At the time of construction, the ZigZag was regarded as the greatest railway engineering project in Australia. Inspired and developed by James Whitton during the years 1857 to 1890, it remains an enduring monument to his genius. As original ideas of a series of tunnels turned out to be prohibitive, it was decided that the rail line had to take on a zigzag pattern up one side of the mountain and down the other.

This railway helped to open up the west, increasing freight and passengers, reaching saturation point by 1907. This meant that an alternative route had to be found. This route has since become known as the Ten Tunnels Deviation, and remains today.Opened in October 1910, this line had a uniform grade of 1 in 90 over almost 9 kilometres compared to the 1 in 42 of the Zigzag and thus reduced running time to Lithgow by almost 30 minutes.

This new line meant that the ZigZag passed into history and remained undisturbed, at present being used as a tourist attraction which opened in 1975. For a full appreciation of the history of the ZigZag railway and some interesting pictures of its era, please take some time to look through the various images.