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In January 2023, Newsrail is celebrating its fiftieth anniversary!

Our January 1973 edition featured a front cover with a green colour splash above a photograph of S Class locomotives hauling a freight train. In a homage to that first cover and to mark fifty years of publication, our January 2023 edition features a metallic gold splash across a recent photograph of S Class locomotives, still in regular service all these years later.

Our first feature for this anniversary edition takes us back to the early 1970s and the events leading up to that first edition of Newsrail. Three members of the editorial team of the day, Warren Doubleday, Robert Carlisle and John Dare, share their stories with us. They explain how the old ARHS publication Divisional Diary rapidly transformed, from a newsletter written for ARHS Victorian Division members into a fully-fledged magazine, accessible to the general public and available from retail outlets, appropriately renamed Newsrail to reflect its new purpose and broader readership. Our article traces how, in a very short period of time, far-reaching changes took place. As our interviewees reveal, these changes were not only desirable, they were essential; saving what had been a loss-making publication from closure, and transforming it into a commercial success.

Also in this edition…

In addition to our anniversary piece, this edition has two other feature articles of considerable interest. There is a wonderful photo essay from Andrew Blair on travelling to Deniliquin by Y Class-hauled goods train in 1972, with his return journey being made by DERM. Noted author Chris Banger writes on the closure and dismantling of the Cobram Line.

We also have an extended Preservation section with updates from Bellarine Railway on its restoration of Australian Standard Garratt locomotive G33 and a separate project to restore Car 19 to operating condition. It also contains a report from Yarra Valley Railway on the extensive works to rebuild the Healesville Station yard.

Our other regular sections are there:

• Calendar anniversaries
• General works
• Tramways
• PTV service quality
• Where is it?
• Taildisc