NRS-15250 | Annual Reports

These annual reports detail work done by the Traffic Branch during the financial year covered by the report. The reports begin with a general financial survey covering earnings, expenditure, and comparative operating results, rail safety and train collisions. Any interruption to rail services through floods and washaways is also recorded. This is followed by section reports on coaching traffic, goods traffic, staff, mileage achievements, and train operation. A summary of statistics for the financial year ended completes every annual report. From 1960 a separate "Claims Section" appears listing payments for claims made against the Railways concerning missing goods, dead livestock, lost parcels and luggage, plus personal injury and loss. Following this the sales of lost and unclaimed property are listed. Occasionally an annual report will contain a collective "Tribute to Staff" message.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 R32. It may have been viewed in the State Rail Archives as series R32 and could have been previously cited as such in notes by researchers at State Rail Archives or in publications or unpublished works.