, on the edge of the Darling Scarp. It is a vital point in the transport routes from the Swan Coastal Plain into the hinterland of Western Australia.
The Railway Reserves Heritage Trail – also on some maps as Rail Reserve Heritage Trail or Rail Reserves Historical Trail, and frequently referred to locally as the Bridle Trail or Bridle Track – is within the Shire of Mundaring in Western Australia.
Glen Forrest is a suburb within the Shire of Mundaring, south of John Forrest National Park, west of Mahogany Creek, east of Darlington, and north of the Helena River. Its northern boundary is determined by the Great Eastern Highway.
The Mundaring Weir Branch Railway was constructed from Mundaring, Western Australia to the site of the Mundaring Weir, and opened on 1 June 1898.
The Mundaring Branch Railway is a historical section of the original Eastern Railway main line across the Darling Scarp in the Western Australian Government Railways (WAGR) system.
Chidlow is a small community in the Shire of Mundaring approximately 45 kilometres east of Perth, Western Australia.
Mundaring Weir is a dam located 39 kilometres (24 mi) from Perth, Western Australia in the Darling Scarp. The dam and reservoir form the boundary between the suburbs of Reservoir and Sawyers Valley. The dam impounds the Helena River.
Swan View is an eastern suburb of Perth, Western Australia. Its local government areas are the City of Swan and the Shire of Mundaring. It is 25 kilometres (16 mi) from Perth in the Perth Hills on the edge of the Darling Scarp, just to the west of the John Forrest National Park, east of Roe Highway and north of the Great Eastern Highway.
The Australian Standard Garratt (ASG) was a Garratt steam locomotive designed in Australia during World War II, and used on 3 ft 6 in narrow gauge railway systems in Queensland, South Australia, Western Australia and Tasmania.
Hovea is a suburb in the Shire of Mundaring in Perth, Western Australia.
The Goldfields Water Supply Scheme is a pipeline and dam project that delivers potable water from Mundaring Weir in Perth to communities in Western Australia's Eastern Goldfields, particularly Coolgardie and Kalgoorlie. The project was commissioned in 1896 and completed in 1903.
The Shire of Mundaring is a local government area in eastern metropolitan Perth, the capital of Western Australia. The Shire covers an area of 645 square kilometres (249 sq mi) and had a population of approximately 38,000 as at the 2016 Census.
Swan View railway station, Perth was a railway station of significance on the Eastern Railway in Western Australia. In all working timetables during the operation of this line, the station was the point of control for the Swan View Tunnel.
The Mundaring Hotel was opened in 1899 in Mundaring, a hills suburb of Perth, Western Australia.
The Sawyers Valley Tavern was established in 1882 in Sawyers Valley, a hills suburb of Perth, Western Australia. It was originally called the Sawyers Valley Hotel before acquiring its current name.