From within the Canberra region, we aim to provide a quality experience of Australia's railway heritage through our operating museum, train trips, and associated education and tourism activities.

On 19th May 1933, six enthusiasts met in Sydney and formed the Great Railway Circle of Australia. In May 1936 the name was changed to Australian Railway and Locomotive Historical Society and further changed to Australian Railway Historical Society in 1951.
Membership grew steadily and in 1945 a Division was formed in Victoria. Other Divisions were subsequently formed in the South Australia, Tasmania, Queensland, Western Australia and ACT.
Due to the increasing size and range of activities of the Society, separate companies were formed in each state to take over the assets and liabilities of the Divisions of the unincorporated Society, The Australian Railway Historical Society, New South Division, is a Company Limited by Guarantee. For membership details contact our Bookshop on phone (02) 9379 6633 or our Redfern office on (02) 9699 4595 or fax to (02) 9699 1714.

The Australian Railway Historical Society - Queensland Division was formed in 1957 and incorporated in 1968 as a non-profit company with liability limited by guarantee. It has two regional Committees -  the Central Queensland Committee in Rockhampton, and the North Queensland Committee in Townsville.

Members of the Society could be described as "mechanical greenies" and heritage "doers"; women and men of all ages who come from all walks of life who share a common interest in railways and who enjoy one or more of the myriad of activities available to members of the Society.

Established in 1945 the Australian Railway Historical Society, Victorian Division, Inc. has a proud history of over 60 years of catering for all who have an interest in the railway history of Victoria. We currently have a growing membership of over 750 throughout Australia and overseas.

We recognize that recording the continuing development and evolution of rail transport in our state is as much a part of its future history as events that occurred in the past 150 years.

To serve our members:

The ARHS(Vic)Inc supports the production of an extensive range of quality books recording a wide range of aspects of Victorian Railway history. A significant proportion of publications are supported by the resources of our archive and many of our authors are members of ARHS. Members are offered significant discounts on all new publications.

Asciano can trace its origins to the acquisition of National Rail and FreightCorp in 2002 by Toll Logistics and Patrick Corporation. Initially run as a joint venture between both companies, Toll later bought out Patrick and restructured itself into two listed companies, Toll and Asciano Group. Asciano Group later became Asciano Limited.

Formerly known as QR National, Aurizon is a publicly-listed freight company specialising in coal, bulk and containerised freight.

Aurizon are listed on the ASX as AZJ

The Australian National Railways Commission was established by the Whitlam Government in 1975 following a promise made before the Federal election in December 1972. Gough Whitlam said that if his party was elected to government he would invite the States to hand over their railway systems to the Commonwealth, his dream was to have one railway system for the Australian nation.

On 1 July 1975, he made good that promise by establishing the Commission which acquired the assets and operations of the Commonwealth Railways. As a result of the offer to the States the governments of South Australia and Tasmania, both of which were of the same party as the national government and whose railway systems were deeply in debt, accepted. During the next two years discussions between those two States and the Federal Government resulted in a number of staffing and operating agreements being made that resulted in the whole of the Tasmanian Government Railways and the freight business and non-urban railways of South Australia being transferred to the Commonwealth and operated by the Commission. The date of the hand over was 1 March 1978. The metropolitan Adelaide railway lines remained with the State Transport Authority, now TransAdelaide).

Australian Railroad Group (ARG) was one of Australia's largest private rail operators, operating across almost 10,000 kilometres of track and began operating in Western Australia on 17 December 2000 following its purchase of the Westrail freight business.

In February 2006 Wesfarmers announced it had reached an agreement with its joint venture partners to sell ARG for $1.3 billion. Babcock & Brown would own and run ARG's rail business in Western Australia, mainly track and infrastructure, while QR will own and run the rail haulage business and infrastructure. Queensland Rail would pay $446 million for the rolling stock, depots and customer contracts, making them move in order to become a national player in Australian rail freight. In March 2006 the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission said it would not oppose the takeover, competition would not be impacted due to existing competition between ARG and QR being limited. The takeover was completed in June 2006. The SA below rail business was retained by Genesee & Wyoming as Genesee and Wyoming Australia.