NORTH SYDNEY RAIL TUNNELS

[Paul.Rogers@dotrs.gov.au]

Some years ago there was a fair bit of discussion on the tunnels immediately 
west of  North Sydney Station on Sydney's North Shore Line.

The basic matter discussed was that there was only a single track tunnel take 
off from  No.2 Road, the tunnel being excavated for a sufficient length to 
vertically clear both No.1 & No.2 roads which, for most part of the tunnel, 
run parallel within a double portal (although there are separate portals for 
each track at the North Sydney platforms).

Since its commissioning in 1932, No.2 Road has been used for city-bound 
traffic by providing a means of "rapid-firing" 8-car sets out of Lavendar Bay 
to North Sydney Station.  There was sufficient storage space along No.2 Road 
for 3 x 8-car sets, with the last couple of cars of the third set hanging out 
of the tunnel at the Waverton end.

Two other lines,  No.3 & No.4 Roads, have a similar arrangement, entering the 
North Sydney end of their tunnel by separate portals and shortly afterward 
using a double track portal for most of the tunnel's length.  There is no 
provision for a take off tunnel from No.3 Road tunnel to accommodate a track 
that would rise over Nos. 1 & 2 Roads.

Until 1992/93, there was only sufficient track laid in No.3 Road tunnel to 
accommodate an 8-car train clear of No.3 Platform, so that two 8-car trains 
could be held in what was a terminating road.  By 1992-93, the track in No.3 
Road had been laid throughout to Waverton.  

So why the existence of only a single track tunnel take off for the proposed 
Manly-Warringah Railway?
Might I suggest that the intended track arrangements at North Sydney may have 
been to retain alternate Up & Down tracks used across the Sydney Harbour 
Bridge, with the area immediately east of North Sydney Station containing 
appropriate double crossover connections with both sets of Up & Down tracks?

If this was the case, an Up Manly-Warringah connection to No.1 Road may have 
been planned within the tunnel .  North Sydney Station has served as a 
through terminus for so many years that we may have associated its usage as 
being the intended 'norm'.  North Sydney Station may have been planned as a 
through junction in the wider scheme of things.

Finally, what was the purpose of the cleared area east of Waverton Station, 
which was a feature of my early life memories of living in North Sydney 
(opposite the Moreton Bay Fig in Berry Street), only a few blocks away from 
Waverton Station at the top of  "the climb" in Riley Street.


Regards

Paul Rogers