The award winning Bathurst Rail Museum brings the rich social history of Bathurst and our story as a railway town to life, with personal recollections and interesting artefacts. Explore the stories of local people connected to the Railways, past and present, who have contributed to making Bathurst the thriving city and community it is today.
The centrepiece is the largest public HO scale model railway in Australia, depicting the Great Western Line between Tarana and Bathurst during the 1950s-60s.
Young children are encouraged to explore creative play with one of the world’s largest permanent Brio layouts, in our dedicated Kids Central Space.
At Bathurst railway station on Tuesday 4 April 1876, “the gathering … was immense. Fully six thousand people were congregated here. At fifteen minutes past one a powerful engine, gaily decorated with evergreens, and drawing seven carriages, glided up to the Bathurst station amidst tremendous cheers.”
The completion of the railway between Sydney and Bathurst in 1876 was instrumental to the development of the colony of New South Wales. The Main Western Line was celebrated as a marvel of engineering that opened up trade, transport and communication opportunities for people living inland.
The railway also marked a new social and cultural era for communities in inland NSW. Besides giving working class people access to stable jobs and vocational education, the Railway Institute in Bathurst offered support and leisure activities for railway workers and their families.
A disaster struck near Tarana in 1950, when a goods train plunged down a collapsed embankment, weakened by days of rain, opening up a crater 13 metres deep and over 30 metres long. A petrol tanker fell against the engine and was ignited, causing an inferno that raged through the night.
One of the three staff on board was killed when he was trapped underneath the engine, succumbing to the fire.
The display includes a diorama of the accident and a poem by bush poetry champion, David Stanley.
As large as a tennis court, the HO scale Layout (or model railway) of the Main West Line depicts the railway from Tarana to Bathurst during the 1950s to 60s.
The layout was commissioned by Paul Hennessy, designed by master modeller John Brown, and donated to Bathurst Regional Council in 2015 by the Hennessy family.
Constantly evolving and cared for by a team of dedicated staff and volunteers, there’s always new details to find among the models.
Follow the history of rail in Bathurst along the Timeline Wall, from the challenges faced to build a railway across the mountains, to the arrival of the railway in 1876, and how it transformed the economic, industrial and social landscape of New South Wales.
Woven through the timeline are the stories of local people and their experiences of life on the rail.
On display are a range of objects that relate to life on the rail. They include tools, staff instruments and signals, a weigh bridge, signs, lamps used on the rail, examples of cutlery and crockery used in the dining cars and refreshment rooms, personal effects of the railway worker as well as objects relating to the Railway Institute building itself.
Learn about the life of Bathurst local Ben Chifley, from railwayman to trade unionist and later, the Prime Minister of Australia.
As Bathurst became a major railway centre with a thriving locomotive depot, the Railway Institute building was established in 1909 to support the railway workers’ community.
The building, which served to meet the educational and social needs of the workers and their families for over 80 years, has been repurposed and extended as the home of the Bathurst Rail Museum.
The Local Stories Cabinet offers visitors a glimpse into the heart of Bathurst as a railway town, where local people tell their personal and family stories through objects and images.
If you have a local story you would like to share with the public and are willing to lend objects and images to the museum for temporary display, please email us your details with a brief description of your objects, your connection to Bathurst rail and your story.
Join in the fun or relax with a coffee while the children enjoy playing in Kids Central, the museum’s creative play gallery. With a reading nook and an enormous BRIO train set, the gallery is designed to inspire little ones to use their imagination as they explore, play and learn.
In the Layout Gallery, be mesmerised by the extraordinary rail layout and display, and take advantage of the free activities available to keep the kids engaged.
With a focus on the importance of the development of rail in western NSW, from early years to higher education, we offer opportunities to explore the social history of rail in Bathurst and that of the Railway Institute building.
Museums Bathurst is a suite of public museums managed by Bathurst Regional Council, located on Wiradjuri Country. Museums Bathurst acknowledges the Wiradjuri People as the Traditional Custodians of the land in the Bathurst Region. We pay respect to Elders, past, present, and emerging and acknowledge all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people who live, work and play in the Bathurst region.
