Railways and Tramways of Australia

A quiet start

 

Sydney’s first electric trains commenced passenger service on 1 March 1926.

 

John Bradfield, Chief Engineer, Metropolitan Railway Construction, delivered a report in 1915 that advocated an underground city railway and electrification of railways to Sutherland, Bankstown, Parramatta and Hornsby. The report was accepted, and a voltage of 1500 DC was selected, the same as electrified railways in Melbourne.

 

Bradfield recommended wider rolling stock than the carriages then in use, providing for seating of three passengers on one side of the centre aisle and two on the other. Existing structures were modified to cater for the wider trains.

 

Initial orders were placed for 101 wooden carriages that were used as locomotive-hauled stock while electrification work was ongoing. Various orders were then placed with different manufacturers for 588 steel carriages. Also, 193 existing locomotive-hauled carriages were widened and modified for electric operation. Thus, the total fleet was 882 carriages, with 441 motor cars and 441 trailers.

 

Extensive work was undertaken to raise overbridges, erect masts and overhead wiring, install substations and new signalling, and complete other works. A test train ran between Central and Hurstville on 2 February 1926, then further trials continued over the following weeks. A group of parliamentarians travelled from Central to Mortdale on 22 February.

 

Regular electric train services commenced between Central and Oatley, with one train running to the existing timetable. There was no official opening, and little publicity was given to the event. More electric train sets gradually entered service, and an accelerated timetable was introduced in September. Before the end of 1926 electrification reached Sutherland, Bankstown and National Park, plus the new underground line between Central and St James. Electrification was later extended to other suburbs.

 

After a quiet beginning, electric trains eventually served most of Sydney’s suburban and interurban railways.

 

Bibliography

‘Blue sparks: first electric train on Illawarra Line to-day’, The Sun, 2 February 1926, p 11.

IA Brady, ‘Jubilee of Sydney’s electric trains’, Australian Railway Historical Society Bulletin, no. 461, March 1976, pp 41–66.

SE Dornan & RG Henderson, The electric railways of New South Wales, Australian Electric Traction Association, Sydney, 1976.

‘Electric trains: a trial trip’, The Sydney Morning Herald, 23 February 1926, p 10.

‘Electric trains: service commenced’, The Sydney Morning Herald, 2 March 1926, p 9.

‘Exit the “loco”: out new train’, The Daily Telegraph, 2 March 1926, p 5.

G Moss, ‘Putting the spark in the harbour city: the introduction of Sydney’s electric trains’, Australian Railway History, no. 864, October 2009, pp

     334–45.