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The Iron Horse.
DEVIATION AT GLENBROOK.
The Blue Mountain village of Glen-
brook was up till 12 years ago com-
paratively unknown. Then it sudden-
ly became notorious as the scene of
a cold-blooded murder. A prospector,
Captain Lee Weller, was done to
death by that fiend in human shape,
Butler, who was hanged for the
crime.
After Butler's execution, the place
settled down again to its rural se-
clusion, and the gum trees and bush
growth were undisturbed, Save by
the wallabies. This solitude, how-
ever, has been broken again. In
January last the railway deviation
works were started at Glenbrook, and
hundred of navvies and camp fol-
lowers swarmed into the village. A
camp was located on a plateau about
a mile and a half from the railway
station, and in a week or so stringy
barks, grey and red gums, and other
bush growths were cleared off, and
the ground was left almost bare.
Hundreds of drays, carts and vans
brought building material from the
old railway camp at Clarence. The
scene changed as if by magic. Shops
and humpies went up in almost a
single night. They were strange
looking structures, composed chiefly
of second and third hand galvanised
iron, bagging which was once new,
ruberoid, and timber of all descrip-
tions.
Now a little over four mouths have
elapsed, and the new township has
advanced with the time. The railway
workmen say that their settlement
is not a camp. They regard it as
a township, for it boasts a popula-
tion of 1200 navvies, with their wives
and families. This sudden increase
of population in the village is ex-
clusive of the original inhabitants of
the place. For the navvies, the Rail-
way Department has provided a doc-
tor and a hospital. At the present
time the hospital is being largely
availed of by sufferers from minor
ailments. Fortunately, the camp is
free from serious sickness. Two
policemen have taken up their quar-
ters there, but as they are regarded
as "giants of good advice" to those
who occasionally become obstreper-
ous, the strong hand of the law is
not frequently used. If fact, in fair-
ness to the navvies, it must be said
that the duties of the policemen are
very light indeed. There is also a
resident Church of England clergy-
man to minister to the spiritual
wants of the navvies.
The main street of the new town-
ship is a quarter of a mile long and
of the uniform width of 66ft. It is
composed entirely of shops and re-
staurants. These include large gen-
eral stores, a bootmaker, two tailors,
three barbers, fruit and refreshment
shops, a baker and butcher, a ham
and small goodsman, a van proprie-
tor, tobacconists, newsagencies, and
a billiard saloon. One feature of the
domestic life of the camp is the ex-
istence of many boarding houses. At
some of them there are as many as
25 daily customers for meals, chiefly
young navvies for whom the smiling
waitresses evidently have a charm.
Few, if any of the navvies, how-
ever, lodge in the boarding houses.
They prefer the freedom of their
tents where at nights they sit, sing
and smoke and make merry. A den-
tist arrived a few days ago and he
expects to do a large business. A
large hall has been built and in it
are held picture shows, dances, thea-
trical performances, and concerts.
The navvies and storekeepers' assis-
tants have formed two football clubs,
and at the members' own expense
have had constructed a proper play-
ing oval near the Glenbrook railway
station.
Among the dwellings the bag hum-
py is much in evidence, but despite
the many primitive homes cleanliness
prevails to a marked degree. A
sanitary officer has been specially
appointed by the Railway Depart-
ment to supervise matters in the in-
interest of public health. Swarms
of rosy-cheeked healthy children play
around their temporary bush homes,
but their education is not being ne-
glected. The local public school,
where the attendance previously av-
eraged 30, was found to be far too
small to cope with the sudden rush
of children, so the Glenbrook School
of Arts was engaged as a sort of
overflow schoolhouse, and now the
attendance has increased to 200 pup-
ils. The local teacher has had his
staff increased by two assistants,
while the local postmistress (who was
so suddenly transported from the
realms of rural quietness into a hive
of industry) found it necessary to
apply for additional assistance.
The railway works are of great
magnitude. Glenbrook Creek is being
blasted out of recognition. All day
long the blasting is going on and the
"boom!" of the explosion echoes
through the gullies and over the
hills, scaring the wallabies and for-
cing them to retreat to places where
the rack-a-rock and the dynamite do
not disturb the tranquillity of their
forest fastnesses. The navvies are
constructing a new railway line to
do away with the straining of coup-
lings and the heavy haulage over the
steep grade which at present exists
between Emu Plains and Glenbrook.
The journey over the mountains
will, when the alteration is finished,
be three or four miles longer than
it is at present, but train passengers
will have ample compensation in the
grandeur of the scenery in the Glen-
Brook gully. Here the train will
skirt along cliffs 700ft deep, while
before the gully is reached the line
will pass through timbered country
on a course which is parallel with
the Nepean River, affording a beauti-
ful view of the prettiest portion of
the Nepean. The progress of the
work up to the present is wonderful.
Big gullies are being filled up, and
hills are being pulled down. From
high up on some of the hills specks
of humanity can be seen like ants
below transforming the whole scene.
The work is just another of those
railway engineering feats for which
the Blue Mountains have now become
renowned. Immediately after passing
Emu Plains the start of the new line
can be seen taking a wide semi-cir-
cle. The line returns to the present
line near the road-crossing, and then
skirts along eastwards some 300yds.
A big tunnel is to be excavated,
and it will end right at the back of
the Glenbrook Station. What a rush
there will be for mountain sites for
residential purposes when the new
line is nearly completed.
The road which the ingenuity of
man has formed over the precipitous
Blue Mountains for the big iron horse
to convey passengers in the latest
cosy carriages has a record which
will certainly go down in the history
of New South Wales. One of the
greatest engineering works in Aus-
tralia was the first Zig-zag over the
mountains. It ranked among the
boldest and most substantial railway
structure in the world. Mr Henniker
Heaton gives a concise description of
the work. The first pinch of the
climb is met with at Penrith, 34
miles, from Sydney. Here the line
gradually rises 155ft before it crosses
the Knapsack Gully by the viaduct,
which is 388ft. long, with a maximum
height of 126ft. The crossing is 245ft
above Emu Plains, and the line
reaches the lower point of the first
Zig-Zag at an elevation 414ft above
sea level.
From there on an elevation of
470ft is attained in 30 chains, and
the line continues to go higher until
the tunnel, 539yds in length conveys
the train through Mount Clarence.
The rails at the entrance of this
tunnel are 3658ft above sea level,
and this is the summit level of the
line 88 miles from Sydney, and 52
miles from the commencement of the
ascent at Emu Plains. Between Mt
Clarence, 88 miles from Sydney, and
Wallerawang, 105 miles, there are no
less, than seven viaducts of 2225ft in
length averaging in height from10
to 70 feet, and in span from 10 to 54
feet. This with the three tunnels
are mentioned to show some of the
work of railway construction done
on the Blue Mountains in the past.
The navvies' settlement at Glen-
brook, however, is at present the
chief object of interest in the dis-
trict, as the township which so sud-
denly sprung into existence is cer-
tainly a feat that would make Ameri-
cans, who boast of their machine
made settlements, green with envy.
The camp is supplied with water
pumped from the Duck Hole, a deep
pool in the Glenbrook Creek, which
for years past has provided the water
for the mountain trains. To con-
nect the Duck Hole with the camp
miles of pipes had to be laid by the
Railway Department.
The deviation works entail much
danger to the navvies. Particularly
is the risk of injury great at the
Bluff in the Glenbrook Creek. Here
men have to go down a sheer face
of cliff on ropes, and work on a
ledge not move than 2ft. wide. A
slip would mean death. Yet those
who perform those daily death-defy-
ing feats never flinch. On the other
hand, they slither down the face of
the cliffs and work away on the
narrow ledge, giving vent to their
hilarious feelings in the latest ditty,
the tune of which they picked up
at their camp music hall. They
evidently like their work in the brac-
ing mountain air. Many "out of
works" would like to join them, as
on the outskirts of the camp are
men waiting for an odd job. They
are camped variously in small tents
and gunyahs made of boughs and
gum leaves, which are just suffi-
cient to keep out the dew. And
everyone who has been in the moun-
tains knows what the dew is like,
particularly at this time of the year.
The work will last for two years,
and if the new Glenbrook township
progresses at the same rate for the
whole of this period as it has done
during the previous four months,
then Glenbrook and its environs will
be a very busy place in 1913. —
"Evening News."