Building the Newnes Railway was a formidable problem for the engineers, and presumably
for whover was paying for the railway, too. They cut costs in many ways. One way was
not to bother with ballast. Another was not to bother with bridges. The gullies were
crossed on enormous earth embankments with an inadequate drain at the bottom. In the
seventy-something years since the last train ran, the embankments have been washed away.
The walk to Newnes is easy going along the old railway formation until you come to one
of these washouts (there are several), when some serious scrambling is required.