NSW Railways History, the month of July

July 1850

The first company to start rail transport in New South Wales was the Sydney Railway Company which was incorporated on 10 October 1849 with the aim of building a railway from Sydney to Parramatta. Capital was raised, shares were sold, and a route was surveyed. The first sod was turned by Mrs Keith Stewart (daughter of the Governor) at Cleveland Paddocks (an area between the southern end of the current Sydney station and Cleveland Street) on 3 July 1850.

July 1857

The line between Penrith and Wentworth Falls opened 150 years ago with the arrival of the first train to Wentworth Falls in July 1867. In mid July 1867 the Blue Mountains railway line was handed over to the NSW government by its then railway contractor William Watkins.

Workers constructing the Blue Mountains line

July 1980

The enactment of the Public Transport Commission Act, 1972 (NSW) resulted in the Public Transport Commission being formed; later to become the State Rail Authority on 1 July 1980.

July 1996

On 1 July 1996, the State Rail Authority was restructured into four distinct entities by the Transport Administration Amendment (Rail Corporatisation and Restructuring) Act 1996

The entities were

• Freight Rail Corporation: responsible for freight services
• Rail Access Corporation: responsible for managing track and providing access to public and private operators
• Railway Services Authority: responsible for track and rolling stock maintenance
• State Rail Authority: passenger service operator consisting of CityRail and CountryLink

July 2011

Delivery of the first Waratah train to enter service was commenced in July 2011 and was finally completed in June 2014

Waratah Set A34 on its maiden journey arriving at Central

July 1957

The 44 class locomotives were built by Alco‘s Australian licensee AE Goodwin and are based on the Alco DL500B model. The locomotives are fitted with Alco 12-251B engines, developing 1343 kW. They were built in two batches, the first 60 between 1957 and 1961 and the second 40 between 1965 and 1967. 4401 was introduced handed over for service in July 1957 in the old Indian red color scheme.