Our big feature article for January sees us travel to Wonthaggi in 1976 when local boy Andy Main, recently qualified as a rail motor driver, got a transfer back to his hometown to drive the Walker rail motor. Andy’s joy at this posting was short-lived; only weeks after he arrived came the news that the passenger service would be discontinued. Despite this, Andy enjoyed a 17-month posting driving trains on this most scenic of Victorian railway lines, a posting that ended with Andy driving the very last regularly-scheduled passenger train out of Wonthaggi Station at 6:35pm on Sunday 4 December 1977.

Andy recalls the details that made this line special, including the exceptional beauty of the sea by day as the train rounded the curves into Kilcunda and headed on to its famous trestle bridge, or by night as the distant lights of Wonthaggi came into view. He remembers how he had to watch out for surfers and swimmers jumping across the track at Kilcunda as they made their way between the road and beach, the interesting personalities of some of those who rode the train, and the lucky escape he and two passengers had when just six weeks prior to the closure of the line, the rail motor he was driving (30RM) was wrecked after being struck by a truck at a level crossing near Nyora.

We have yet another amazing assortment of photographs of the line during its last year of passenger service. These photos include a few of Andy’s own, capturing such sights as the special train organised on 20 August 1977 to take townsfolk to Melbourne to publicly protest against the closure of the line.

Also in this edition, we also report on some modern day developments, including the opening of the new Metro Tunnel, the commencement of Port Rail Shuttles to the new Somerton Intermodal Terminal, and the far-reaching changes to safeworking and other infrastructure that have taken place on the Shepparton Line, and take a closer look at the new G Class tram.

This month’s Tourist and heritage rail column takes a look at the project currently underway at Daylesford Railway to replace the original 60lb rail with 80lb plant, which will help to keep the railway running safely and reliably into the future.

And our usual other columns are there:

Once again 22RM graces our cover, as our Tourist and Heritage Rail column covers the exciting news from Yarra Valley Railway of the establishment of their mechanical branch.. With a new, modern shed having recently been built at Healesville, the railway is now turning its attention to bringing its diesel locomotives and DERM into operating service. The railway is now hiring, with paid positions, volunteer positions and apprenticeships available in the new mechanical branch.

Nick Anchen presents another excerpt from his latest book, The Art of the Engineman. This time, it’s an interview with driver Neil Tate on what many regard to be one of Victorian Railways’ finest locomotives, the L Class electrics.

Features Editor Mark Cauchi presents a fascinating article on a spectacular train crash that happened at Croydon 90 years ago, when an empty suburban train ran away and collided at speed into a stabled suburban train in a siding. Mark presents detailed reports and many photographs of the aftermath of the collision.

We have another of our Photo in Focus series, and this time Trevor Penn takes a look at a superbly detailed photograph of Spencer Street Station in 1961 and finds many items of interest.

Our News section takes a look at the new 94 Class locomotives that recently went into interstate service, even hauling The Overland on occasion. We also revisit the issue of overcrowding on some VLocity services, and take a look at the new tunnel on the Hurstbridge Line built as part of the M80 road project.

And our usual other columns are there:

Newsrail’s November 2025 edition is packed with three feature articles. Our striking cover image of a brand new X Class locomotive X39 sets the scene for our first feature, which is the recollections of engineman Fred Rochow of working on the mighty X Class steam locomotives of the VR. Fred was interviewed by Nick Anchen, and Nick has provided us with this interview as an excerpt from his new book, The Art of the Engineman.

We publish the second part in Greg Michael’s articles on the removal of level crossings on the Seymour Line. Greg starts this latest instalment with the former Swamp Road (today’s Dynon Road) crossing at North Melbourne. It is mind-boggling to consider that as late as 1886, there was a level crossing at North Melbourne Station, which even in those days had hundreds of passenger and goods trains passing through every day. Greg also looks at other more recent removals of Hume Highway crossings at places such as Tallarook and Craigieburn, all richly illustrated with historic and current-day photos.

Our third feature is a story about a mishap that occurred in 1958 on the Gippsland Line when a ganger’s trolley ran away from a works location on the Maffra Line and found its way onto the main line to Melbourne. Des Coghlan was one of the workers at the Traralgon loco depot who scrambled into action, racing out in a car to intercept the trolley and derail it before a more serious incident potentially occurred.

Our News pages this month look at the ATSB report into the recent Clifton Hill derailment, a program by the NSW Government to investigate the retention of sleeping car service on the Melbourne to Sydney route, and recent comments by Public Transport Victoria at the West of Melbourne summit held in October.

And our usual other columns are there:

Newsrail’s October 2025 edition features a blue Harris train on the cover, a perfect choice for our main feature article by Grraham Bishop on his career as a suburban train driver from the mid 1960s to early 1990s.

We went back through the files to see when we last had a Harris on the cover of Newsrail. Can you believe that prior to this month’s edition, they’ve only made the cover twice? The last was our September 1987 edition, when we featured a colour image of a refurbished grey Harris train on the Port Melbourne Line, just prior its closure and conversion to light rail. Prior to that, our November 1975 edition featured a black and white photo of a Harris passing Melbourne Underground Rail Loop works near Princes Bridge Station.

Our feature article author Graham had the most remarkable career on Victorian Railways, starting as a track repairer before becoming a locomotive fireman, then a driver, and finally a suburban electric train driver. This latest article by Graham picks up where his last article on his time as a locomotive driver left off, and as with Graham’s previous articles, it is a window back in time to a very different age. It is superbly illustrated with a range of high quality photographs from the era. Many of these images, including the striking cover photo, were taken by Graham’s fellow train driver colleague, the late Des Jowett.

Our News column leads with some analysis by our editorial team of recent boarding statistics from regional stations that suggest V/Line will probably report another reccord year for patronage when it releases its annual report later this year. While some lines have seen only modest growth, the Shepparton Line in particular has had ridership increases in the order of 50% over last finanical year.

Our popular Tourist and hertiage rail column calls in to Bellarine Railway for another update on the project to restore ASG steam locomotive G33 to operation, as well as updates on Car 19 restoration, Steam Crane 30, and a new project to restore the Malcolm Moore diesel engine originally used in the regauging and reopening of the former VR Queenscliff Line as the Bellarine Railway.

And our usual other columns are there:

Buy an individual print copy of September 2025 Newsrail here

For September, we’re heading west, all the way to Serviceton! Our cover photo, showing a brand-new C510 and its classmate readying 9194 express goods train for departure to Melbourne in 1978, perfectly transports us to the time and place for our main feature article by VR engineman Roydon Burk.

Roydon joined the Victorian Railways in 1977 and regards his days with the VR as the best of his life. We are fortunate that Roydon kept all of his work logbooks and correspondence. From these records, he is able to provide a wonderfully detailed first-hand account of his time at Serviceton in the late 1970s. It is a compelling record of life on Victorian Railways prior to the huge changes that took place in the following decade. Roydon discusses the locomotives he worked with (the then-new C Class, X Class, and Y Class all feature) remembers the local Serviceton to Horsham railcar service (nicknamed The Peanut by locals) and recounts some funny stories such as the day his uniform was ruined by a tortoise! The photography, sourced from a number of contributors, is brilliant. Roydon has provided a few cracking images that he took himself, including a couple of Australian National Railway locomotives that crashed off the end of the turning triangle at Serviceton; Roydon notes that this never happened to a VR locomotive during his time!

Our Tourist and Heritage Rail column visits the Steamrail team at the Ballarat East Depot, where a range of projects have recently been successfully completed by a very active new team of local railfans. We talk to the team about their recent restoration of water truck WT49, a vehicle that will soon be used once again to enable steam locomotive Y112 (currently under overhaul) to operate with a far greater range by nearly doubling the water capacity of its tender.

Our News section includes a story on the potential threat that the new Sunshine Station Superhub project may pose to the future for freight operations between Ballarat and Melbourne. We also look into the recent Sprinter mishap on the Seymour Line, the rise in kangaroo strikes affecting V/Line services, and the increase of service frequency on the Shepparton Line.

And our usual other columns are there:

Buy an individual print copy of August 2025 Newsrail here

Our cover photo for the August edition of Newsrail, featuring S301 Sir Thomas Mitchell awaiting departure from Albury Station with the Albury Express in September 1939, heralds our feature content on the Albury Line.

Nick Anchen has compiled an interview he had with Arthur Eaton, who supervised the Seymour Locomotive Depot during the era of the legendary S Class Pacific locomotives. Arthur grew up in a house just metres from the railway line in Seymour, and a childhood fascination with the trains that thundered past the family home soon turned into a long and successful career. Arthur remembers the various qualities and quirks of the mighty three-cylinder Pacific locomotives that epitomised the VR at its peak.

Nick also presents an interview with Frank Allen, a railwayman whose long VR career began at age 15 working in the Spirit of Progress dining car. Frank describes a typical busy day that would start with helping to load the car with food at Spencer Street Station hours before its 6.30pm  departure and catching a brief few hours sleep after the train’s arrival at Albury before presenting at 6.00am to help prepare the car for its return journey back to Melbourne, and meeting such luminaries as VR Commissioner Harold Clapp.

During July, we received the terrible news that our long-time editorial team member Greg Michael had passed away. Greg had just completed a large three-part article on level crossing removals on the North East Line, from the 1890s through to the current day. In this edition, we present the first part of Greg’s final work for Newsrail.

Our News section includes details on the final ATSB report into the 2023 level crossing collision at Geelong of a truck and train at the Barwon Terrace level crossing in Geelong, as well as coverage of the recent Clifton Hill derailment.

And our usual other columns are there:

Buy an individual print copy of July 2025 Newsrail here

July Newsrail has another interesting mix of current and historic content for all interested in Victorian rail, from our front cover (commemorating 150 years since the opening of the railway to Everton) to our rear cover (commemorating 60 years since the closure of the railway to Warburton).

Our main feature article for July is the first of a two-part history on the industrial railway that branched off from Box Hill Station and ran to the former brickworks that today is the site of Surrey Park. Mark Cauchi’s thoroughly-researched history is illustrated with maps, advertisements and beautiful photographs from the era.

This month’s tourist and heritage rail column features a report from Daylesford Spa Country Railway on their major project to return Leyland Double-Ended Rail Motor 53RM to operation. It’s an ambitious project, but as DSCR’s Barry Fell notes, the DSCR team has already made major progress.

Nick Anchen’s collection of stories from old hands at the former North Melborune Locomotive Depot, published in our June edition, attracted a lot of attention, including some emails and letters with photographs of the depot we’ve never seen before. We’ve published them this month in a special four-page spread.

Also from Nick Anchen, another story from the Whistleblowers series, this time from David Moon remembering the wheat season in the days of steam, running steam locomotives in 100 Fahrenheit (37 Celcius) weather, and trying to sleep in the primitive accommodation provided by Victorian Railways for loco crews.

Trevor Penn presents another most interesting entry for our Photos in focus series. Rounding out our coverage of North Melbourne Loco, Trevor interprets the details in a 1961 image that shows diesel traction usurping steam, with the new North Melbourne flyover under construction as the old steam depot marks time until its demolition.

And our usual other columns are there:

Buy an individual print copy of June 2025 Newsrail here

June Newsrail has an interesting mix of current and historic content for Victorian railfans to enjoy.

Our cover photo by Thomas Hobley features Walker Railcar 22RM at work on the Yarra Valley Railway, which has recently announced the long-awaited commencement of track laying on its planned extension from Yarra Glen back to the current terminus at Tarrawarra. YVR’s Jodi Swinn talks to Newsrail about the project and takes us through the truly impressive engineering work on the track bed that will ensure that the track quality will be of a very high standard.

Also in preservation news, our Tramways column records the transfer of Z3 class leader, Z3.116, into preservation at Ballarat Tramway Museum after 45 years of faithful service to Melbourne commuters.

Our feature article this month is a collection of stories, curated by Nick Anchen, from old Victorian Railways enginemen and others recalling the North Melbourne Locomotive Depot, the massive facility that maintained the steam locomotive fleet operating out of Spencer Street Station. For those who view life on the Victorian Railways through rose-tinted glasses, these stories offer a sharp correction, recounting the dismal working conditions and terrible pay that those who drove and maintained VR’s loco fleet had to endure. Decades later, the honesty and authenticity of these accounts is striking. Naturally, the article is beautifully illustrated with historic photographs of VR’s magnificent steam fleet in and around the shed.

Our News section details rail expenditure funded in the Victorian Budget, and also delves into some of the detail of the Victorian Budget Papers to note projects that are running late, or over-budget. We also take a look at the conversion of two three-car Comeng sets into two-car sets specially designed for operation with the Infrastructure Evaluation Vehicle.

And our usual other columns are there:

Buy an individual print copy of May 2025 Newsrail here

Our May 2025 edition is a delight for fans of steam, with two features that present a magnificent collection of photos of VR steam on the main line.

Our cover features a striking image of an X Class locomotive taken by none other than the late great John Buckland. The photo introduces our feature article, an analysis by Max Michell of the events of 31 March 1943, when at the height of World War 2 the North East Line handled 94 freight and passenger trains in a single day, a record unlikely to be eclipsed any time soon. Max takes a look at the infrastructure, rolling stock, motive power and safeworking arrangements that enabled such an extraordinary throughput of freight and passengers in a single 24-hour period. The article is illustrated with a superb collection of photographs from the collections of Newport Railway Museum, John Thompson, Brian Goodwin, and others.

23 May 2025 marks exactly 100 years since the first of the N Class ‘Mikado’ locomotives went into service. We mark this anniversary with a concise article an a beautiful collection of photographs of N Class locomotives over the ensuring four decades, some (if not most) of which we believe have not previously been published.

Our News section leads with details of the recently released ATSB report into the 2020 derailment of a freight train on the North East line, an incident that saw one of the derailed vehicles strike an oncoming V/Line passenger service on the opposite track. We also note the Victorian rail commitments from each of the party leaders on the eve of the federalelection, with Melbourne Airport Rail being the winner.

And our usual other columns are there:

Buy an individual print copy of April 2025 Newsrail here

After our 1 April 2025 edition got quite a reaction on Facebook, it’s time to take a look at our actual April edition, which has a wonderful mix of historic and contemporary Victorian rail material.

Our cover photo this month by Daniel Sciberras headlines an eventful month for the Albury Line. It has seen works by Inland Rail that include demolition of the Benalla A signal box and Wangaratta’s Docker Street footbridge, and a series of fires caused by a southbound freight train that at one point threatened the historic Barnawartha Station building. Lastly, March saw the return to Albury of a VR R Class Hudson loco for the first time since 2008, and for the first time ever, it arrived there from Sydney on standard gauge track, rather than from Melbourne on the broad gauge.

Our Tourist and heritage rail column has a fascinating update from the Victorian Goldfields Railway team on the restoration of steam loco K160, which has reached another major milestone in its restoration. VGR’s mechanical engineer Mick Compagnoni takes us through the interesting process of how you reunite a locomotive with its wheels, and it’s by no means an easy or simple process! Mick’s words are accompanied by some amazing photos courtesy of Peter Lorenz.

Our feature article this month is by Ross Rowley, who worked as Area Stations Manager for the Western District of the VR and later V/Line network and was witness to near constant, far-reaching changes to the network. He also has a few interesting stories to tell about vice-regal and royal trains to the district, diesel loco horns been rendered inoperative by snow, a bomb scare for The Overland, and the Ash Wednesday bushfires of 1983. The article is superbly illustrated with photographs from the author, Chris Wurr, Neville Gee, the Geelong and South Western Railway Heritage Society, and other collections.

Our occasional Rolling Stock column makes a return as Michael Menzies details a range of new locomotives (predominantly UGL C44 derivatives) expected to come onstream for several major operators in coming months, and the likely change this will bring in the use of older GM-EMD units such as the X Class and even G/81/BL Classes.
Our News column includes details on the new V/Line timetable that consigns locomotive-hauled Warrnambool trains to history, as well as the recent review of the Suburban Rail Loop business case by Infrastructure Australia, and more details of the new Town Hall Station.

And our usual other columns are there: