Zig Zag Railway

The Zig Zag Railway runs 7 kilometres down the western escarpment of the Blue Mountains, from Clarence to Bottom Points, near Lithgow and about two hours west of Sydney. It follows the Great Zig Zag of 1869, by which the main line from Sydney came down off the range: rather than tunnel through the cliffs, the engineer John Whitton laid the line in three long inclines, and every train stopped and reversed twice on the way down.

The reversing made it a bottleneck, and in 1910 the main line moved to a new route through ten tunnels. The old formation, its sandstone viaducts and its ledges cut into the cliff were left as a public reserve. Volunteers relaid the track in the 1970s, on the 1,067-millimetre narrow gauge so that they could bring in engines and carriages from Queensland, South Australia and Tasmania, and in 1975 ran the first trains between the two reversing stations.

The railway closed in 2012, and two bushfires and a flood followed before it reopened in May 2023. Today the train still does what every train had to do in 1869: it stops at Top Points and Bottom Points while the engine runs round to the other end, and sets off again the other way.

Clarence and the Top Road

Every trip starts at Clarence, at the top of the zig zag, where the railway has its car park, café and shop in the old station building. The train sets off along the Top Road, the first of the three inclines, cut along the side of the escarpment at a ruling gradient of 1 in 42, and crosses No. 1 Viaduct, the first of the zig zag's three sandstone viaducts on 30-foot arches. At Top Points, the first reversing station, the train stops: the engine uncouples, runs round its train, and leads it back down the next incline in the opposite direction. The 45-minute trip turns back here.

The Middle Road and Bottom Points

The Middle Road is the heart of the zig zag. It drops 31 metres between the two reversing stations on ledges hewn out of the mountainside, past cuttings that were begun as tunnels and opened up when the rock leaked, with the bush-covered valley falling away below and today's main line at the bottom of it. At Bottom Points the engine runs round a second time, beside the signal box built in 1910 when the main line moved to its new route, and the train climbs back up both inclines to Clarence. The whole trip takes 90 minutes, with 10 to 15 minutes at each reversing station. There are toilets at all three stations, and none on the train.

The trains

The line's best-known engine is 218A, an AC16 class 2-8-2 known as The Yank. It was built in 1943 to a standard US Army design: Queensland Railways, short of engines in the Second World War, took twenty, the only ones of the 741 built to come to Australia. It now wears green and black. The railway's diesels include 1004, built at Launceston in the 1960s for Tasmania's Emu Bay Railway, and the carriages came from Queensland too. Two other steam engines that ran the line before 2012, BB18¼ 1072 City of Lithgow and the blue tank engine 1049, are stored awaiting overhaul.

As of October 2026 steam is paused while cracked boiler tubes are replaced, and the trains are diesel-hauled; the railway has given no date for steam's return.

The Zig Zag Railway runs every day, apart from planned maintenance closures. Every trip starts and ends at Clarence: there is one full trip down to Bottom Points a day, and shorter trips to Top Points, two of them on weekdays and four at weekends.

As of October 2026 the trains are diesel-hauled: steam is paused while cracked boiler tubes are replaced, and the railway has given no date for its return. The line also closes for a few days at a time for track and signal work — in 2026, for example, on 23–24 June and 9–11 September — and these are announced on the railway's news page.

Getting there

Clarence is at 840 Chifley Road, on the Bells Line of Road between Lithgow and the Blue Mountains, with free parking for 150 cars; allow time to check in at the Tickets counter in the station building. Bottom Points is beside Zig Zag station on the Blue Mountains line, a request stop, but the railway's ticket for passengers arriving by train there is not on sale as of October 2026. While the Great Western Highway is closed at Victoria Pass, the free NSW TrainLink coach between Bathurst and Katoomba stops at the railway, towards Katoomba at 10:45, 13:15 and 15:45, and towards Bathurst at 10:15, 12:45 and 15:15; no booking is needed.

Times are from the railway's online booking calendar, read for October to December 2026 — as of October 2026. The calendar shows each day's trains and the seats left; check it on Zig Zag Railway's ticket page (opens in a new tab) before travelling.

Tickets are sold online only, for a set train, and the railway says trips often sell out and tickets are generally not sold on the day. Fares depend on the trip: an adult pays A$46.50 for the full trip to Bottom Points and A$37.50 to Top Points. Refunds are given only as a Zig Zag Railway gift card, and no cash is taken anywhere on site.

Children aged 3 to 16 pay a child fare, and under-3s travel free on an adult's lap. Concessions are for pensioners, Seniors card holders and high school, TAFE and university students, who show their card at check-in; Companion Card holders travel free. On Tuesdays, A$5 more on an adult or concession ticket buys a coffee or tea and a slice of cake at the café.

No rail pass covers the Zig Zag Railway. It is a volunteer heritage railway that sells its own tickets, one trip at a time. NSW TrainLink's Discovery Pass (from A$232 for 14 days in Economy) covers NSW TrainLink's regional trains and coaches, which do not include this railway, and is not valid on the Blue Mountains line's Intercity trains unless they connect with a regional service. Interrail and Eurail do not cover Australia.

Is it worth it? Not for this trip. The fare is a single small ticket bought direct from the railway.

Checked October 2026 against Transport for NSW's Discovery Pass page (opens in a new tab).

Clarence sits between Lithgow and the Blue Mountains, and the places below are all within a short drive of it — Lithgow and Hartley to the west and south, Mount Victoria and Blackheath along the range to the east, and the Glow Worm Tunnel in the bush to the north.

Most visitors come for the day, but a night in the mountains makes the morning train easy. One place to stay is beside the railway at Clarence; the other is at Mount Victoria, on the Blue Mountains line.

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