Last weekend was a big celebration of the arrival, 150 years ago, of the railway at Mount Victoria in May 1868 - less than a year after the first train steamed into Wentworth Falls station, many miles to the east.  A great crowd turned out to see the sights, welcome the VIPs, and soak up the sunshine and the history.

Every year, Mt Victoria holds a Great Train Weekend - celebrating the role played by the railways in the history and development of not only that part of the upper Blue Mountains, but areas like Jenolan Caves, Lithgow, and the plains around Bathurst and Orange.

This year, it being a special anniversary, we were offered the spectacle of two different historical trains; one being an example of the workhorse of regional passenger service - the "tin hare" or rail motor - which first hit the tracks in 1923, and was still working what are now suburban lines, such as Blacktown to Richmond, until 1984.....

....and the other being one of the titans of the steam era in Australian rail - the Beyer Garratt AD60 Class Locomotive "6029"  The 255 tonne behemoth was a late arrival in NSW Railway service, first going to work in 1952, not too many years before diesel heralded the imminent end of steam power on the tracks of NSW

Am I betraying a level of nostalgia?  I guess so - as a child I would often wake to the rhythmic sound of the steam locomotives being brought up to working temperature and pressure, over in the shunting yards at Clyde, 3 or 4 miles away.  Later in the day, it was common for the boys of my group to gather on the bridge over the line, just west of Auburn station, competing with each other as to who was game (or silly) enough to pull back last when the locomotive charged under the bridge, sending its column of coal smoke and sparks swirling up into our faces.

It can be difficult in these days, when transport takes so many forms - trucks, busses, all sorts of modern cars - to understand just how significant these narrow ribbons of steel were to people who, until the trains came, had to walk for days or weeks to reach destinations that we now attain in minutes or hours.

Within a few years of the arrival of the rail at Mount Vic, as the locals call it, the line had reached down along the western Zig Zag to Lithgow, out through the vale to Wallerawang, and then on down the Fish River Valley to Bathurst and beyond.  Prior to that, heading west from Mt Vic was an arduous and dangerous journey. 

The descent of Victoria Pass to Hartley required the drivers of horse or bullock drawn wagons to chain a great log behind the vehicle.  Its purpose was to serve as a brake and prevent the wagon or coach from running over the draught animals and plunging down the cliffs into Hartley Vale or Kanimbla Valley.  Over a few years, the surplus logs began to pile up at the bottom of the Pass, obstructing the Great Western Highway.  It makes the modern journey seem blissfully easy - as long as you don't forget the speed cameras at the top and bottom of the mountain.