Riverstone railway station

Riverstone railway station is a heritage-listed railway station at Riverstone Parade, Riverstone, City of Blacktown, New South Wales, Australia. It was designed by NSW Government Railways and William Weaver and built from 1883 to 1939. The station is located on the Richmond line, and is served by Sydney Trains T1 Western and T5 Cumberland line services. The property was added to the New South Wales State Heritage Register on 2 April 1999. Two routes to Windsor were proposed in 1846 for the introduction of railways into the colony of New South Wales. The line was built as the first line to be operated as a horse-drawn tramway. In 1856 a petition for the establishment of a railway from the residents of Windsor and Richmond had been presented to the Government. In 1860 a grant of £57,000 was approved for a railway between Blacktown and Windsor. In the following year it was increased to £60,000 for a railway between Blacktown and Richmond. The route of the railway line between Blacktown and Richmond was surveyed in 1862, with construction commencing late in that year. The engineer for the project was William Weaver (1828–1868), a former Colonial Architect of New South Wales. Contracts for earthworks, permanent ways and bridges were let from 1862 to William Randle & G. Gibbons on 11 December 1862. The contract was taken over by Messrs Iredale & McNamara on 28 September 1863. The Richmond line opened on 29 November 1864 by Governor Sir John Young, 1st Baron Lisgar as a rural branch line in response to the area's success as a farming district and its location at the intersection of two stock routes. A pilot engine was run before all passenger trains for safety. The original stations were Riverstone, Mulgrave, Windsor and Richmond. An upgrade to the track took place in the late nineteenth century. A major upgrading of most stations on the line occurred in the 1880s. The early decades of the 20th century brought further improvements and upgrades to the line. For example, the establishment of Richmond air-force base in 1925 resulted in increased use of the line.