Abandoned Oz: Remnants of the Wynyard Station Tram Line

[@AbandonedOZ]

Please help Abandoned Oz grow by subscribing to the channel and sharing this video. Thank you all so much for watching!

[@Anon-fv9ee]

The stub tunnels south of platforms 1-2 were converted to an air raid shelter during WWII (similar to St James tunnels). A hidden entrance from a building basement led down a stair case into the tunnel; the portal has been covered over with sheet metal. Some videos on YT from Dark Spectrum show this location!

[@yindyamarra]

Amazing what is under and around Sydney,

[@RangaTurk]

7:38 All the staunchions are the same type as the railway on the western side of the central carriageway on the Harbour Bridge Deck. The staunchions still exist today on the Cahill Expressway component as they are part of the bridge arch support framework and have recently had their historic light fittings re-installed (or are they replicas?). The brilliant thing about all this is that it shows how close Sydney came to having a Northern Beaches Railway Line in the early 1930s built to an art-deco design with an underground Crows Nest Station, an underground Narremburn Station and an above-ground Willoughby Station like Milson's Point after a tunnel portal near Garland Road Narremburn. The bridge over Middle Harbour would have been larger version but presumably built to a similar under-slung arch design just like the one removed to make way for the Warringah Freeway at Milson's Point. If the central carriageway on the Sydney Harbour Bridge was two lanes wider there would have been no need to remove the tramway or railway reserve in the first place. The problem is that to have two extra lanes on the middle carriageway of the Harbour Bridge the pylons would have to be wider and the same goes for the whole bridge as a result forcing the supporting piers on the southern approach to be spaced further apart on the grassed area in the centre. Unfortunately, the whole southern approach is built on a narrow ridge between Fort Street and Hickson Road and space is at a premium due to the restraints that the retaining wall on Hickson Road places on the whole structure in regards to the southern peninsula. If this was not the case all that was that was needed was for the tunnels at Wynyard to be connected to the Eastern Suburbs Railway platforms at Town Hall on the lower level by veering away eastward to George Street instead of grouping the Northern Beaches CBD tunnels together with the other lines under York Street thus completing the Town Hall to North Sydney section. The rest of the southern Eastern Suburbs south of Town Hall was begun when an Act Of Parliament was passed in 1947 to finish the City Circle loop at Circular Quay. This is forgotten because the concourse area of the Eastern Suburbs Railway Station at Central was built using 1970s construction methods. But Redfern and Central underground stations utilized tunneling techniques that were older than the rest of the ESR and by travelling though the tunnel in the driver's cab the naked eye should spot this. Unfortuneately, the Erskineville to Town Hall station section could not be built in the 1920s with the rest of the CBD underground railway due to funding constraints and the New South Wales Government found this out after the October 1929 stock market crash.

[@peterkirgan2921]

My late mother worked in the Rocks ! You are spot on with your assumption! Thanks again mate !!

[@paulthompson3877]

i like your journey through the old tunnels , the nooks that you are referring to are called refuge's

[@RustyKeys72]

HECK yes! Document Dark Spectrum, please.

[@laustinspeiss]

I remember driving through there in the late 1960s with my dad.

[@geoffworner5794]

I'd love to see a video on walking through and out of the Harbour Bridge portals. I think in days gone by, there was a pistol gun that was accessed through the northern portal

[@richardwright1673]

Very interesting thanks.

[@helenlesley5456]

Family recall that the tram went all the way to St.Leonards via Pacific Highway and to Chatswood up Willoughby Rd., also down through Mosman via Military Rd., in fact they went all over Sydney… thanks for uploading these fantastic videos… what did they build on the old Menzies hotel site?… I grew up in Sydney but now live in another state🎉

[@julianfoster3443]

The photo you show near the start is actually at the other end to where you were at the time. It’s of the stub tunnels heading South. They go up 100m or so and stop - but you can get from one to the other (the Dark Spectrum route does that).

[@rakeau]

Stub tunnels? I've wondered that - did the trams only enter and exit via the Harbour Bridge, and not continue thru to anywhere? I'd also be curious where cars entered and exited what became the carpark, because obviously that would not have been the portals onto the harbour bridge.

[@Anon-fv9ee]

@@rakeau Cars entered via a ramp from Wynyard Lane straight into the station box. Cars exited via another ramp from the converted tunnels into Cumberland St, just before the Cahill Expressway. The section between the car park exit and Harbour Bridge portals remained closed off (various other uses).

[@dragonmaid1360]

Dude thats soo freaking cool

[@matthewdenham7398]

I remember the 2014 video and I didn’t notice that you were nervous

[@AbandonedOZ]

I was kinda nervous talking on camera back then lol :)

[@Christopher3Bishop]

this is just so incredible finding your channel❤ after only thinking other day hiw cool it would be to see the old tunnels. theres something ghey open on oxford st at taylors square thats tunnel related, haven't checked it out yet maybe you have. I've subbed to your chanel now 😊

[@Kyryll99]

Nice video as always 😊 If you would like some footage from my recent Dark Spectrum visit, please let me know.

[@AbandonedOZ]

Thank you! :) That would be great! I missed out this year as i actually just returned from New York :) Maybe you could email me? [e-mail]

[@Kyryll99]

Will do! Yeah, I noticed the Macy’s escalator video, which is also pretty cool 😃

[@DM31702]

I'd have been nice with the new voiceover over the old video to include what you've learned of the layout to help us better orient ourselves. Because very clearly some parts have been raised and another level put in and everything. Because the distinction between the "upper" and "lower" tunnels is more figurative than literal.

[@Elainerulesutube]

👻

[@jonathancox2907]

And why don't you speak up more clearly too.