Ardglen Tunnel

Ardglen Tunnel

The Ardglen Tunnel is a summit tunnel on the Main North railway in New South Wales, Australia, between Newcastle and Werris Creek. It crosses under the Liverpool Range near its east end below Nowland Pass (otherwise known as Murrurundi Gap), the crossing used by the New England Highway.

It is approximately 500 m long, and is approached on either side by long 10 km climbs of gradients at the ruling grade on 1 in 40 (2.5%). The tunnel is single tracked, which combined with the steep grades make this section a bottleneck.

Stations

The stations on either side are:

* Murrurundi — medium length crossing loop and start of ruling grades.
* Padua — closed short crossing loop on ruling gradient
* Ardglen Tunnel — summit
* Ardglen — medium length crossing loop and railway station
* Kankool — short crossing loop on ruling gradient
* Willow Tree — medium length crossing loop and railway station and end of ruling grades.

Rathole

Because the Arglen tunnel is at the summit of ruling grades, and because of its narrow profile, the tunnel was a rathole tunnel during steam days. The larger locomotives such as the 60-class garratt where either prohibited or limited in load.

Proposed deviations

To cope with considerable increased coal traffic from north of the tunnel, various deviations are proposed. These deviations can either keep the existing summit tunnel, or bore a much longer tunnel at a lower elevation. The deviations that keep the existing tunnel increase the length of the line so as to ease the gradient to 1 in 80 which is the ruling gradient on the rest of the line to the port. The existing line would be retained for empty trains going the other way, so forming double track.

References

External links

* [http://www.railpage.com.au/f-p918248.htm 72 wagon coal train trial]
* [http://wikimapia.org/1655020/ Ardglen quarry and siding map]
* [http://home.iprimus.com.au/scuttlesim/Ardglen/ardglen.html Virtual route for Microsoft Train Simulator]
* [http://www.fallingrain.com/world/AS/2/Murrurundi.html FallingRain Map - elevation = 544 m]


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