Eskbank Locomotive Depot

The Eskbank Locomotive Depot served as Lithgow's first locomotive depot and was operational from 1882 to 1915 period. Eskbank's locomotive depot was built mainly to provide servicing and stabling needs to NSWGR locomotives operating on the main Western Line between Sydney and Eskbank and Eskbank and Bathurst It also supported operations between Eskbank and Mudgee on the then extending branch line out to Gwabegar.

Eskbank Depot was also a home depot for banking engines which assisted other trains on the steep climbing grades leading out of the Lithgow Valley and also on the Zig Zag. The depot also assisted at times, other local industrial locomotives and colliery branch locomotives in the Lithgow region.

All the depot's main building and shed infrastructure was removed from the site following the closure in the 1920s. The depot's turntable was relocated to the Coolah locomotive depot and the remaining yard area was reused for other railway needs  with railway track and associated structures. With the demolishing in the late 1920s and minor reuse until not needed, the yard once all operations had finished was left to become overgrown and "lost" until the early 2000s, when an interest in its heritage value came to some local railway enthusiasts notice, and it now forms part of a future Eskbank Rail Heritage Centre project.

Photos of the Eskbank Locomotive Depot as seen in late 1800s/early 1900s and the Eskbank Locomotive Depot from similar angles seen 2013, now under going restoration.

 

Shown below are current 2013 photos of the locomotive depot as it begins its restoration with clearing of overgrown vegetation and rubble. The interesting remains of the sandstone turntable pit,  a type which is very rare nowadays in NSW and has significant railway heritage value.

 

 

 

 

 

The future plan is to to recreate the turntable as once installed on the pit as shown in these diagrams.  

 

The turntable on site are the remains of a turntable sourced from Wollongong for the restoration of the Eskbank turntable. The Locomotive Depot also features a few pits which were used for deashing and inspection of the locomotives when they came in for servicing. These long pits are prominent when viewed from up high.