Railways and Tramways of Australia

Railway moderniser

 

Harold Clapp became the became the Chairman of the Victorian Railways Commissioners on 17 September 1920.

 

Born at St Kilda in Melbourne on 7 May 1875, Clapp completed an apprenticeship with the Otis Engineering Company. He moved to the United States in 1901, working for several railroads and becoming Vice-President of the East St. Louis and Suburban Railway in Illinois.

 

At the age of 45, Clapp returned to Australia in 1920 to become the Chairman of the Victorian Railways (VR) Commissioners. Earning a salary of £5000, he was the highest paid public servant in Australia. He quickly became well-known throughout the state. Clapp held the position of Chairman for almost 19 years, a record term in office, from September 1920 to June 1939.

 

During Clapp’s time as the head of VR there was a renewed emphasis on service to the public and significant modernisation of the railways. He gained a reputation as a brilliant administrator who inspired confidence in those who worked with and for him.

 

Some of Clapp’s main achievements included:

• Continued expansion of electrification in Melbourne

• S Class 4-6-2 express passenger engines

• Spirit of Progress air-conditioned express passenger train between Melbourne and Albury

• H220 Heavy Harry, the heaviest steam locomotive in Australia at the time

• More powerful goods locomotives

• Promotion of tourism.

 

In 1941 Clapp was awarded a knighthood, and in 1942 he was appointed Director-General of the Commonwealth Land Transport Board. He prepared a report on the standardisation of railway gauges in Australia, which also emphasised the importance of modernising the railways using diesel locomotives and updated passenger and goods rolling stock.

 

Harold Clapp died in Melbourne on 21 October 1952, aged 77. Paying tribute, Federal Minister for Transport Senator George McLeay said that Clapp’s modernisation had revolutionised rail transport in Australia.

 

Read more

www.railtram.com.au/harold-clapp

 

Bibliography

P Adam-Smith, ‘Clapp, Sir Harold Winthrop (1875–1952)’, Australian Dictionary of Biography, National Centre of Biography, Australian National

     University, http://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/clapp-sir-harold-winthrop-5657/text9549, published first in hardcopy 1981, accessed 13 September

     2026.

‘Career of service to state railways’, The Age, 22 October 1952, p 2.

H Clapp, Report to the Minister for Transport by Sir Harold Clapp, K.B.E., Director-General of Land Transport, on standardization of Australia’s

     railway gauges, Government Printer, Canberra, 1945.

R Lee, The railways of Victoria: 1854–2004, Melbourne University Publishing, 2007.

GA Peterson, ‘The Clapp era: Sir Harold Clapp, Victorian Railways Chairman of Commissioners – 1920–1939’, Newsrail, vol. 20, no. 7, July 1992,

     pp 226–227.

‘Rebel in the railways: the career of Harold Clapp, the man who got things done’, Newsrail, vol. 33, no. 4, April 2005, pp 104–105.

‘Rebel in the railways: the career of Harold Clapp, the man who got things done’, Newsrail, vol. 33, no. 4, April 2005, pp 104–5.