Re: Sydney's Railway Tunnels

[ROY HOWARTH <rhowarth@tig.com.au>]

There are quite a number of tunnels under and around the Sydney CBD, both 
used and unused/partly completed, to summarise:

St James:

Double-track tunnels north of centre platforms 2 & 3 intended for Western 
Suburbs Railway. First half initially used as storage sidings for 
electric trains until decommissioned in 1989. There is a further 
partly-excavated section that curves towards the Quay never used by 
trains and and is flooded. Rumoured to be used as bunkers by General 
McCarthy during WWII.

South of platforms 2 & 3 are two single-track tunnels intended for the 
Eastern Suburbs line which curve south-east under Hyde Park for about 
500m. Used as air-raid shelters during WWII (many blast curtains still 
there).

Central:

Two unused platforms 26 & 27 plus adjoining tunnels intended for 
South-Eastern Suburbs Railway. Used for some years by Central Document 
Storage until they vacated the premises during the year. David Johnsons's 
Home Page has some excellent photos of this site under his "Stations & 
Infrastructure" section. See http://www.ozemail.com.au/~trainman

North Sydney:

One single-track tunnel intended for the Manly & Northern Beaches 
(Peninsula) Line. Branches north of the station from No.2 Road tunnel and 
curves above the up (No.1 platform) line for about 200m or so.

Darling Harbour:

This double-tracked tunnel formed part of the Goods Line and is one of 
the oldest railway tunnels in Sydney. Not sure if it's still used.

Redfern: 

One unused dive under site of old Wells Street Box, believed to lead to 
partly excavated works for two extra platforms above ESR platforms 11 & 
12.

There may be more tunnels along the Goods Lines etc that I'm not aware 
of, but hope this helps

Roy H


"Geoff Quinn" <quinn_g@yahoo.com> wrote:
>Hi,
>
>For a while now I have been interested in the railway tunnels that exist
>under the Sydney CBD.
>
>Does anyone have any information or know of a web site/s that have
>information on them?
>
>I am interested in both the tunnels that are used, and those that aren't. I
>read somewhere that apart from the tunnel/s near St. James there is one
>somewhere around Darling Harbour?
>
>Cheers,
>
>Quinny
>
>