The Royal National Park is one of the most gorgeous national parks in the greater Sydney region, and is a very popular daytrip destination. Did you know that, once upon a time, you could catch the train to the Royal National Park? The line operated from 1886 to 1991, and once upon a time it was a very popular line. Unfortunately, the line eventually closed…but the Sydney Tram Museum swooped right in and rescued the line from total abandonment. Follow me as we uncover the magical story of the Royal National Park; a line, a closure, a saviour.
Links:
– Thanks again to Reg for helping me out with this video! Check out his YouTube channel (http://youtube.com/@reginalddeleon3801) and his Facebook page (http://facebook.com/reginald.deleon3801)
– Thanks to the Sydney Tramway Museum for giving Amy and I such a fun day out! Check out their Facebook page too: http://facebook.com/SydneyTramwayMuseum)
– State Library tram photos collection: https://collection.sl.nsw.gov.au/record/YEG6pgKn
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Sections:
00:00 Royal National Park Line
06:13 Sydney Tramway Museum
11:05 The saviour of the Royal National Park Line
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The Tramway museum is awesome! Went there about ten years ago and had a brilliant day. They even have trams from other cities, I remember riding on one from Brisbane
Nice vid mate. Need to visit!
it is cool, added to to-visit list😃
Thank you for creating this video, you've inspired me to take a trip down to the Nasho and ride the tram down to this old station with friends. Your energy and passion for your channel is infectious, keep it up!
Great video as always Sharath…one of Sydney's hidden gems is the Loftus Tram Museum…remember going there many many years ago well before the line crossed the Princes Hwy…and the museum was a shadow of its current self…can imagine it is well worth the visit these days.
Keep up the great work mate in bringing Sydney to the masses…pretty sure there is a plethora of stories from over the years that you can bring further life to…and deservedly so…the city is steeped in history…some good, some bad, and some just plain ugly…but all worthy of mention as they're all what's made this beautiful city what it is today!!!!
Sydney CBD = Cannabidiol?
I remember catching the train to the National Park as a kid. Wonderful experience.
Sydney trams often ran through bushland. This line's appearance isn't even remotely out of the ordinary. Well, aside from the railway style level crossing. Back in the day Sydney was barely developed and the trams ran in advance of it all. Many winding roads in the hillier bits of inner Sydney are converted tram reservations. Like Parriwi Road in Mosman, and across the bridge there was Linkmead Avenue and Kanangra Crescent in Balgowlah. They got converted into roads when the opportunity arose.
The Sydney Tram Museum is a tiny reminder of what we once had in Sydney which we now call "light rail" or "mass transit". In the 60's Sydney played as it always does follow the leader and ripped out the trams and the only reason they're back is because of environmental concerns not for any other reason. Melbourne bucked the trend of tram line disposal in the 60's and increased their network so that today Melbourne is a more livable city then Sydney. I still call the new Sydney "light rail", Trams as I refuse to bow to political correctness.
Fun fact: there was a major rail disaster on Cowan Bank in May 1990. 6 fatalities, 106 injured. The railways needed to test whether the sand dropped by a steam locomotive could insulate the track circuits on an electrified rail line, to confirm the suspected cause of the crash being flickering red to green signals that the 2nd train proceeded through. Oh, look, a barely used electrified rail line with similar signalling. Guess what the Royal National Park line was used for in its dying months?
I grew up in Sydney without trams and now with decades living in Melbourne, I can state absolutely that trams should only be used with reserved space away from motorised traffic, not sharing roads with vehicles.
there is some debate if yellowstone predates the royal national park with the latter established earlier but not officially.
Should reopen it as a train line tell Chris Minns
bringing back the trams (in the form of lightrail) has made me want the monorail line back. i was lucky enough to have been on the monorail a few times before they decided to shut it down and I believe it could be much more worth it to bring it back now and the old monorail stations still exist. it was honestly ahead of it's time back then, if it was brought back I'm sure it would get more exposure than it use to and I feel like compared to trams there would be less wait time as it's not on a shared area. and the fact that we use to have trams in the city (mid 2000s cause I clearly remember) only for the government to demolish them to only bring it back, makes me realise that our government doesn't like to ever plan things ahead. this video has brought back many fond memories of public transport and I'm only in my early twenties 😂
In the early 1980s I had a nerve injury which meant pain in my arms and temporarily stopped me working. train rides to the National Park station from Newtown and then walks through the park to either ferry to Cronulla or Otford station brought me peace, sanity and helped my recovery. I was often the only person to get off at Royal National Park station. An almost surreal experience. A lovely place to take a train to. We need more stations like it.
We had a school weekend hike through the national park back in 1976. We had to be back at national park station by 3.30pm as it was a contest to see who completed the course and found the markers the teachers placed a week before the camp. Back then in the 70's it was like catching the old red rattlers and a fun ride back to central.
My Aunty lived at Loftus and had a small shack at Era (beach valley to south of Garie Beach. From around 1957 to 1961 we had no car, even though Dad made his living as a truck driver. He walked to work. We used to catch the train to Loftus from St. Leonards station (mum + 3 kids, dad worked). Stay with my Aunty Friday night, catch the train to RNP Saturday morning, then hike in to Era. We loved it! I remember Mum took us on a tram ride to Crow's Nest Junction from near home, and said this'll be your last tram ride ever! Glad they brought them back! Thanks for the memories
I grew up in my early years at Loftus. I remember carrying by bicycle over the motor rail tracks , dodging Hwy traffic, then riding to the station , then down to Auderley. Thanks for memories.
"Inevitably closed in favour of buses…"? There was nothing inevitable about it. Ask Melbourne.
'Everyone was so friendly'… more proof that tram people are nicer than car people!
Hi, great vid, but hopefully you've used fake info in the visitor book – otherwise you might want to blur your name and home suburb.
Great video! Would you consider a similar style video one day for a similarly repurposed line just outside Sydney? The Picton to Buxton “Loop Line” railway, once the main line from Sydney to Albury (connecting to Melbourne) and then bypassed. Only to be repurposed by the Rail Transport Museum / Rail Heritage NSW and once again carrying passengers?
Good one. Can you also do a video regarding some notorious traffic congestion places like Epping Rd, Parramatta Rd at Auburn and Victoria Rd.
Love the tram Museum. Great video.
I've driven trains on that line. I hate to see lines close but this one really went nowhere. It couldn't get down the hill to Audley and most people don't want to walk there and back.
When you go on about cars mate; you really do sound like a 5 year old with no understanding of the subject. Just wait until you marry and have kids and we’ll see your commitment to those ethics.
Another fab video – bravo! I’ve ridden this line into the park, but I had no idea of the long, long history of that line and station/ platform.
In the early 1970s, as a preteen and young teen, I often caught the train to the Royal National Park. It was great. Another way I used to get to the southern end of the Park was to get the rail motor to Lilyvale station, between Waterfall and Otford. A short walk had you at Burning Palms beach, long before the figure 8 pool became a meme. The current Lilvale track carpark is where a sawmill used to be.
Hi Sharath
My dad and I worked on building the platform back in 79 I was a third year apprentice at the time and finished the copping course of brickwork as the other brickies to the money and ran.
I remember spending weeks out there cutting and laying bricks on the platform , Thanks for bring back some found memories of yester year for me
Cheers Mark
what a great video, I will visit this and the museum
Loved this place. especially when we lived down there. The train went there then. Along time ago.
Very well-researched – thanks. Photos are great and very nostalgic. Go, go, go to the Museum – especially to see the prison tram. From which Darcy Dugan once escaped. Well worth it !
Well done buddy on another great video and your excellent research has come to the fore again here! A point of note in your commentary however is necessary I believe. Most people 'nowadays' all agree that the "Royal", or "Natio" as the locals call it, is the 2nd oldest National Park in the world. But it was only as little as 20 years ago that this so called fact was a disputed one, with the "Royal" being arguably considered as the 1st National park with Yellowstone NP. How this dispute was resolved, or just 'favoured' by the Americans over the Aussie's is still in questioning not well documented. Perhaps this is something you could look into. Was the documentation proving our National Park's creation lost, misplaced or just misfiled, so that the issue could never be resolved? Who knows. Or was it a a case of the Park's creation being established a one point in time, but the necessary paperwork not being lodged with the Fed. Govt. in time to make sure it was gazzetted until after that of Yellowstone? Did someone slip up there? I guess we'll never know now. I came about his information when talking to an American tourist once. I don't know the answer either.
Great work. all the best from a "Shire boy"…
Crikey. Brings back memories. Rode that line once, would have been 1971.
For your own interest you might like to have a Google of the Sutherland-Cronulla Steam Tramway in operation from 1911-1931. The route ran along what is now known as The Kingsway.
The dumb prick unions were sooo disappointed that the line was closed , they wanted it to take 3 people a day for ever state labor style.
The old tram museum at loftus is great so glad they keep it going.
Your videos are getting better! Love learning the history around the Sydney area mate, keep it up!
Very nicely researched and put together, as an entertaining package. I left northern New South Wales with my parents to live in Brisbane
in 1958 when I was a lad 11 years of age. I fell in love with this city. A major contributing factor was the train system, the tram system, and
on a much smaller scale, the trolley bus system. The trams and trolley buses have long gone. The railway system is here to stay, and since
electrification it has grown into a new, stronger dimension in south-east Queensland. However, new-age trams have been introduced on the
Gold Coast very successfully. I'm sure they'd work well in other Queensland cities too with some genuine planning efforts.
A minor point about military training areas: A lot of them are better managed than national parks and do provide a sanctuary for flora and fauna. Yes, some bits do get blown up, but its only a small part that is used as the impact area as they want to keep the potentially unexploded ordnance confined to a small area and around that area are massive buffer zones that are a minimum of twice the range of the weapon being used.
The green clad campers in these ranges also take everything with them when they leave, unlike a lot of campers in national parks. Leave a mess and a grumpy Warrant Officer can make your life much worse than any Ranger could hope to.
Always wondered where that train line went to ? Does the tram travel to the end of the line & return ?
wow , this brings back memories , when i was in my teens i had to work on some of the old trams as community service on weekends for my punishment orded by Sutherland local court house . these trams look so great when we restored them . great video thanks.
Will be visiting on the 2nd April.