The Museum Objective
The museum display will provide a world class static display of the history of railways in New South Wales. The museum will chronicle the history in meticulous detail and provide an invaluable educational facility to demonstrate the many applications of science and technology throughout the history of NSW railways to the modern day.
The Largest Collection of Historic Railway Equipment in the Southern Hemisphere
The museum is the largest collection of historic railway equipment in the Southern hemisphere, and continues to secure a wide cross section of exhibits. All railway vehicles in the collection are standard gauge.
To date, the museum collection comprises 67 locomotives, 280 carriages and wagons and over 19 railmotors. The locomotives range from tiny, 8 ton, shunting units to the massive, 260 ton Beyer-Garratt (the largest locomotive in the southern hemisphere), many over 100 years old. The passenger carriage collection includes such specialised vehicles as a prison van, rail pay buses, travelling post offices, bulk mail vans, sleeping cars, the former Premier’s car and a sleeping car allocated to General Douglas MacArthur, as well as everyday vehicles from times past. The freight rolling stock includes vehicles for the carriage of almost every commodity, including grain, livestock, coal, oil, cement, biscuits, fruit, water, limestone, superphosphate, meat, milk, bitumen, explosives, machinery, coil steel, automobiles, etc.
Of course, history is not a static thing. What is the latest technology today is tomorrows historical item. The museum’s role is preserving for posterity that which is now just commonplace, a task that will never finish. For example, the modern XPT train is a potential future exhibit because of it’s significance from both an historical and technical viewpoint.