Birdlip Station
HISTORY
Located at the 558.930km marker, Birdlip railway station was constructed as part of the The Rock to Westby railway branch line. Agitation for the construction of the railway line goes back to 1911, when the Pulletop Railway League advocated for a railway line from The Rock to Pulletop. While waiting for a political decision, the League sought to have the line further extended and run to Jingellic. In 1919, the NSW Parilament passed The Rock to Pulletop Railway Act but with post WW1 debt and supply issues impacting NSW, this delayed the branch line construction and work didnt commence until February 1923.
STATION
On 5 August 1925 the Birdlip railway station precinct opened and this was a typical early 1900s era NSW pioneer type branch line station design .The rail works had built a 70m long concrete platform wall for the small shelter station building. The Westby branch line utilised the latest in the 1920s thinking of NSW Govt railways designers plans for railway station building construction, which was primarily the relatively new PC- pre cast concrete style for the buildings. A station building of the PC-1 design, which was the smallest of the PC- series, was built at Birdlip railway station. It had concrete panels for the walls and a slate/asbestos roof and a corrugated iron awning. The station was unattended and thus was only used when a person/s needed to alight or board the train. The Westby railway line’s fettler teams maintained the station precinct.
A ramp was built at both ends for people to access the station. A station sign was understood to have also been installed on the platform. Opposite the station was a loading bank / goods facility which was positioned on a siding off the branch line.
REMAINS
The south east end of the Westby branch line railway section which included Birdlip, was closed down with passenger services ceasing on 24 January 1952 due to the large scale bushfire damage furth up the line towards Westby. The whole branch line was closed down by July 1956.