NRS-15306 | Return of derailments and irregularities

This series records the incidences of train derailments throughout the New South Wales railway system. This series commenced as volumes detailing the file number, date location, particulars, cause, and responsibility for train accidents. The date of an official report, or submission to the Minister, plus any remarks was also noted. From 1968 onwards typescript summaries replaced the volumes with a greater analysis of train accidents. This involved the listing of derailments at signal points, in collisions with other trains, at stop blocks, involving automobiles at railway crossings or uncontrolled trains, and because of dragging chains, defective equipment, locomotive failures or acts of vandalism. After 1983 tables of accident statistics appear giving totals of accidents by railway district, locations where more than one derailment occurred, plus derailments subject to joint investigations.Custody HistoryFrom 1955 until 2000 the State Rail Authority of New South Wales maintained an ‘in house archives’ consisting of the archival records of the Authority, its predecessor agencies and the private railway companies taken over by the government. The date ranges of the records were from 1849 until 2000. When the decision was made to close the ‘State Rail Archives’ the parts of the collection that were required as State archives were transferred to the State Records Authority of NSW. Those record series were incorporated into the State Records series system of archives control and were re-numbered.This series was formerly part of the State Rail Archives collection where it was identified as series R85. It may have been viewed in the State Rail Archives as series R85 and could have been previously cited as such in notes by researchers at State Rail Archives or in publications or unpublished works.