Did you know that the first section of today’s Hurstbridge Line was a track from Clifton Hill to Alphington, entirely isolated from the rest of the Victorian Railways network, which sat idle for over a year after completion in 1883? Or that the first services to run on the line were not operated by a […]

The cover of our May edition features a striking image never seen before: a VR blue and gold S Class diesel at Sydney’s Central Station, preparing to haul the Southern Aurora to Melbourne. The 60th anniversary commemorative run of this train was in peril after flood damage to the Thirlmere Line stranded the Trasnport Heritage […]

The dramatic cover photo of this month’s Newsrail concerns the subject of our first feature article: locomotive H220 Heavy Harry. Phil Dunn presents official VR correspondence detailing the design parameters for the locomotive, and then the details of its 1941 performance tests, tests which established that the locomotive’s prodigious horsepower output exceeded expectations. April 2022 […]

Buy an individual print copy of March 2022 Newsrail here March 2022 Newsrail is one we’re incredibly proud of. We feature the second part of Nick Anchen’s feature article interviewing 94-year-old former Warragul engineman Ray Johns, but we’ve saved the best for last! In this edition, Ray talks about his time driving and firing on […]

Buy an individual print copy of February 2022 Newsrail here Our cover photograph of The Overland crossing the Murray River heads up a report of the recent sale of the Journey Beyond Group, operator of the Indian Pacific, Ghan, Overland and Great Southern rail services, to the US-based Hornblower Group. We also detail a campaign […]

Buy an individual print copy of January 2022 Newsrail here January Newsrail, the first edition of our Volume 50, our 50th year of continuous publication, features a beautiful twilight photograph by David Johnson of B61, a locomotive that this year will celebrate its 70th anniversary. There’s quite a few interesting items in our News section, […]

Buy an individual print copy of December 2021 Newsrail here December Newsrail has a striking cover photograph of diesel locomotive Y127, the first locomotive to be repainted in the once-ubiquitous V/Line Orange and Grey livery since the 1990s, emerging from Number 7 Road at Newport Workshops West Block, home of the heritage rail group 707 […]

November Newsrail is another 40-page special, the first of two editions to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the former Mornington Peninsula railway line from Bittern to Red Hill. Our November edition has two feature articles to commemorate historic anniversaries: A superb feature article on the history of the Red Hill Line by noted railway historian […]

Buy an individual print copy of October 2021 Newsrail here October Newsrail celebrates the former railway line through Kilcunda, one of the former VR’s most photographed locations, and one with a fascinating history. We have two feature articles on the topic: A series of excerpts from Mark Cauchi’s forthcoming new book on the building of […]

Buy an individual print copy of September 2021 Newsrail here Our September edition has a dramatic cover photograph, courtesy of Max Thum, of the restored Tait set undergoing test runs around the Melbourne suburban network on 1 August. Inside, our Preservation column features an update on some of the work undertaken to ready the Tait […]