 It was the first railway yard and locomotive depot in the Lithgow Valley and served as a major locomotive depot through the 1880s boom, the 1890s depression and the Federation era.Eskbank Railway Precinct is of further significance as the terminating place of locomotive trials undertaken in the 1880s and 1890s, which evaluated the technologies and design principles which were to influence locomotive design in New South Wales until the close of the steam era.The Eskbank station and the nearby remains of the locomotive depot, branch line and associated infrastructure demonstrate a class of first generation railway places.