The Scenic Railway
at Katoomba was often called “The Mountain
Devil” when I was young. This was before the Skyway and more recently the
Cableway were added to the present Scenic World complex. The connection is that
visitors to the Blue Mountains often bought (or made) little horned figures out
of the hard fruits of the honey flower (Lambertia) which is plentiful in the
upper mountains. You will notice the “devil” images in the book and the name on
the side of the carriage in photographs.
It’s not my intention to write a history of the place –
others have already done a great job of that. I’ll let this little book tell the
story itself, which is why you need to download a copy. According to “Trove” (the National Library of
Australia’s online search facility), this publication is out of copyright so
you are free to download a copy for your own use. The link with Trove is here. Go to the bottom
of the page which loads up and click on the download link there. It begins with
“View at …”.
At the time of publication the operation of the Scenic
Railway was still under the control of the
Katoomba
Colliery Limited; subsequently the whole site was bought by the
Hammon family and developed into the
world class tourist attraction it is today. For more information on the origins
of the present day Scenic World, see “
The Burning Mists of Time” written
by Philip J Pells and Philip J Hammon (2009). The book has its own website
here. (
Link not working February 2024.)
My video which accompanies this blog is here. It
contains more photographs from the Scenic Railway booklet.
Here is a list of some of my videos
and blogs (with links) which make reference to Scenic World:
Videos
Blogs
My Blue Mountains You Tube playlist may be found here. I have three other playlists - on gem hunting/mining, Glen Innes and New Zealand.
All New England and other Geology blogs and videos
|
Lambertia formosa - the Honey Flower or Mountain Devil |