Cum onnnnnn de train ...

The Premier of NSW is considering putting last year's "big" transport announcement, the $4.8 billion Metro Rail, on the back-burner in favour of investigating an upgrade to the existing "heavy" rail system.


These commuters were hanging about Central Station (aka Sydney Terminus), the hub of the State rail network which is housed in a quaint building at the southern end of the CBD that is reminiscent of an old air-craft hanger. Nothing as grand as Central Station in New York or St Pancras in London or Gare Nord in Paris.

I wonder which proposal our erstwhile commuters would prefer? One that delivers more on-time services, perhaps?

Mid-month theme: Subway day (3 of 3)

Hyde Park Cafe is the rear of the Museum Station entrance, on the corner of Liverpool Street and Elizabeth Street. The orange hightlight building in the background is the old Mark Foys department store where my great-aunt Olive worked in the haberdashery department during the construction of the underground. This building is now a court of justice complex called The Downing Centre.

Scattered throughout the station, along passageways, and lining staircases, there are large B&W framed photographs embedded in the wall tiling, showing the station at varying stages during the building process. For a history tragic like yours truly this is a magnet ... kerchung!! However, they were a smidge dark and same-ish so I interleaved people-doing-things shots.

Top left: 1924 The shape of the station is becoming clearer. The main entrance will be to the left of the tramway signal box in the foreground. Once the concrete cover of the complex is complete, the work will commence to return Hyde Park to its former beauty.
Top right: March 1925 The new station is ready for inspection.NSW Railway and government officials are shown inspecting the work prior to track-laying and the installation of overhead power lines.
Middle left: Nowadays I guess turnstiles are similar the world over.
Middle right; Nowadays Our stations have fairly non-descript entrances. Not like some of the grand ones in Paris like Hector Guimard's Abbesses.
Bottom left: December 1925 The test train at Museum Station two weeks before the official opening scheduled for 20 December when the first electric trains will run on the underground system from Central to St James. Dr Bradfield can be seen in the centre of the group (the short, cocky fella).
Bottom right: 1954 Peak hour at Museum 28 years after its opening. Nowadays the station is more crowded and the people more casual.

The mid-month Subway theme has contributions from the following cities:
Budapest - London - Paris - Stockholm - Sydney
and you can still catch Ming's earlier posts at New York

Next month's Subway post on Sydney Eye: St James Station

Mid-month theme: Subway day (2 of 3)

Walking into Museum Station is just like walking into a museum of the era in which it was built. The walls along the platforms are lined with advertisements from that era:
Top: Arnotts Until just a few years ago, Arnotts was an iconic Australian company producing biscuits. There are signs similar to this in some quite striking spots all over Sydney. One that comes to mind, is on an overpass on Parramatta Road, just after the start of the motorway at Concord.
Bottom left: MorteinWhen you're on a good thing - stick to it! Even today, swatting flies is known as "the great Australian wave".
Bottom right: Orient Line From Australia to London for less than three farthings a mile. Australia is an isolated country very far from The Home Country. This was the era of Sir Charles Kingsford Smith. Qantas was just being established in the backblocks of Queensland.

The mid-month Subway theme has contributions from the following cities:
Budapest - London - Paris - Stockholm - Sydney
and you can still catch Ming's earlier posts at New York

Mid-month theme: Subway day (1 of 3)

Firstly, I need to say a big "Thank you" to the Station Master at Museum on the day of my visit. She knew the rules, but also knew that many people admire her station and she likes to help them. She let me through the turnstiles to read the signs, then suggested that I go and walk around downstairs and showed me where to find her when I needed to get back out again. A heartfelt, thank you.

Museum Station is on the SW corner of Hyde Park. The Australian Museum is midway along the eastern boundary of Hyde Park but relatively close to the location of the station. Hence, the name. It was originally going to be called Liverpool Street station. Bit like a Monopoly board really.


Here is that chap, Bradfield, again. Not sure just how much all of this was his idea but in the popular imagination he is attributed the lot! There is chicken'n'egg here: which came first the underground or the bridge?

By the end of WW1 Sydney was a bustling metropolis of about 1 million souls. Things were starting to jam up. It was useless all the trains coming into Central stopping and then being driven from the other end to get back out! So Bradfield (and probably others) had the idea of an underground rail loop, starting from Central going under the CBD and returning to Central. Then Bradfield figured that it would work smoothly if this loop connected up with a bridge over the harbour joining the north side and the south side of the city. Piece of cake, really.

The work must have been horrendously hard: I have seen numerous grainy images of men with pick'n'shovel and WHEELBARROW!! I kid you not! Much of it was done handraulically ... They dug gouges through Hyde Park whacked in massive sleeves of concrete and put the dirt back over and - hey presto! - you would never know nowadays. Museum and St James were completed in 1926. Wynyard in 1932. Circular Quay in 1956. Dr Bradfield's plan of a rail loop beneath the city was finally realised. The City Circle was complete. Tomorrow: Some of the historic advertisements along the platforms down in Museum Station.

The mid-month Subway theme has contributions from the following cities:
Budapest - London - Paris - Stockholm - Sydney
and you can still catch Ming's earlier posts at New York

Mid-month theme: Subway day

As the name suggests, Town Hall Station is in the civic centre of the city. It is the first station in the City Circle with the line heading underground about 150 metres north of Central Station. The City Circle section of the Sydney railway system was the brain child of J.J.C. Bradfield and formed an integral part of his vision for the expanding city which included the Sydney Harbour Bridge to link the northern and southern shores of the harbour.

The opening in December 1926, of the St James and Museum stations marked his plan's first result. With the addition of Town Hall and Wynyard stations in February 1932, the resulting loop enable trains to continue their journey back to Central in a forwards direction. With the completion of the Harbour bridge later in 1932, Sydney's railway system served the city well until 1956 when the Circular Quay extension linked the CBD with the civic centre.

Left: Showing the construction of the roof over the lowest platform at Town Hall. Right: George Street looking north showing the hole for the construction of the station below. In the foreground on the left is firstly St Andrews Cathedral and then the Town Hall itself both of which stand on the site of the original town cemetery (closed for new internments about 1829). In the centre background is the Queen Victoria Building which stands on the site of the original city markets.

The mid-month Subway theme has contributions from the following cities:
Budapest - London - New York - Paris - Stockholm - Sydney

Next month's Subway post: Museum Station

Mid-month theme: Subway day

The first "central" station - known as Redfern Station - opened in 1855 with Devonshire Street as its northern boundary. The second central station commenced in 1874 on the same site with the same name. Our Central Station commenced in 1906 on its current site further to the north and with Devonshire Street disappearing into a pedestrian tunnel on the southern end of the platforms. The clock tower was added in 1921. If you look at a map of the city, it is apparent how dislocated the city became with the advent of the enlarged Central Railway Station. Streets running N-S are blocked as well as streets running E-W. This column in the Sydney Morning Herald in December 2007 is an excellent read for locals. Jim Barr is a Sydney blogger who has some wonderful posts showing railway stations mainly on the southern line.


The site to which Central moved had been the Devonshire Street Cemetery known as "the sandhills" which was consecrated in 1820. Many of the headstones and graves had to be removed to the larger Rookwood Cemetery. This station - with 15 platforms - was known as the country platforms and was for steam trains. In 1926 an 8 platform station was built adjacent and to the East for the expanding electrification of the suburban network. A further 4 underground platforms were constructed in 1974 to service the new Eastern Suburbs line.

This image, released by The Powerhouse Museum - is one of the earliest images of the third incarnation of Central Station, 1906.

The mid-month Subway theme has contributions from the following cities:
Budapest - London - New York - Paris - Stockholm - Sydney

Next month's Subway post: Town Hall Station

Mid-month theme: Subway day

Sydney's extensive rail network constantly receives bad press: the service is not frequent enough; trains run out of order or late; the fares are too high; and, the carriages are not clean enough. While acknowleging these issues, my intent is to describe the past and the present of the rail system. Here is the style of diagram with which many of you will be familiar.
The CityRail Network Map provides a detailed view of the above diagram. I live close to the City and I will post mainly, but not exclusively, about city stations which appear on the right centre of the diagram in a loop known as City Circle.

City Stations Central Town Hall Wynyard Circular Quay St James Museum Martin Place Kings Cross

Suburban Lines Eastern Suburbs & Illawarra Bankstown Inner West Cumberland Airport & East Hills Southern Line North Shore & Western Line Northern Line Carlingford Line Epping Line

The mid-month Subway theme has contributions from the following cities:
Budapest - London - New York - Paris - Stockholm - Sydney

Next month's Subway post: Central Station

Viaduct to the end of the road

This is the railway viaduct that carries the old railway line through Wentworth Park. The viaduct was built in 1922 and now carries the Metro Light Rail line. It slices through Wenty just south of the Fish Markets with this view looking toward the Wattle Street end. Some of the 23 arches have been enclosed but others are capable of parking two cars - but I guess that to be illegal. They would also be good cover for the homeless but the structure is away from the usual beat.