This image was scanned from the original glass negative taken by Ralph Snowball. It is part of the Norm Barney Photographic Collection, held by Special Collections.

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The image shows a locomotive (indexed as the 'Murrumbidgee') travelling across the railway bridge at Cockle Creek. Workmen can be seen sitting aboard the locomotive. The Cockle Creek bridge had 4 main iron spans as seen in this photo, and in the background, there is a wooden wharf visible, also seen in a 1870 photo of Cockle Creek Station with the bridge in the background.

UON Library, University of Newcastle, Australia: Many thanks, dunedoo. Flying_Slig: If that's Dora Creek bridge then @dunedoo is completely mistaken, as the old railway bridge is still complete and being used as the road bridge. it still looks exactly the same as it does in all the old photos although the government is not maintaining it very well so who knows what will happen to it in the future. (source: i live there) dunedoo: [http://www.flickr.com/photos/62907194@N06] Sorry Flying Slig, you're right, the one I had up was the one at Cockle Ck. The one at Dora Ck, like Penrith, the road uses the rail bridge when it was replaced.

MargaretBee: The above photo is NOT Dora Creek Railway Bridge Newcastle Morning Herald and Miners' Advocate, Tuesday 16 August 1887, p6, c3-4 OPENING OF THE SYDNEY AND NEWCASTLE RAILWAY. Rapidly, however, we descend for the next four miles through rather rough country, to within one mile of DORA CREEK, which we approach over some swampy flats known as Muddy Lakes. On Dora Creek is a small township called Newport, together with several large sawmills, where a great many hands are employed. The creek is spanned by an iron bridge 420 feet long, comprised of seven piers (formed of cast iron cylinders) 60 feet apart, which support very heavy plate iron girders. This is a really magnificent structure. The work throughout is both substantial and elegant. The roadway curtains a double line of rail. Nine months were occupied in sinking the cylinders, and about five months in erecting the superstructure. The bridge is undoubtedly one of the very best of its kind in the colony, and called forth general admiration. Had we time and space, we might refer to the innumerable threatened lawsuits over this bridge, which like many other factors in civilisation, has been frequently denounced by a few, although the majority are the gainers. The alleged fault attached to the Dora Creek bridge is that the space between the water and the girders is not sufficient to allow timber-laden schooners to pass down the creek into Lake Macquarie and thence to the open sea. However, in this instance the axiom of "the greatest good for the greatest number" has been wisely and effectually carried out. On then we travel for another couple of miles of similar country until Cooranbong, or, as it has since been termed, Morriset Station is reached.