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NSW Railways

Read more about the article Rail smashes: Murrurundi 1908 and Murulla 1926
Train smash at Murulla, NSW, September 13, 1926

Rail smashes: Murrurundi 1908 and Murulla 1926

Murrurundi: Good Friday 1908 It was Good Friday, April 17, 1908. At about 3.35am the Glen Innes train was just about to leave Murrurundi station, in the Upper Hunter Valley, when it was hit head-on by the Brisbane Mail train, travelling south. Ultimately, signalling staff at the small country station were held responsible for accidentally misleading the drivers of the trains into believing the tracks were clear. At the scene of the accident at Murrurundi, April 17, 1908. The impact of the smash was tremendous, and it was incredible that nobody was killed. Injuries amounted to…

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Read more about the article Bridging the Hawkesbury River: Part 1

Bridging the Hawkesbury River: Part 1

When the first railway bridge over the Hawkesbury River was opened on May 1, 1889, it completed the final link in a rail system that linked NSW with South Australia, Victoria and Queensland - albeit not with uniform gauges. Official souvenir brochure to mark the opening of the first Hawkesbury River railway bridge. The rail line that linked Homebush (now known as Strathfield) with Waratah had been one of the toughest pieces of railway engineering yet tackled in the Australian colonies (Australia as a nation had not yet materialised). With river crossings to make and tunnels…

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Read more about the article American Suburban: a railway love story
Wayne Dempsey in a derelict American Suburban sleeping car at Broadmeadow, NSW. Photo by Pete Smith

American Suburban: a railway love story

Wayne Dempsey’s dream, as a young man, was to work on the railways. Specifically, he wanted a job at the Eveleigh carriage workshops at Redfern. “I haunted the place, as a boy,” he said. Wayne on one of the American Suburbans in 1962, the year he started his job at the carriage works. He distinctly remembers the day in 1962 when – aged 18 - he turned up to apply for a job there. “The deputy manager told me all about the place then asked me what I was interested in,” Wayne recalled. “I told him…

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