The NSW Rail Museum is in Thirlmere, within easy reach of Sydney, Canberra, Wollongong and the South Coast.
Just an hour from Bundanoon Motel is the historic town of Thirlmere, and the unique Train Works Museum. Take a ride back into history aboard an historic Steam Train! A 45-minute experience from historic Thirlmere Station to Buxton Station, and return. Pair your Steam Train Ride with a ticket into Train works and enjoy a full day of rail heritage, interactive and audio-visual exhibits at the nation’s newest and largest Train Museum.
Since 1975 the museum has been a home to a significant rail heritage collection including: Governor General’s Carriage, Prison Van where you will find a lot more in the Prison Van than you could imagine. These rolling gaol cells operated in one form or another from 1867 until the 1950s. Steam locomotive E18 — built in 1866, had a working life of almost a century and many more…
The Great Train Hall
The Great Train Hall houses the biggest collection of rolling stock in Australia. A significant portion of the collection has been steadily refurbished and restored over the years by volunteers, while others patiently await the time, money and labour required to be returned to their former glory.
Main Exhibition Building
The Main Exhibition Building is where you will discover how the NSW railways brought life to town and country. Learn about life on the lines and in the workshops, marvel at some of the engineering and design achievements of the railways, find out how signals and points keep the lines safe, walk the timeline of rail development from the invention of the very first steam powered engine to today, and see how the railways revolutionised tourism and leisure travel in Australia.
Worker’s Walk
Linking the Main Exhibition Building to the Great Train Hall is the Worker’s Walk where you can discover more about the many jobs that kept the NSW railways running
Roundhouse
The roundhouse is a blend of traditional roundhouse style and modern workshop concepts. In the roundhouse, staff and volunteers work on a variety of locomotives and carriages and carry out heavy overhauls and restorations as well as the more traditional ‘running’ maintenance that roundhouses were originally designed for. Here you can view this ‘behind the scenes’ maintenance and demonstrations of specialist heritage and conservation processes. The roundhouse is serviced by a 105-foot turntable from the old Enfield steam depot. It is one of only three in NSW of that impressive size
The 5-hectare rail corridor site and much of the collection is owned by the NSW Government.
10 Barbour Road Thirlmere
1300 11 55 99
www.nswrailmuseum.com.au
The NSW Rail Museum is open 7 days a week.
Monday to Friday 10am – 4pm
Saturday and Sunday 9am – 5pm
Closed Good Friday and Christmas Day