Around Us

What happens around us.

This time were travelling a little way

The Snow

Steve has been on his travels again, and has provided some snaps of the Ski Tube.

What is the Skitube? glad you asked.

The Skitube is a Swiss designed, primarily Australian built electric powered cog / rack driven railway system, operating 18kms south-west of Jindabyne within the Kosciuszko National Park - New South Wales’ largest national park and Australia's greatest alpine reserve - in Australia's Snowy Mountains. It provides access between the Alpine Way and Perisher Valley by way of a tunnel through the Ramshead Range to the Perisher Blue Ski Resort, stopping at the underground station in Perisher Valley. It then proceeds onwards to the resort of Blue Cow Mountain via another tunnel through the Perisher Range.

The 8.5 km-long, standard gauge railway was built between October 1984 and March 1988. The majority of the railway is underground, comprising the Bilston and Blue Cow tunnels, 3.3 km and 2.6 km long respectively. The depth of the tunnels varies from between 4 m and 550 m, and their diameter between 5 m and 5.5 m.

The cog / rack system is used where grades are too steep for normal wheel traction adhesion lines. In a cog / rack system, cogs mounted beneath the powered rail cars mesh into a rack of teeth set between the wheel tracks. As the cogs revolve, they pull the train forward and can thus cope with considerably steeper gradients than can wheel traction driven systems. Downhill, the rack system is used for braking.

As the Skitube travels downhill the braking system generates electricity back into the internal power grid which assists the trains travelling uphill. The majority of the technology used in the building of Skitube was imported from Switzerland, as the Swiss are world leaders in cog / rack technology.

Enjoy.

A Skitube train awaiting departure. At this time rain was more an issue than snow on this day.

A front on view showing the details of the drivable ends. Note the steps on the left side.

The steps, these are needed to aid in evacuation of passengers in case in breakdown or emergency is the tunnel.

Another view of the train as it arrives into another station. Supplies is waiting to be loaded to be delivered to the upper locations for replenishment for visitors. .

The interior of the train, very plain and basic. No fancies here, just a few seats and lots of standing room.

Another inside shot showing the area inside. This is for the type of passengers carried. Carrying skiers with skis and poles you need a lot of space.

The train in the tunnel. Clean neat an basic. This is the theme throughout the system. This also shows a good view of the evacuation ladder on the train.

A monument to the drive system used in the Skitube. This is what makes it possible to gain traction in these conditions and on these grades.

Here we see the rack and rails that are used within the Skitube. The rack system invented by a Swiss engineer, Roman Abt, and first used in the Harz Mountains in central Germany in 1885.

The “RACK” the heart of the traction system. This is the system that has been tried and tested in Europe for years in the snow areas.

Well here we are, what the trip was all for, the ski fields. Here we can just make out the station.

Another station, of sorts, this time it’s the ski lift station, and yep the sign is correct the seats take eight on each.

Snowing, this was one of the best sessions for snow for many years, and its still there and they are expecting more so it will be great for the October long weekend.

Photos courtesy Steven Walker

This what you come here for Skiing! Not really, don’t know about you, but I go to have fun, weather it’s skiing, tobogganing or just building a snowman, if you enjoy it do it!

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