NRS-15263 | Report on the activities of the Mechanical Branch

This series contains the annual reports from the Chief Mechanical Engineer to the Secretary for Railways concerning the work done by the Mechanical Branch for the year ended 30 June. They detail the condition and operating efficiency of brake equipment, carriages and wagons, fire fighting equipment, locomotive boilers, engines, locomotives, and locomotive stock. There are reports covering the network of railway workshops and water supply depots plus equipment and track testing results. Separate section reports from the Chemical Laboratory and the Physical Testing Laboratory commence in 1941. Specific munitions production was undertaken in 1942 and 1943 through the Cruiser Tank Annex (renamed the next year as the Tank Shop Chullora). Achievements or "milestones" in express, goods, mail, and passenger services are also recorded. Statistics for locomotives, staff, and tonnages carried appear throughout the reports. At the end of each report there are appendices detailing the "accounts" and "general statistics" plus photographs and blueprints. There is no index for the 1937 report while an index appears in the front of the 1938 report. From 1939 to 1950 all reports have a table of contents instead of an index. As well the indexing of the report's appendices commenced in 1939.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 R15. It may have been viewed in the State Rail Archives as series R15 and could have been previously cited as such in notes by researchers at State Rail Archives or in publications or unpublished works.