The Blue Mountains’ historic train is steaming again

There’s nothing like observing the sheer joy of a train enthusiast. Little kids shriek when we rattle through our first tunnel, spooked and thrilled as the carriage goes unexpectedly dark. Then there’s the grown men with their long lenses, photographing every facet of the red-and-green locomotive, polished within an inch of its life. They crowd the platform and the railway bridge, clicking away, enthralled as the train pumps out steam and the guard shovels in the coal.

The Zig Zag Railway has been well and truly back on the rails now for months after being mothballed in a siding in the Upper Blue Mountains for 11 years. It tootled off on its first trip in May last year, making a jagged journey from Clarence Station down the valley to Bottom Points and back again. It’s heaven for train buffs, and I’m one of them. I beam when the driver, Michael Marriott-Statham, lets me climb into the cab and chug along for a few kilometres, hanging out the window as we whizz over a viaduct.

Also onboard is chief executive Daniel Zolfel, who’s acting as the fireman and giving a trainee lessons on the correct angle to heave the coal into the firebox.

Everyone involved with the Zig Zag, bar five employees, are volunteers; Michael has been driving steam locos for 40 years having joined the Zig Zag Railway Co-Op 50 years ago.

It takes 90 minutes from start to finish, travelling through two tunnels and over three viaducts. Every one of the 305 seats is taken and every trip has been booked solid since operations re-started.

Many are on board for the nostalgia, reliving the trip they took on the tourist train as kids.

The Zig Zag railway dates to 1869 when it was built as part of the Main Western Line that connected Sydney with Lithgow and onto the Western Plains. It was built into the escarpment using zig-zags – switchbacks – enabling the train to climb a steep flank, overcoming a vertical distance of 170 metres. The line closed in 1910 and lay unused until the newly formed Co-Op launched the tourist train in 1975. That chugged along for years but closed in 2012 following changes to railway safety laws. It remained off the rails for a decade owing to bushfires, floods and vandalism.

Its recent rebirth is a testament to the passion of the volunteers who helped restore the 1943-built locomotive and who are rostered on for each trip as drivers, signallers and guards. Essential works including the rebuilding of the locomotive workshop and a new 300-vehicle car park were funded by a $5.9 million Crown Lands and Department of Regional NSW grant.