About SideTracked Caches
This geocache belongs to the SideTracked series. It is not designed to take you to a magical place with a breathtaking view. It's a distraction for the weary traveller, but anyone else can go and find it too. More information can be found at the SideTracked Series website.
Hartley Vale
Hartley Vale today is a tranquil rural area, nestled against the bush-covered ridges of the western Blue Mountains. The village is five kilometres west from the old station, accessed via Hartley Vale Road off the Darling Causeway. Part of the local government area of the City of Lithgow. The village had a school from 1872 until 1956, except for a short break in 1946-1947. At last count of the census, the village population is 84.
Mining began in the 1860s and a narrow gauge rail line was constructed into the valley of Kerosene Creek. The incline was designed by Normal Selfe who would also design what is now the Katoomba Scenic Railway.
Hartley Vale Station
Hartley Vale Station, now abandoned, was located on the Main Western Line, at an elevation of 1,028 metres. Alongside the Darling Causeway, a narrow ridge separating the Grose and Coxs River Valleys in the upper Blue Mountains. It is about half-way between Mt Victoria and Bell.
The station was opened in 1876 with a 200 metres long island platform. On the down side, there were sidings serving a goods shed. There were also exchange sidings for the 1 metre gauge tramway to the nearby Hartley Vale kerosene works. Workers at the siding had little or no protection from the freezing winds, rain and sometimes snow which were funnelled up the valleys and over the ridge.
Closed since 6 April 1975. The only sign of its location is where the tracks still diverge around where the island platform once laid.
Please bring your own writing stick to sign the log.
If you have not signed the log you have not officially found the cache,
Invalid logs can be deleted.
Well done to Joshwa27 for being the first finder.