Railways and Tramways of Australia

Albury is located near the border of New South Wales and Victoria, and is one of the largest inland cities on the Sydney–Melbourne railway route. Train services to Albury commenced on 3 February 1881 with the completion of the railway from Sydney via Goulburn, Cootamundra and Junee. Albury has one of the grandest station buildings in a regional area in Australia, reflecting its importance to the New South Wales Government in an era of strong interstate rivalry. For almost 80 years Albury was a break of gauge station where the Victorian broad gauge (1600 mm) and the New South Wales standard gauge (1435 mm) tracks met. Passengers and goods travelling between Sydney and Melbourne changed from one train to another at Albury.

 

Railway History

Upon opening in 1881 Albury had a wool stage and temporary platform. The station yard area had a loop, stockyard, turntable and engine shed. Its grand station building was opened on 26 February 1882. Albury station building was designed in 1880 and built under the direction of John Whitton, the Engineer-in-Chief of the New South Wales railways. The building is Italianate in style, is symmetrical and has a clock tower in the centre. It is mostly a brick construction. The platform is 459.6 metres long, the longest in New South Wales and one of the longest in Australia; it is covered for its entire length. Different rooms in the station building have been used for a range of purposes, including booking hall, refreshment room, ladies’ waiting room, parcels office, stores room, porters’ room and toilets. A two-story Station Master’s residence was located in the station forecourt area, but is now used for other purposes. Although the clock tower was a central part of the building when it opened in 1882, it did not have clocks for almost a century. It was not until 1981 and the centenary of the railway being completed from Sydney to Albury that clocks were installed in the tower.

 

Albury is located approximately 2 km north of the Murray River, which forms the boundary between New South Wales and Victoria. At the time of the station’s opening, New South Wales and Victoria were separate colonies. Although Albury is in New South Wales, it is closer to the Victorian capital city of Melbourne than to the New South Wales capital city of Sydney. Rivalry between the two colonies included competition for railway traffic. The railway from Melbourne had reached Wodonga, on the Victorian side of the Murray River, in 1873. Albury was reached from Sydney in 1881, and on 14 June 1883 a temporary bridge across the Murray River was opened, making it possible to travel between Sydney and Melbourne by train. A permanent bridge was opened the following year. To acknowledge the connection of the railway systems of New South Wales and Victoria, a grand banquet was held in the engine shed at Albury on the opening day. Over 1000 guests were treated to a five-course meal, along with wines and spirits. Special trains operated from Sydney and Melbourne to carry guests to the event, including the Governors and Premiers of both New South Wales and Victoria, numerous other parliamentarians and public officials.

 

With the meeting of the railways from Sydney and Melbourne, Albury was a break of gauge station. Passengers changed from one train to another and goods were transhipped. Standard gauge trains arrived and departed at the eastern platfom, and passengers would cross to the broad gauge Victorian train on the western side. The standard gauge platform was extended several times from its original length, eventually reaching 459.6 metres in length. However,  the broad gauge platform was shorter, stopping short of the station building. From August 1883 an overnight express passenger train operated in both directions between Sydney and Melbourne from Mondays to Fridays. The southbound train departed from Sydney at 5.00 pm; passengers changed trains at Albury at 6.00 am; and the connecting train arrived in Melbourne at 11.40 am. The northbound train deaprted from Melbourne at 4.55 pm; passengers changed trains at Albury at 11.15 pm; and arrival in Sydney the following day was at 12.30 pm. As demand increased more passenger trains operated along the Sydney–Melbourne route.

 

Victoria wanted Wodonga to be the principal break of gauge station and New South Wales wanted it to be Albury. Initially both stations were break of gauge stations because the bridge across the Murray River was built with dual gauge broad and standard gauge tracks. A customs office was built in Albury in 1886 and it was settled upon as the break of gauge station where trains from Melbourne and Sydney terminated. As railway traffic increased the facilities at Albury were expanded. The platform was lengthened several times, new sidings were added, carriage and goods sheds were built, and locomotive servicing facilities were expanded.

 

Prominent train changers

American writer Mark Twain toured the British Empire from July 1895 to July 1896, and undertook 16 trips by train during his visit Australia. While he was travelling from Sydney to Melbourne he was required to change trains at Albury on 26 September. Twain outlined his thoughts on the experience in his book Following the equator: a journey around the world:

Now comes a singular thing: the oddest thing, the strangest thing, the most baffling and unaccountable marvel that Australasia can show. At the frontier between New South Wales and Victoria our multitude of passengers were routed out of their snug beds by lantern-light in the morning in the biting cold of a high altitude to change cars on a road that has no break in it from Sydney to Melbourne! Think of the paralysis of intellect that gave that idea birth; imagine the boulder it emerged from on some petrified legislator’s shoulders.

It is a narrow-gauge road to the frontier, and a broader gauge thence to Melbourne. The two governments were the builders of the road and are the owners of it. One or two reasons are given for this curious state of things. One is, that it represents the jealousy existing between the colonies – the two most important colonies in Australasia. What the other one is, I have forgotten. But is is of no consequence. It could be but another effort to explain the inexplicable.

All passengers fret at the double-gauge; all shippers of freight must of course fret at it; unncessary expense, delay, and annoyance are imposed upon everybody concerned, and no one is benefited.

 

Numerous prominent people have changed trains at Albury, including Australian Prime Minsters Edmund Barton, William Hughes, Robert Menzies, Ben Chifley and John McEwen; Sister Mary McKillop, Catholic nun and Australia’s first saint; military generals William Bridges, John Monash and Douglas MacArthur; writers Agatha Christie, Arthur Conan Doyle, Rudyard Kipling, DH Lawrence, Robert Louis Stevenson and HG Wells; artist Russell Drysdale; opera singer Dame Nellie Melba; cricketer Don Bradman; and British members of the Royal family the Duke of Cornwall (late King George V), the Duke of York (later King George VI) and Prince Henry, Duke of Gloucester.

 

In 1937 Victorian Railways introduced the Spirit of Progress, an air-conditioned express passenger train, which ran non-stop between Melbourne and Albury. Painted in royal blue and gold livery, it captured the attention of the public. Hauled by S Class 4-6-2 locomotives, the train was scheduled to complete the 307 km between Melbourne and Albury in 3 hours and 50 minutes, which is an average speed of 80 km/h.

 

During the Second World War there was a significant increase in traffic through Albury. Troops, military equipment and goods passing through Albury all needed to change trains. There was also a strong military presence, with the defence forces largely taking control of the station throughout the duration of the war.

 

Gauge Standardisation

The use of different railway gauges in Australia presented a major barrier to efficient traffic. Various reports urged the unification of the major lines, and finally in 1957 legislation was passed to build a standard gauge line between Melbourne and Wodonga. The Commonwealth Government agreed to pay 70 percent of the cost, while the Victorian and New South Wales Governments each paid 15%. Work began on the new line, which was built adjacent to the existing broad gauge line for most of the route. Finally, on 3 January 1962 the first direct freight train from Sydney arrived in Melbourne. It arrived at its destination hauled by two S Class diesel-electric locomotives, and was welcomed by various government representatives and railway officials.

 

Direct passenger train services between the two state capitals commenced on 16 April 1962. The Spirit of Progress had been a broad gauge express passenger train running between Melbourne and Albury since 1937. Now it became an overnight standard gauge train between Melbourne and Sydney. However, the Spirit of Progress was now overshadowed by the Southern Aurora, a luxury express passenger train connecting the two capital cities. The southbound and northbound Southern Aurora departed Sydney and Melbourne simultaneously at 8.00 pm to commence their overnight journeys. Its stainless steel carriages defined a new era in long-distance rail travel in Australia. Another train running between Sydney and Melbourne was the Intercapital Daylight, which operated during daylight hours as a through train from the opening of the standard gauge line.

 

With the opening of the standard gauge line between Melbourne and Wodonga, it was no longer needed for passengers to change trains and goods to be transhipped at Albury. Direct passenger and freight trains operated from 1962. Nevertheless, Albury remained a terminating station for trains from Sydney such as the Riverina Express, and for trains from Melbourne such as the Albury Express. Albury’s last broad gauge train ran on 8 November 2008, which was a special train hauled by N Class locomotive N453. Subsequently the broad gauge line between Seymour in Victoria and Albury was converted to standard gauge, re-opening in 2011. With completion of the conversion, Albury became a station with standard gauge tracks only.

 

Today Albury is a much quieter station that in its heyday. It sees two XPT services operate in each direction between Sydney and Melbourne each day, one overnight service and one daytime train. Several V/Line trains also operate between Melbourne and Albury in each direction daily. A number of freight trains, mostly carrying interstate goods traffic, also pass though Albury.

 

References

‘Albury railway precinct’, Office of Environment and Heritage, NSW Government,

     <www.environment.nsw.gov.au/heritageapp/ViewHeritageItemDetails.aspx?ID=4806274>, accessed 25 May 2019.

Belbin, P & D Burke, Changing trains: a century of travel on the Sydney–Melbourne railway, Methuen Australia, Sydney, 1982.

‘Closing the gap at Albury-Wodonga’, Railways of Australia Network, vol. 10, no. 114, November 1973, p. 2.

Cottee, JM, Stations on the track: selected New South Wales country railway stations – an historical overview, Ginninderra Press, Canberra, 2004.

‘Farewell to Albury/Wodonga broad gauge’, Railway Digest, vol. 47, no. 1, January 2009, p. 11.

Fischer, T, Steam Australia: locomotives that galvanised the nation, NLA Publishing, Canberra, 2018.

Twain, M, Following the equator: a journey around the world, American Publishing Company, Hartford, 1897.