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Scenic World

Home of the World's Steepest Passenger Railway

location_on Katoomba

Scenic World

Scenic World sits on the edge of the Jamison Valley escarpment near Katoomba and is one of the most visited tourism attractions in the Blue Mountains. The site contains three rides on the one ticket: the Scenic Railway (a 52-degree funicular that holds the Guinness Book of Records title for steepest passenger railway in the world), the Scenic Cableway (a 545 metre cable car across the valley) and the Scenic Skyway (a 720 metre glass-bottom cable car suspended 270 metres above the valley floor).

The Scenic Railway has the longest history of the three. It was originally built in the 1870s as a coal haulage line for the Katoomba coal mine on the valley floor, using a single carriage and a gravity-plus-winch system. When mining ended in 1945, the line was converted for tourism and has been in continuous operation since. The 52-degree gradient is steeper than any commercial rollercoaster in the world.

At the bottom of the valley, a network of elevated timber boardwalks runs through the rainforest for around 2.4 kilometres, passing the old mine workings and giving ground-level access to the Banks Wall sandstone cliffs. The valley rainforest is cool-temperate Gondwanan forest dominated by coachwood, sassafras and tree ferns. Several loops of different lengths are available, from a 10 minute self-guided walk up to a 90 minute exploration.

Scenic World is open year round (closed Christmas Day) from 9am to 5pm. In winter, the Yulefest celebration runs through June and July with Christmas-themed events, and the morning mist in the valley is particularly dramatic. Katoomba Railway Station is 20 minutes walk away, and the hop-on-hop-off Explorer Bus services the site every 30 minutes.

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52°

Railway gradient

terrain

270 m

Skyway drop

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1870s coal line

Railway origin