Scenic World

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Scenic Railway

Scenic World is a privately operated tourist attraction in Katoomba in the Blue Mountains , New South Wales , Australia , about 100 km west of Sydney , which is visited by more than 1.2 million visitors a year.

Funicular: Scenic Railway

Lower section of the Scenic Railway

The Scenic Railway is the steepest inclined elevator in the world, with a gradient of up to 52 degrees and a length of 310 m. It was constructed in the 1880s for coal and oil shale mining in order to transport these mineral resources from the bottom of the Jamison Valley to the strata above .

Narrow gauge funicular

Around 1900

The first double-track, narrow - gauge funicular from the early 1880s on the route of today's Scenic Railway had a gauge of 2 feet (610 mm). In 1884 it was used to transport 20,000 tons of coal. At that time the company had 56 employees.

The lorries were transferred to a small train at the mountain station, with which the coal was then brought to Katoomba, 2 km away, from where it was transported by train to Sydney.

Tramway

Tramway

In 1892, 154 men worked in the various mines in the area, extracting 22,000 tons of oil shale per year. There was a double-track tramway nearby. It was a narrow funicular from the Mt Rennie Tunnel through the Narrow Neck to the Daylight Tunnel of the old coal mine of Katoomba. It was used to bring oil shale from the Glen Shale Mine in the Megalong Valley to the valley station of the funicular, on whose route the Scenic Railway now runs.

Broad gauge funicular

Tourists in the 1950s
Around 1945
1915

From 1928 to 1945, the broad-gauge funicular on the route of today's Scenic Railway was used for passenger traffic on weekends. The coal mine was closed in 1945. Harry Hammon and his sister Isobel Fahey acquired the site and continued to use the railway as a tourist attraction. It was completely overhauled and renewed from January 2013 to April 2013 in a complex project.

Cable car: Scenic Skyway

Scenic Skyway

The Scenic Skyway , opened in December 2004, is a single-lane aerial tramway over the gorge 270 m above Katoomba Falls. It was designed and built by Doppelmayr and CWA Constructions. It has a cabin for 72 passengers. Part of the floor is made of a special liquid crystal glass that can be switched from opaque to transparent during the journey. Since November 2005 there has been a second station on the opposite cliff, from which walking paths lead to the nearby Echo Point lookout point. The previous cable car, which was built at the same location in 1958, was in operation until April 4, 2004 and made 587,401 trips.

Cabin cable car: Scenic Cableway

The Scenic Cableway is a Doppelmayr cabin cableway built in 2000 with a cabin for 84 passengers, which leads over a 25 m high mast on the cliff edge to the valley station in the Jamison Valley 200 m below.

Walkway : Scenic Walkway

Scenic Walkway
Map of the Katoomba Scenic World

A 2.4 km long walk leads on a boardwalk through the rainforest in the valley floor of the Jamison Valley. It leads to the tunnel mouth of the coal mine, a replica of a miner's hut and to a bronze sculpture of a miner with his pit pony. Depending on the route, the walks take from 10 minutes to an hour.

Roller coaster: Orphan Rocker

The Orphan Rocker roller coaster , which was built in 1988 and is named after the nearby Orphan Rock, has not yet been put into operation.

See also

Web links

Commons : Katoomba Scenic World  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Scenic World . Bluemts.com.au. Retrieved March 10, 2015.
  2. ^ David Bennett: Flying the scenic route . November 1, 2001. Retrieved August 15, 2015.
  3. ↑ Katoomba Scenic Railway (steepest incline railway in the world) - Katoomba, New South Wales - Outdoor Recreation . Facebook. Retrieved March 10, 2015.
  4. ↑ All Aboard! Katoomba Scenic Railway - Blue Mountains Australia . Infobluemountains.net.au. Retrieved March 10, 2015.
  5. ↑ The Steepest Railways on Earth . Scribol.com. Retrieved March 10, 2015.
  6. ↑ Top five funicular railways - Take five - {Columns} - Travel . smh.com.au. Retrieved March 10, 2015.
  7. ^ Scenic Railway, Scenic World. Blue Mountains Australia . Scenicworld.com.au. Retrieved March 10, 2015.
  8. ↑ a b Scenic World: Scenic World History.
  9. ↑ Info Blue Mountains Railway Pages. Katoomba Cable Railways 3 Sisters, Blue Mountains, Australia. Katoomba Scenic Railway & mining tramways: History.
  10. ^ Coaster Gallery: Scenic World, Katoomba, New South Wales, Australia.
  11. ↑ Scenic Railway Redevelopment FAQs . Scenic World. Retrieved March 10, 2015.
  12. ↑ Roller-coaster is going nowhere fast . January 29, 2006. Retrieved June 29, 2014. 
  13. ↑ Orphan Rocker, Scenic World (Katoomba, New South Wales, Australia)
  14. ↑ The Owner's Say. Letter from Phillip Hammon, March 1999, in response to an inquiry forwarded by Info Blue Mountains.

Coordinates: 33 ° 43 ′ 42.6 ″  S , 150 ° 18 ′ 3.6 ″  E