NRS-15310 | Information regarding the uniform gauge question

This volume contains handwritten extracts from newspapers, interviews, speeches, and letters relating to the uniform gauge question. There are nine extracts in all, including one from the Supplement to the Railway Commissioners’ Annual Report dated 19 November 1894.The Chief Commissioner for Railways in the late 1880s and early 1890s, Mr E.M.G. Eddy, was a strong advocate of a uniform railway gauge for the Australian colonies. The majority of extracts are from papers or speeches by Eddy and the volume contains his signature inside the front cover. Early entries were signed and annotated by Eddy. The volume may have been kept by the Chief Commissioner to record details of the uniform gauge issue. Although some of the extracts were taken from occasions unrelated to the gauge issue, such as a speech by Eddy on the occasion of the opening of the Hawkesbury River Bridge, they all have the gauge issue as their theme. Included are extracts of letters and papers sent to: Sir Henry Parkes; Lord Carrington, New South Wales Governor; and G.H. Reid, Premier and Minister for Railways. Most of the volume is unused.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 R93. It may have been viewed in the State Rail Archives as series R93 and could have been previously cited as such in notes by researchers at State Rail Archives or in publications or unpublished works.