The Bethungra Spiral is a heritage-listed rail spiral near Bethungra, between Junee and Cootamundra, carrying the northbound track of the Melbourne → Sydney railway line.
It is a listed heritage item, having been added to the New South Wales State Heritage Register on 2 April 1999
The original single-track line, opened in 1878, was graded at 1 in 40 for Sydney bound trains, which imposed a severe limitation on train loads and also caused congestion as bank engines were attached and detached
When the line was duplicated in the late 1940s, an 8.9 kilometre spiral deviation was built. The spiral makes use of local geography in the shape of a convenient hill around which the uphill ("up", or Sydney-bound) track spirals in order to gain the necessary height over a longer distance, thus giving a lesser gradient. However, the fact that the hill is on the "down" (southbound) side of the original track necessitated two crossings of the original line by the new northbound track — one a tunnel to take it to the eastern (or "down") side of the original track in order to then spiral around the hill, and a viaduct beyond the spiral to take the new track back to the left hand side of the original line, as Australian trains run on the left, as in the UK, France and Japan. The Spiral has two short tunnels, one already mentioned at the beginning of the Spiral, for the "up" track to cross beneath the original line to reach the "down" side, and a second tunnel that allows it to pass over itself at a later point in the Spiral, having circled the hill to gain height.
The spiral increased the distance travelled by uphill (northbound) trains by about two kilometres. Downhill (southbound) trains continue to use the original line. The ruling gradient of the new uphill line is 1 in 66.
Bethungra Spiral was listed on the New South Wales State Heritage Register on 2 April 1999 having satisfied criteria of possessing uncommon, rare or endangered aspects of the cultural or natural history of New South Wales, assessed as historically rare, assessed as scientifically rare and assessed as architecturally rare.
A traveller who has just passed through Bethungra township on the way to Cootamundra would be unaware of the existence nearby of the Bethungra Spiral, to the right of the Olympic Highway, as there is no signage or safe off-road parking to observe the two tracks at three different elevations. However there is a point at which three railway tracks can be seen at three different heights on the adjacent hillside to the east of the Olympic Highway. The bottom and top tracks are the "up" (northbound) track before and after it has crossed the "down" (southbound) track and traversed the Spiral, while the middle track is the original single-track line, which is now the "down" (southbound) track.
On 15 January 2022 there was a derailment where ten carriages from a 1400-metre freight train came off the rails at Bethungra Spiral.
An investigation is ongoing into why a 1400-metre freight train derailed while travelling along the Bethungra Rail Spiral in the early hours of Saturday, 15 January, 2022.
The track was damaged in the accident, but all the damaged wagons have been removed and the line is now open to traffic again.
To log this cache you must answer the following questions and send by message:
Q1. At the posted coordinates you will be under a railway bridge - what are the 6 black numbers painted on the white patch on the left before going under the bridge?
Q2. At waypoint 2 you will be at the Electricity Pole what are the letters and numbers on green strip?
Q3. At waypoint 3 you will be on the viewing platform, you will find a lock attached, what is written on the lock.
REQUIRED BONUS - take a photo of you on the viewing platform with the tunnel in the background.
Virtual Rewards 3.0 - 2022-2023
This Virtual Cache is part of a limited release of Virtuals created between March 1, 2022 and March 1, 2023. Only 4,000 cache owners were given the opportunity to hide a Virtual Cache. Learn more about Virtual Rewards 3.0 on the Geocaching Blog.