Westby Station
HISTORY
Located at the 558.930km marker, Westby 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.
INFRASTRUCTURE
To the south was a 60ft turntable for the turning of the steam engines, to the south west was a goods shed, opposite the station was a long concrete loading bank on a siding off the branch line, nearby to south a stock race and to the north east was a toilet block. To the north west of the station was a locomotive pit and water tank. The Westby railway line’s fettler teams maintained the station precinct.
STATION
On 5 August 1925 the Westby 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 large 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-3 design, which was 2nd largest of the PC- series, was built at Westby 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. A ramp was built at both ends for people to access the station. A station sign was installed on the platform. A concrete signal box was located on the platfom and was the only one on the branch line.
REMAINS
The south east end of the Westby branch line railway section which included Westby, was closed down with passenger services ceasing on 24 January 1952 due to the large scale bushfire damage furth up the line towards The Rock. The whole branch line was closed down by July 1956.
Westby was fairly intact at time of closure of the line by 1956 and over last 70 years has seen property owners maintain the station, restore it and keep it fairly well preserved. It is the only major station precinct still intact besides Mangoplah.