Newport Railway Museum

21/08/2026

Good evening to all our friends and followers! We will be open tomorrow (Saturday) from 12 noon to 5pm as we are every Saturday. As always, you can purchase your tickets when you arrive or, if you prefer, pre-book them online at trybooking.com/eventlist/newportrailwaymuseum

Back in November 2022, we planted a series of trees along the Champion Road side of our site (see inset photo). A little less than four years later, we're amazed at how they've grown and thrived!

It won't be too long before these young trees mature and contribute to the habitat for the birds and other wildlife that is provided by our larger trees.

These plantings are just another part of our plan to improve the museum site for the benefit of our visitors and our local community.

The trees aren't the only thing to have grown in this photo. If you look closely, you'll notice that our roof canopy now extends much further back than it did in the 2022 photo. In 2023, we enlarged it by 50 per cent!

14/08/2026

Welcome to the weekend! We are delighted to advise that we are open on both Saturday AND Sunday this weekend, in conjunction with the Sunday opening of the Altona Miniature Railway and the Williamstown Craft Market.

We're delighted to advise that once again, our model railway room will be open on both days. So after a morning riding miniature trains at Altona Miniature Railway, visitors can enjoy seeing our beautiful Victorian models in O, HO and 1/12 scale at the museum. Our volunteers are gradually building the new HO layout to supplement the historic O Scale layout that has been on display since the 1980s.

As always, you can purchase your tickets online at trybooking.com/eventlist/newportrailwaymuseum or, if you prefer, just purchase your tickets at the front counter when you arrive!

See you at the museum soon!

07/08/2026

Good evening to all our friends and followers! We're open tomorrow (Saturday) as always from 12 noon to 5pm. Book your tickets online at trybooking.com/eventlist/newportrailwaymuseum or just purchase them at the counter when you arrive.

On 3 August this week, we marked 40 years since the last-ever run of the famed 'Spirit of Progress' and 'Southern Aurora' overnight Melbourne-Sydney expresses. Increasing competition from air transport cut into the market for interstate train travel, and the two trains were replaced by a single overnight service.

When launched in 1937, the 'Spirit of Progress' ran non-stop between the NSW border city of Albury and Melbourne, taking just 3 hours and 40 minutes for the trip. It was both Australia's fastest train and its most luxurious, being fully air-conditioned and featuring both a dining car and a special Parlor Car (US spelling intentional!) With the 1962 opening of the standard-gauge line to Melbourne which eliminated the need to change trains at Albury, a new train, the 'Southern Aurora' set even higher standards for luxurious rail travel, with all passengers accommodated in first class sleeping cars. The 'Spirit of Progress' found a new role as the more affordable service offering both first and economy class travel, with sleeping cars or sitting cars, and an informal buffet car in place of the dining car.

In our museum, we have the former buffet car from the 1962 to 1986 iteration of the 'Spirit of Progress', which today sits under our big centre roof canopy and is open for visitors to inspect. We also have two former Victorian Railways diesel locomotives, B83 and S308, each of which will have hauled the 'Spirit of Progress' at some point. Indeed S308 heads the 'Spirit' in the promotional photo in this post.

We found a delightful promotional flyer for the 'Spirit of Progress' from 1960. For those interested, a First Class fare to Sydney with sleeping car accommodation cost 7 pounds, 5 shillings and sixpence, which the RBA's Inflation Calculator tells us is about $270 in 2025 dollars. The return fare of 12 pounds 6 shillings works out to about $458 in 2025 dollars.

03/08/2026

It's now 40 years since the final run of two legendary overnight trains that operated between Melbourne and Sydney, the 'Spirit of Progress' and the 'Southern Aurora'.

In a nice touch, the locomotive selected to haul the Albury to Melbourne leg of the very final 'Spirit' was S301 'Sir Thomas Mitchell', which bore the same number and name as the streamlined steam locomotive that hauled the inaugural run of the service to Albury on 23 November 1937.

Here's a video of that very last service heading through Heathcote Junction as it descends the Great Dividing Range to Melbourne.

On 3 August 1986 the last Spirit of Progress departed Albury New So...

31/07/2026

Good evening too all our friends and followers!

It looks like we're in for a wonderful sunny afternoon tomorrow, so why not spend it exploring our state's wonderful railway history?

We're open from 12 noon to 5pm.

As always, you can book your tickets online at trybooking.com/eventslist/newportrailwaymuseum or simply purchase them at the front counter when you arrive.

See you at the museum soon!

18/07/2026

We’ve got a heap of new merch from Peak Transit! We’re open tomorrow (Sunday 19 July) from 12 noon to 5pm and once again, we will our model railway running.

17/07/2026

This weekend, we're open on both Saturday AND Sunday from 12 noon to 5pm each day, and we're delighted to be opening our model railway room for visitors to inspect.

The model room features models in three sizes! We have our newly built HO Scale layout, our beautiful collection of O Scale models hand-made in the 1950s, and a selection of 1/12 scale models of Victorian Railways rolling stock, made by former VR apprentices.

Entry to the model room is included with your admission ticket.

As always, you can purchase your tickets at the counter when you arrive or, if you prefer, book them online at trybooking.com/eventlist/newportrailwaymuseum

10/07/2026

A very good evening to all our friends and followers! We're in the middle of the school holiday period, which means that the museum will be open on both Saturday AND Sunday this weekend, from 12 noon to 5pm each day.

As always, you can book online at trybooking.com/eventlist/newportrailwaymuseum or, if you prefer, just purchase your tickets at our front counter when you arrive.

While there's rain forecast this weekend, it looks like we'll likely get through most of Saturday afternoon before it starts, and most of it will have passed by the time we open again on Sunday afternoon. Don't forget that large areas of the museum are covered by roof canopies, allowing museum exhibits to be enjoyed even on a rainy day.

This beautiful photo of our Swing Door suburban (aka "red rattler"!) electric carriage 8M was taken by museum visitor Lynley Quedley during our recent evening opening. Thanks to Lynley and her partner for sending it through!

Fun fact: the marker lights you see at the top of the carriage (two of three of which are lit) and the white disc with stripes below the driver's window were a means by which a train could be quickly identified by staff at signal boxes along the route long before it had come close enough for the destination roll to be read. The disc was easily visible from a distance during the day, and the marker lights were similarly visible at night. Back in the 1950s and 60s when 8M was in service, the disc with the two horizontal red lines and the two marker lamps lit as per the photo indicated a Flinders Street and Newport service. (Ref. VR General Appendix 1953).

See you at the museum soon!

04/07/2026

We had a glorious day today at Newport Railway Museum, and we're looking forward to another great day tomorrow (Sunday 5 July) when we open once again from 12 noon to 5pm.

Our friends at Steamrail Victoria have had a spectacular day, literally, with the running of their 'Tocumwal Steam Spectacular', which saw steam locomotives return to Tocumwal for the first time in donkeys' years.

Here's a wonderful bit of footage of R711 to enjoy; thanks to the folks at Railway Numurkah for sharing it!

28/06/2026

We had a blast at yesterday's special night opening of the museum! Our volunteer guides really enjoyed being able to show visitors around the museum after sunset, allowing visitors to see the exhibits in quite literally a different light.

Don't forget that we're open today (Sunday) from 12 to 5pm, and our special Saturday AND Sunday opening hours will run for the following three weekends.

It's a beautiful afternoon today, so why not come down! You can purchase your tickets at the counter when you arrive. Or, if you prefer, head to trybooking.com/eventlist/newportrailwaymuseum to book online.

See you at the museum soon!