Our March edition is another one with an interesting variety of topics, both historic and current! 1 March 2025 marked 25 years since the Freight Australia brand came into being, and we thought we’d mark the occasion by featuring one of the locomotives still wearing that branding 25 years alter (albeit in a slightly modified […]

February Newsrail is one with great stories and exceptional photography, both historic and current. We have another wonderful feature article by Graham Bishop, who previously wrote about his experiences as a ganger in the 1950s. Graham now recounts the moment in 1960 when he realised he wanted to work on the footplate, and his career […]

Our January edition is a special one: it is the 800th in a series that began in November 1957 when some Victorian railfans assembled a handful of typewritten pages on rail developments in the state and called it ‘Divisional Diary’. 182 editions later, in January 1973, ‘Divisional Diary’ became ‘Newsrail’. The front cover for this […]

Our December edition has a great mix of contemporary and historic content, including two articles from renowned writer and publisher Nick Anchen. Our front cover photo features steam K160 as it appeared just a few days prior to this edition’s publication, and those who saw this locomotive at the Newport Workshops Open Days in March […]

Buy an individual print copy of November 2024 Newsrail here Our November 2024 edition has an interesting selection of topics for you to enjoy. Our front cover features a photo by Braiden Beer of the recent first-ever use of R Class locomotives to operate a day tour to Bairnsdale, a story we explore in our […]

Buy an individual print copy of October 2024 Newsrail here October Newsrail has forty pages of great content that starts with an eye-catching image of current and former V/Line passenger power on Ballarat’s Warrenheip Bank, taken by Brenden Schonfelder. Generations of railfans have watched locomotives doing battle with Warrenheip Bank, hauling heavy loads heading east […]

Buy an individual print copy of September 2024 Newsrail here September Newsrail, another big 40-page edition, has a major feature article from the renowned author Nick Anchen, and news about the laying of new track through Tarrawarra Tunnel on the Yarra Valley Railway (YVR), part of a wider project to reconstruct the line through to […]

Buy an individual print copy of August 2024 Newsrail here August Newsrail is high on nostalgia, with an extended feature on rail operations at Hamilton in the 1960s, suburban goods trains on Royal Park Bank in the 1970s, and accounts of driving and firing X and S Class steam locomotives. Our cover features a striking […]

Buy an individual print copy of July 2024 Newsrail here This month’s 40-page edition is packed with great content, starting with our wrap-around cover photo taken by Benjamin Boehle-Mitchell, capturing C501 and N451 returning to Benalla with the first locomotive-hauled passenger train to Yarrawonga in many years. Author Jeff O’Meara has written a wonderful personal […]

Buy an individual print copy of June 2024 Newsrail here June Newsrail celebrates R Class locomotives, starting with a superb photograph, courtesy Matt Oaten, of R761 returning from Ballarat at sunset on the occasion of its first run since being repainted over summer. And doesn’t that paintwork look brilliant in the setting sun! In our […]