Ardglen Tunnel

Ardglen station with a train past summit of the Liverpool Range, 26 October 1954

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 Nowlands Gap (otherwise known as Murrurundi Gap), the crossing used by the New England Highway.

It is approximately 500 metres long, and is approached on either side by 10-kilometre climbs at the ruling grade of 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 of Ardglen Tunnel from the south are:

Murrurundi — medium length crossing loop and start of ruling grades. Had a locomotive depot for bank engines in steam days.
Pangela — closed short crossing loop on ruling gradient
Ardglen Tunnel — summit
Ardglen — medium length crossing loop and railway station, being further lengthened in 2010.
Kankool — short crossing loop on ruling gradient
Willow Tree — medium length crossing loop and railway station and end of ruling grades.

Fumes

Because the Ardglen tunnel is at the summit of ruling grades, and because of its narrow profile, the tunnel had fume problems during steam days.^[1] Larger locomotives such as the 60-class Garratt were either prohibited or limited in load. Fortunately heavy trains tended to go though the tunnel (towards Sydney and Newcastle) in the downhill direction.

Sydney and Newcastle port are on the left.
The modern ARTC Curve and Gradient chart shows the tunnel being level.

Proposed deviations

To cope with considerably increased coal traffic from north of the tunnel from 2010 and beyond, various deviations are proposed. These deviations can either keep the existing summit tunnel, or bore a much longer tunnel at a 200m 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

↑ Tunnel on Australian Railways, by William A. Bailey, Austrail Publications, 1974, page 9

External links

Coordinates: 31°44′24″S 150°47′38″E / 31.74000°S 150.79389°E / -31.74000; 150.79389

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