By Heritage21
https://www.heritage21.com.au/
The NSW railways can always be counted on to have heritage significance, being a mark of suburban, economic and technological development over time. Heritage 21 has extensive experience in the rail sector. Our director, Paul Rappoport had worked on the Heritage management documentation for Central Station earlier in his Australian career which has translated to other rail-related projects within the company. For this reason, Heritage 21 has often been called upon to provide advice for rain stations across Sydney, projects big and small.
Springwood Railway Station is listed on both the local Blue Mountains Local Environment Plan (2015), NSW State Heritage Register and Register of the National Estate. The Statement of Significance reads as follows:
“Springwood Railway Station Group is of state significance as an important railway station for over 140 years with several trains to and from Sydney starting and terminating here. The main station building is the second oldest surviving station building in the Blue Mountains and is an unusual example of a Victorian Gothic railway station building. It is one of three stations in the Blue Mountains upgraded in 1880s demonstrating increase of tourism activity (the others being Lawson and Wentworth Falls) and is the only station building surviving from this period.
… The size of the main station building and its solid, well detailed construction suggests the growing importance of the village of Springwood in the 1880s.”
Springwood Station. Image: Heritage 21. “Springwood Railway Station”. 2023 Interpretation Plan.
What works were Heritage 21 asked to do?
In 2023, Heritage 21 was engaged by GHD Architects to prepare an Interpretation Plan for minor alterations and additions to Springwood Railway Station approved by Transport NSW. These works included the relocation and interpretation of the Signal Control Panel. Heritage 21 sought to provide visitors with access to information about the history of the site, as well as the railways more broadly. We liaised with Transport NSW over the resources we could use for the interpretive media and gained expert advice from the Australian Railway Historical Society regarding the technicalities of signal interlocking and its development in NSW.
What media did Heritage 21 have to work with?
Heritage 21 suggested that the archival photographs and historical sources could be incorporated into the Springwood Railway Station Waiting Room, which would act as an information hub about the Signal Control Panel. The historical information was to be written in plain English on interpretive displays around the room to accommodate a broader audience and broken down into small sections for better readability. The commemorative plaques would also be preserved and kept on the exterior of the building, and the Signal Control Panel displayed as an artefact, fixed in place.
Springwood Railway Station decorated for Royal Visit 1921 – 1922, the lever controls were installed directly onto the platform. Image: Photographer unknown, “Springwood Railway Station, 1921-1922”, Asset no. LSHS0\HS0050, Blue Mountains City Library.
Why are the railways considered heritage?
This project is a reminder of the importance of rail-related heritage conservation. Sydney’s rail network traces all the way back to 1855, as the main mode of passenger and freight transport. The inaugural line connected Central Railway Station to “Parramatta Junction”, which was situated west of Granville Railway Station. The rail network continued to expand as Sydney grew, creating jobs and connecting more of the outer suburbs and regional areas to the city. In the coming years, the NSW Government Railways is set to grow again with the development of the Sydney Metro.
Theme: Interlocking signal systems
The Signal Control Panel at Springwood Railway Station is evident of the evolution of interlocking systems on the railways. The earliest form of signal interlocking installed across the NSW rail network was mechanical interlocking, supplied by McKenzie & Holland in 1881. Burwood Railway Station was the first to implement the new technology, which Springwood Railway Station adopted as part of its redevelopment in 1902. Mechanical interlocking involved the manual operation of substantial levers and/or foot stirrups connected to an operating bar which controls the sequencing of trackside points, signals and interlocking devices. Keeping the system running smoothly were the signalmen. Electro-pneumatic controls were introduced to mechanical interlocking devices in the early 1910s, which converted the energy of compressed gas into a mechanical motion to activate levers and switches. This power interlocking would eventually make way for relay interlocking (trackside signals and switches controlled via a hardwired control panel in the stationmaster’s office), and then electronic and computer-based interlocking, which is the current system used today.
Springwood Station relay interlocking and signal control panel, operational between 1958 – 1995. Image: Robert T. Taaffe, Signal Boxes of New South Wales and Tramways: Volume 3 – Gazetteer South and West (Sydney: Liagre Press, 2020) 104.
A closer look at Springwood Railway Station
The construction of the first Blue Mountains railway line occurred in 1867 under the direction of John Whitton, the Engineer-in-Chief of railway and tram construction in NSW. The current brick masonry structure was implemented in 1884, and provisions for shelter installed in 1902, when the station went into a period of redevelopment. The substantial signal operating bar for the mechanical interlocking system was added at this time under the platform awning. In 1935, a new NSWR Type A with 24 lever mechanical interlocking signalling system was installed within the station envelope, in place of the Parcels Office. In 1958, the NSWR Type A was replaced by a 30 Kellogg Keys Relay interlocking signal system. In 1995, a solid-state interlocking system was installed to Springwood Railway Station. The new panel was installed in the Stationmaster’s Office within the main station building, combining the Stationmaster’s office with the signal box. Springwood’s solid-state interlocking system would remain in operation until its decommissioning in 2016, when control was initially transferred to the Blacktown Control Centre, before all state traffic control was centralised under the Advanced Train Running Information and Control System at the Rail Operations Centre in Alexandria in 2019.
Springwood Station’s solid-state interlocking and signal control panel, operational between 1995 – 2016. Image: David Sweeney, “The signaller’s control desk at Springwood (c. 2000)” accessed via NSWrail.net
