Old Railway Tunnel, Gardens of Stone National Park
The glow worm tunnel is one of two old railway tunnels constructed in 1907 for the railway that served the Newnes Oil Shale mines. The first tunnel (this one) is now a passage for vehicular traffic but the ghost of the old trains remain with the soot still marking the rock.
Today's post is paticipating in the theme day "Passageways" by the City Daily Photo community. Click here to view thumbnails for all participants
Words to walk with:
To A Locomotive in Winter by Walt Whitman
"Thy black cylindric body, golden brass and silvery steel,
Thy ponderous side-bows, parallel and connecting rods, gyrating, strutting at thy sides,
Thy metrical, now swelling pant and roar, now tapering in the distance.
Thy great protruding heat-light fixed in front,
Thy long pale, floating vapour-pennants, tinged with delicate purple,
The dense and murky clouds out-belching from thy smoke-stack,
Thy knitted frame, thy springs and valves, the tremulous twinkle of thy wheels,
Thy train of cars behind, obedient , merrily following,
Through gale or calm, now swift, now slack, yet steadily careering;"
Yes, it is a great choice and looks like an intimidating tunnel!
ReplyDeleteLooking at those ferns, a steam train would be a tight fit!!
ReplyDeleteSeeing this now, I am sad that I did not travel through it when I was up that way last year.
Great photo, lovely ferns.
ReplyDeleteCheers.
Melbourne Daily Photo
Very unique passageway for sure!
ReplyDeleteFabulous entry! Great choice indeed!
ReplyDeleteThat looks awfully narrow for vehicles, but a wonderful choice for the theme! I find the rock beautiful.
ReplyDeleteThat is so unique! What a fun shot for this theme. I really want to walk in there. . .but probably not something one should do, eh? :-)
ReplyDelete-Kim
Wow. What a very nice and stony passageway! Wonderful shot.
ReplyDeleteHi Everyone, thanks for popping by and leaving comments. We get to walk through the second tunnel at the end of this trip.
ReplyDeleteJulie, going there is a good day trip in itself and depending on what the weather has been like the road can be quite rough ... a much easier drive in a 4WD. But it is certainly a worthwhile drive.
Nice! Looks so much more organic and natural than modern tunnels
ReplyDeletevery impressive tunnel.
ReplyDeletelove the whitman poem.
blessings,
lea
This is a wonderful realisation of the theme. I love the contrast between the welcoming greenery and the foreboding darkness of the tunnel. The poem adds that extra something!
ReplyDeleteThat looks like a great place to visit and for a walk.
ReplyDeleteThanks for visiting my Brisbane blog.
So they took the tracks out? Who did the manual labor for this I wonder.
ReplyDeletePaula, yes the tracks were pulled up soon after the shale oil mine was closed. As to who did all the digging I haven't been able to find out. But there are plenty of mines in this area so I guess there was no shortage of people used to digging.
ReplyDelete