This line runs from Blayney on the Main Western Line to Demondrille on the Main South Line. It was constructed to serve the fertile area between Blayney and Young and to provide a cross-country route that would allow trains to bypass the Blue Mountains. The line was constructed north from Demondrille and then south from Blayney. The final section being the railway bridge over the Lachlan River, south of Cowra. The railway opened between Demondrille and Young in 1885, Cowra in 1886 and Carcoar in 1888. In the 1980s services were suspended between Cowra and Blayney. The section was re-opened by the Lachlan Valley Railway. The LVR run tourist trains, mainly from Cowra to Blayney and Canowindra, and have now moved into general freight haulage. This section was again closed in the 1990's when a bridge near Holmwood burnt down. In December 1999 the bridge was repaired and the line re-opened officially by the SRA in April 2000. South of Cowra, the line is mainly utilised by the LVR hauling grain and running tours. Pacfic National also run grain trains from Cowra silo and as far as Greenethorpe, on the Grenfell Branch.

If you have any further information or photos, please email me.

Above: Blayney. November 13, 2004.

Above: Carcoar. November 13, 2004.

Carcoar is thought to be an Aboriginal word for ‘frog’ or from ‘cah-co-ah’, the sound of the Kookaburra.

Above: Mandurama. November 13, 2004.

Above: Lyndhurst. November 13, 2004.

Above: Garland. November 13, 2004.

Above: Woodstock. November 13, 2004.

Above: Westville. November 13, 2004.

Above: Cowra. November 13, 2004.

The name Cowra comes from the Aboriginal word ‘coura’, meaning ‘rock’.

Above: Wattamondara. November 14, 2004.

Above: Young. November 14, 2004.

Above: Demondrille. August 4, 2004.