Railway organisations. This incldues preservation groups and for-profit train operating companies, model rail and websites.
3801 was established in 1985 to manage locomotive 3801 and associated rolling stock. At that time its restoration was nearing completion at the former State Dockyard site in Newcastle. Out of trade apprentices worked on this restoration for over a three year period under the direction of the Hunter Valley Training Company. In November 1986, 3801 entered service and operated as the flagship of the Company for the next 20 years.
In 1988, 3801 and its train became the Bicentennial Train for Railways of Australia and operated tours to all the mainland capitals as part of the celebrations. In the latter part of 1988 and much of 1989, Flying Scotsman joined 3801 Limited and ran many very successful tours around NSW and beyond. In excess of 500, 000 passengers were carried by the Company during this 20 year period.
Seven - 0 - Seven Operations Inc. is a small, wholly independent rail heritage group whose mission is:
From within the Canberra region, we aim to provide a quality experience of Australia's railway heritage through our operating museum, train trips, and associated education and tourism activities.
On 19th May 1933, six enthusiasts met in Sydney and formed the Great Railway Circle of Australia. In May 1936 the name was changed to Australian Railway and Locomotive Historical Society and further changed to Australian Railway Historical Society in 1951.
Membership grew steadily and in 1945 a Division was formed in Victoria. Other Divisions were subsequently formed in the South Australia, Tasmania, Queensland, Western Australia and ACT.
Due to the increasing size and range of activities of the Society, separate companies were formed in each state to take over the assets and liabilities of the Divisions of the unincorporated Society, The Australian Railway Historical Society, New South Division, is a Company Limited by Guarantee. For membership details contact our Bookshop on phone (02) 9379 6633 or our Redfern office on (02) 9699 4595 or fax to (02) 9699 1714.
The Australian Railway Historical Society - Queensland Division was formed in 1957 and incorporated in 1968 as a non-profit company with liability limited by guarantee. It has two regional Committees - the Central Queensland Committee in Rockhampton, and the North Queensland Committee in Townsville.
Members of the Society could be described as "mechanical greenies" and heritage "doers"; women and men of all ages who come from all walks of life who share a common interest in railways and who enjoy one or more of the myriad of activities available to members of the Society.
Established in 1945 the Australian Railway Historical Society, Victorian Division, Inc. has a proud history of over 60 years of catering for all who have an interest in the railway history of Victoria. We currently have a growing membership of over 750 throughout Australia and overseas.
We recognize that recording the continuing development and evolution of rail transport in our state is as much a part of its future history as events that occurred in the past 150 years.
To serve our members:
The ARHS(Vic)Inc supports the production of an extensive range of quality books recording a wide range of aspects of Victorian Railway history. A significant proportion of publications are supported by the resources of our archive and many of our authors are members of ARHS. Members are offered significant discounts on all new publications.
Asciano can trace its origins to the acquisition of National Rail and FreightCorp in 2002 by Toll Logistics and Patrick Corporation. Initially run as a joint venture between both companies, Toll later bought out Patrick and restructured itself into two listed companies, Toll and Asciano Group. Asciano Group later became Asciano Limited.
Formerly known as QR National, Aurizon is a publicly-listed freight company specialising in coal, bulk and containerised freight.
Aurizon are listed on the ASX as AZJ
The Australian National Railways Commission was established by the Whitlam Government in 1975 following a promise made before the Federal election in December 1972. Gough Whitlam said that if his party was elected to government he would invite the States to hand over their railway systems to the Commonwealth, his dream was to have one railway system for the Australian nation.
On 1 July 1975, he made good that promise by establishing the Commission which acquired the assets and operations of the Commonwealth Railways. As a result of the offer to the States the governments of South Australia and Tasmania, both of which were of the same party as the national government and whose railway systems were deeply in debt, accepted. During the next two years discussions between those two States and the Federal Government resulted in a number of staffing and operating agreements being made that resulted in the whole of the Tasmanian Government Railways and the freight business and non-urban railways of South Australia being transferred to the Commonwealth and operated by the Commission. The date of the hand over was 1 March 1978. The metropolitan Adelaide railway lines remained with the State Transport Authority, now TransAdelaide).
Australian Railroad Group (ARG) was one of Australia's largest private rail operators, operating across almost 10,000 kilometres of track and began operating in Western Australia on 17 December 2000 following its purchase of the Westrail freight business.
In February 2006 Wesfarmers announced it had reached an agreement with its joint venture partners to sell ARG for $1.3 billion. Babcock & Brown would own and run ARG's rail business in Western Australia, mainly track and infrastructure, while QR will own and run the rail haulage business and infrastructure. Queensland Rail would pay $446 million for the rolling stock, depots and customer contracts, making them move in order to become a national player in Australian rail freight. In March 2006 the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission said it would not oppose the takeover, competition would not be impacted due to existing competition between ARG and QR being limited. The takeover was completed in June 2006. The SA below rail business was retained by Genesee & Wyoming as Genesee and Wyoming Australia.
CFCLA is a subsidiary of Chicago Freight Car Leasing Company. Although primarily based in New South Wales and Victoria it's fleet has operated in all states and territories to most train operating companies. It has rolling stock on both long term lease to operators as well as available for spot hire.
The first locomotives acquired were 13 members of the EL class from Australian National in November 1998.
In March 2009 the Marubeni Corporation purchased a 49% stake in CFCLA.
In September 2010 it signed a 10 year lease for the use of Goulburn Railway Workshops as its primary maintenance centre.
In November 2012 CFCLA unveiled its first intrastructure train in the Pilbara region of Western Australia.
Many of the newer and powerful locomotives are named after famous Australian race horses
Source: Wikipedia
CR Rail "The Rail Engineering Specialists" are a rail teams hire company, specialising in the hire of experienced track and structure teams that deliver all types of rail works
DERMPAV is a non profit organisation operating out of part of the Newport Railway Workshops in Victoria, Australia. We are committed to restoring our Diesel Electric Rail Motors for the operation of main line tours across the State Government owned Victorian railway network. All money earned from our operations is put back into restoring our DERMs to ensure that examples of these railmotors are available for all to experience across the state.
Freight Australia was an Australian railway company that purchased the V/Line Freight business from the Government of Victoria in 1999. Initially known as Freight Victoria, it operated rail freight services and controlled non-urban rail track in the state of Victoria, later expanding into freight haulage in other states. Freight Australia was taken over by Pacific National in August 2004.
Source: Wikipedia
Originally known as Lachlan Valley Rail Freight (LVRF) the company changed names in 2007 to Independent Rail of Australia, commonly abbreviated to Independent Rail Australia or IRA.
IRA imported 16 second-hand MZ III class locomotives from Denmark, which were subsequently nicknamed "Helgas".
In June 2012 QUBE acquired IRA, and all IRA locomotives and rollingstock were incorporated into the QUBE fleet by the end of July 2012.
Lachlan Valley Railway is a non-profit, railway preservation society based in the NSW Central Western town of Cowra. We are a passionate and dedicated society devoted to the preservation and operation of various examples of New South Wales Government Railway trains, ranging from our operational steam and diesel locomotives, to our fleet of heritage passenger railway carriages, and our diesel "Tin Hare" CPH railmotors.
Locomotive Demand Power is a fully-owned subsiduary of Downer EDI. Downer EDI built the LDP Class locomotives and through Locomotive Demand Power entered into a five-year lease with QR National.
The Mornington Railway Preservation Society (MRPS), which is the not-for-profit incorporated association that manages the MR, was formed out of a public meeting in 1984 with the objective of securing access to the then-closed Mornington railway line. The vision was to reopen it as a heritage railway, focusing on the operation of steam-hauled passenger trains. In 1991, after seven years of hard work and lobbying, the MRPS was granted a State Government Order in Council, which gave the MRPS access and operating rights to the line, so it could be operated as a tourist railway.
Work on the Mornington Railway is still very much in progress. Much has been done, but a great deal more remains to do, and much potential still lies untapped. Some of the exciting projects scheduled for the future include:
In 1963 a group of rail preservationists, alarmed at the scrapping of steam locomotives which had served South Australia for many decades, set about saving, restoring and maintaining many of the historic vehicles in the museum today.
The first railway museum was located on Railway Terrace at Mile End, operated on a completely voluntary basis and opened on only two afternoons each month. Prior to 1988 museum members restored many locomotives and carriages, designed and built our steam engine 'Bub', and completely restored narrow gauge steam engine 'Peronne' to operational condition. They also published several railway books.
The exposure of the exhibits to the weather was a cause for great concern and an undercover venue was sought. In 1988 the museum was fortunate enough, with the involvement of the History Trust of SA, to obtain a $2m Australian Bicentennial Commemorative Grant to relocate to our current site and to provide covered accommodation for the exhibits.
On the 2nd of January 1988 the gates at the Mile End Railway Museum closed for the last time and on the 10th December 1988, after a year of frantic activity, the Port Dock Station Railway Museum Port Adelaide was officially opened by the Premier of South Australia, The Honorable John Bannon.
In 1999, special funding was received as part of Australia's Centenary of Federation to construct the Commonwealth Railways Museum within the museum's precinct. This new facility was opened on the 21st of October 2001 to house the expanding collection of exhibits from the Commonwealth Railways and Australian National. On the 31st of May 2009, the Commonwealth Railways Museum was re-named after National Railway Museum founder Ron Fluck.
At the opening of the Commonwealth Railway Museum the Port Dock Station Railway Museum was renamed the National Railway Museum Port Adelaide. The name change is a response to the Commonwealth Railway's operations being integrated into a National Transport Network that spanned the whole of the Australian continent.
The NSW Rail Transport Museum is an independent, not for profit company, established in 1962 for the purpose of collecting, preserving and presenting the railway heritage of NSW for the benefit of the community.
The Museum has over 2000 members, including an active volunteer workforce of over 300 and a small number of full time staff. The Museum is administered by a voluntary Board and a Management Committee.
The NSW Rail Transport Museum is a specialist provider of heritage train services and has provided rail tours for the enjoyment and education of the community since 1962.
Pacific National is one of Australia's largest private rail freight businesses. Originally a joint venture between Patrick Corporation and Toll Holdings; it is now a wholly owned subsidiary of Asciano Limited following the restructure of Toll Holdings.
In February 2002, the mainly Australian Government-owned National Rail Corporation's freight operations and rollingstock were combined with the New South Wales Government-owned FreightCorp and sold to Toll Holdings and Patrick Corporation as Pacific National.
In 2004, Pacific National purchased Australian Transport Network, operator of TasRail. In the same year, Pacific National also acquired Freight Australia, operator of freight services in Victoria, giving Pacific National control of the Victorian non-urban rail track, excluding the interstate network which is controlled by the Australian Rail Track Corporation.
Source: Wikipedia
When the Puffing Billy Preservation Society was formed in 1955, the line was still under the control and ownership of the Victorian Railways (VR). The Society arranged for the VR to run the train on weekends and holidays, with the Society guaranteeing the VR against losses from insufficient ticket sales. Society volunteers took the role of conductors, checking tickets on the train, and fund-raising. This arrangement continued until the Upper Ferntree Gully to Belgrave section was closed in 1958.
When the line reopened in 1962 (between Belgrave and Menzies Creek), Society volunteers took a larger role, manning stations, selling and checking tickets, and doing non-safety-critical maintenance on the train, and track maintenance under the supervision of a VR ganger. Ticket revenue went into an account on which the VR drew to pay for their staff involved in running the line.
Source: Wikipedia
QR National Limited is one of the larger rail freight companies in Australia and was formerly owned by the Queensland Government. It was created as an independent company on 1 July 2010 when transport and logistics company QR Limited was split into two companies. Queensland Rail is responsible for the state’s passenger operations, regional track and support services, and remains owned by the Government. QR National owns the balance of the QR business – above-rail coal and freight services, the export coal network in Queensland and rollingstock manufacturing and track maintenance services.
There are plans to change QR National's name to Aurizon.
Source: Wikipedia
QUBE Logistics is an interstate and international transport and freight forwarding company in Australia. It was founded in 2010 after the investment trust KFM Diversified Infrastructure and Logistics Fund acquired Kaplan Equity and became a standard operating company.
Kaplan Equity part owned P&O Automotive and General Stevedoring and P&O Trans Australia (which in turn owned South Spur Rail Services and Southern and Silverton Rail). Qube acquired outright control and majority ownership of P&O Trans Australia in April 2011
Wasting time and bandwidth since 1992
The Seymour Railway Heritage Centre (SRHC) is a railway preservation group based in Seymour, Victoria, Australia. The volunteer non-profit incorporated association was established in 1983 to restore and preserve locomotives and rolling stock as used on the railways of Victoria.
The group is an accredited railway operator under the Victorian Rail Safety Act 2006, permitting it to move trains within its own depot. The group is also accredited to maintain and provide rolling stock on the Victorian railway network, running charters, tourist and railfan specials across the state with their fleet of restored trains. It is also a provider of locomotives to freight operator, El Zorro.
Manufacturer of injection-moulded plastic and brass/whitemetal Victorian Railways HO scale kits.
Stock can be found in most hobby shops throughout Australia or direct by mail order.
Steamrail Victoria is a non-profit organisation dedicated to the restoration and operation of vintage steam, diesel and electric locomotives and carriages.
The Vintage Train® operates monthly to destinations throughout the state. It travels all over the Victorian Railways broad gauge network offering a variety of tours for all tastes, including weekend excursions to interesting and popular destinations.
We welcome new members as well as new volunteer workers. We are always in need of assistance in a huge variety of tasks that keep Steamrail operating. People interested in visiting the workshops to see preservation in action are always welcome.
The Bellarine Railway, formerly known as the Bellarine Peninsula Railway, is a volunteer-operated steam-driven tourist railway located in Victoria, Australia. It operates on a 16 km section of a formerly disused branch line on the Bellarine Peninsula between the coastal town of Queenscliff and Drysdale, near Geelong.
History
The original line was commissioned in September 1878, and opened on 21 May 1879. It connected Queenscliff with South Geelong station, the terminus of the Geelong line, and the junction of the Warrnambool line. It was acknowledged at the time that although passenger traffic alone might not justify a railway line, military traffic from both the port and Fort Queenscliff—a key defence installation—would warrant its construction. It initially carried passenger, goods and military traffic, and continued to do so for several decades.
In the first few months of operation, it carried only one service per day, but at its peak, in January 1885, four trains per day ran in each direction, enabling the line to be used by commuters. However, this was decreased to three not long after, and was cut back to two trains a day in 1910. Traffic on the line continued to fall over the next twenty years, and in 1931, passenger services were dropped completely—apart from the occasional Sunday excursion train. Goods services continued to run, although they were cut to back at first to twice-weekly, and then weekly operation.
The line saw a revival during World War II, carrying mines from the Swan Island military base, but returned to pre-war levels afterwards. After the war, services became less frequent, with passenger services dropped altogether, apart from occasional special trains, and with goods services cut back to one a fortnight. The line was closed on 6 November 1976.
We run mix of locomotive-hauled trains and railcars (carriages powered by one or more on‑board diesel engines).
All our services are air-conditioned, non-smoking and have on-board toilet facilities.
Catering is available on some long-haul services.
The latest addition to the V/Line fleet is the VLocity. Capable of speeds up to 160 km/h, the VLocity has been specifically designed to meet the needs of V/Line’s customers. Incorporating proven technology and the highest safety standards, it offers new levels of reliability and customer comfort.
With the closure of the Castlemaine - Maldon railway in December 1976, the Castlemaine and Maldon Preservation Society was formed. Today it runs trains between their operational base at Maldon, and the mainline connection at Castlemaine.
Established in 1856, Victorian Railways (VR) was the State Government entity which owned and operated the railways in Victoria until corporatisation in the early 1980s. They established railways to fledgling communities in far-flung parts of the state and created major manufacturing facilities in Newport.
Victorian Railways were superseded by Vicrail in the early 1980s and later V/Line in the mid 1980s.
VicTrack is dedicated to preserving Victoria’s rail and tram heritage for future generations. Since 2001, VicTrack has worked with Heritage Victoria to conduct an annual program of restoring significant historic railway buildings and other infrastructure throughout Victoria.
Xstrata Coal operate coal trains in NSW's coal-rich Hunter Valley region
The Yarra Valley Railway is a tourist railway operating on a section of the former Healesville railway which operated between Lilydale and Healesville in the Yarra Valley area northeast of Melbourne, Australia
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