NSW Heritage Railway Stations and Infrastructure by Phil Buckley

02/09/2026

THE OILED WHEEL GETS THE WINS - BOGAN GATE RAILWAY STATION PARTIALLY FIXED
As everyone knows, a week in politics is a long time, and 1 year is a very painful, slow time. As many know, for the last 15 years I've strongly advocated for, pushed for, suggested, encouraged and requested that NSW MPs , TFNSW, CRN, along with ARTC and Federal MPs, address the ongoing need to maintain our NSW heritage railway stations across NSW.

These 1800-1900s era stations are firstly NSW TAXPAYER assets, not anyone else's assets. We the NSW taxpayer own them and have a say in these and their funding/reuse..................... well it should be that way. Our MPs dont let us tho have much of a say in what happens.

In 15 years I've had from my letter writing, phone calls, discussions maybe 70-100 heritage railway station repairs/fixes undertaken - some very quick, simple, and effective.
Some have taken many many many phone calls, emails, and endless political discussions to get funding across the line to get the fixes done.

Some, unfortunately, very sad for all of NSW, remain what I call "political decisions with no outcomes" and it seems no one cares in NSW or ARTC levels cares at all.. so expect these significant stations to be sadly demolished soon.

So, amongst all that general overview, in the last few weeks .....after starting 6 months ago...... I have finally got a breakthrough win for the far west NSW town of Bogan Gate, with its currently ARTC leased railway station being / has been by now, we hope, fixed by ARTC on behalf of TfNSW.
As I noted in April 2025, the station out of room had been vandalised / broken and ruined by someone.

So, working with the local federal MP I raised my concerns that the station had funding and repair problems. He / his office has managed to finally, after months, get ARTC to fix this broken door. I am appreciative that after 6months a small win is better ...... than no win at all.

We do have ongoing problems tho with Bogan Gate railway station in that the station building is leaning forward on its stumps towards the railway tracks and no one in ARTC or TFNSW is so far willing to fix this at this time.. despite significant pleas in the last 12months.

It is hoped that common sense will come to the party before the NSW 2027 state election and TFNSW, being the asset owner, will find the funds from the $73 billion Sydney Metro change left over???? and fix this leaning Bogan Gate railway station building and ensure it doesnt lean forward.

So, as you can see, me being just 1 person - out of 8.5 million people in NSW with effort, resilience and not giving up, I can get a lot of stations fixed over a few years. It would be wonderful to see more people in NSW - Sydney and NSW country regions willing to step forward and help apply even more frequent pressure / lobbying to the MPs so we can see all the other decaying, damaged heritage railway stations also get their funding allocated sooner rather than later, well before they get demolished......

If you have concerns for a heritage railway station in your region of NSW or you know of one, you can write to
TFNSW,
the NSW Regional Transport Minister Jenny Aitchison MP ,
Catherine King MP for ARTC and
your local MPs and

raise issues about the stations.
Tell your local media too - radio, tv and print / online too raise their awareness how stations arent being funded for repairs and it needs to happen. MPs hate it when media raise issues that can be eaisly fixed as negative news is not what MPs want but negative news is the only thing that drives funding fixes... just like i saw NSW Nationals Steph Cooke a few years ago spring into action when a seriously unclean / health hazardous Harden railway station made the local region newspaper and within weeks she had found with TFNSW ...MORE allocated funding ongoing to clean it up... so you see MPs react when its on their image as the local MP.

NSW can be a much better connected state with more passenger trains, heritage railway stations reopened and more lines reopened.... but it lacks the political willpower to do so. This means voters are turning off the ALP and LNP and want to see other parties like One Nation instead have a go at running NSW.
The ALP and LNP have had years to properly fund NSW, but they still dont get the message that voters are being very much ignored with country rail needs while Sydney gets nearly all the money. Thus these voters will likely move to One Nation.... regardless.... unless we see massive political listening by the ALP or LNP or if so many seats become marginal at 2027 election....
Phil Buckley Photography 2025

02/09/2026

https://www.facebook.com/photo/?fbid=971794521904112&set=a.219010180515887

𝗞𝗢𝗚𝗔𝗥𝗔𝗛 𝗥𝗔𝗜𝗟𝗪𝗔𝗬 𝗦𝗧𝗔𝗧𝗜𝗢𝗡 - 𝗝𝗮𝗻 𝟭𝟵𝟳𝟯
Looking south along platform 2 and 3 towards the platform and concourse buildings with the stationmaster pointing out one of the many award winning flower gardens that will be lost when upcoming construction commences on the proposed Kogarah Town Centre being built above.
The long gone Kogarah Mecca is pictured (top right) fronting Station Street.

📸 Construction of Kogarah Town Centre 👉 https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=250973957319509&id=100072207206515

[Photo courtesy Fairfax Archives]

01/09/2026

Country NSW 1980s, 44 class diesels moving freight.
A.R photo

01/09/2026

Rail heritage and politics
It is interesting this week on the fictional ALP loses the New South Wales 2027 election how many people say get this political rubbish off this page is not meant to be here.

Now I'm a very political aware person and I am beginning to wonder is all these people that are making comments that the political context is not meant to be connected to heritage.... maybe you need a bit more education and awareness to understand why heritage and politics ARE connected.

New South Wales railways are operated for the taxpayer by the New South Wales government this means straight off it is political process and political. Railways in New South Wales have been politically driven, controlled and funded since 1850s.

1850s...a long time.

Heritage Railway station New South Wales a large number maybe the majority are well preserved and funded to some degree for repairs. Some are operational with railways and trains or they are cares for by communities by community groups or individuals.

What I see in people who don't like about the politics aspects is that a lot of railway stationed in New South Wales are not funded by the New South Wales government for repair or maintenance and these stations are still decaying even after 10 years of advocating by me and others.

Some stations have been totally refused funding by the Liberal National Party and the New South Wales Labor party.

Now this is the problem how rail is mixed in with politics and the politicians want to ignore heritage rail.

So next time you want to disagree and tell me not to post politics on my own page...stop swearing, step back and actually understand why heritage railway stations are political and involved in politics.

Some of you may need to educate yourself to understand why the stations need the funding because the public aren't funding station repairs.... it is Transport for New South Wales who go to the Politicians that ultimately determine any form of
maintenance and update of heritage railway stations.

If you are not happy with how stations are maintained and repaired in New South Wales currently you as the voter have the right to write to your local MP and ask them to represent your concerns that they need to get the ALP to start funding and repairing stations across New South Wales.

You also have the right to contact Transport from New South Wales directly and raise your concerns about the lack of care that is not being done on stations across north west and south New South Wales that it owns and need urgent fixes done, which again have been ignored due to political decisions.

I have spent close to 15 years advocating for and getting a lot of stations fixed and maintained across New South Wales all by myself which is in my view pretty impressive considering the amount of bureaucracy I face and the very low political willpower from politicians.

It is also I believe only because there's a lot of very equally passionate and helpful people in the rail system who obviously support repairs to be done.

It's time other people in New South Wales stepped up and took on some of the effort needed to maintain your local heritage railway stations because at the end of the day, once your towns and villages stations decay and then demolished ....you're not going to get them back and only people you can blame are the ALP and LNP politicians.

Phil Buckley Photography 2025

01/09/2026

Valley Heights railway station, 2025
Phil Buckley Photography

31/08/2026

Helensburgh railway station, 2025
Phil Buckley Photography

31/08/2026

BREAKING NEWS - NSW ALP GOVERNMENT WIPED OUT IN NSW ELECTION
In breaking news, the Chris Minns led NSW ALP Govt has suffered a massive voter shift and thus has been wiped from power as angry, ignored and upset voters moved their votes to other parties, namely One Nation Party, at the election.
Ignoring the NSW every day voters' needs for over a full term in power, voters tried to get the attention of NSW ALP ministers but to no avail. The ALP refused to fund necessary country voters' needs and this made voters even more hostile as they saw Sydney swallow most of the state's funding needs despite 1/3 of the state's voters living outside of Sydney.
The ALP refused to comment on what led to this massive shift, but early signs suggest listening to lobbyist agendas, big business only and ignoring the everyday voters saw the 5.7million NSW voters have way more power than any lobby or business could ever do... and voters sent a strong message: ignore them at peril.
The NSW Liberals and NSW Nationals were also dismissed by voters and couldnt form a coalition with One Nation.

One Nation Party comes to power with its voice magnified by angry, disillusioned and upset NSW voters. Will the ALP or LNP ever run NSW again? Only time may tell.
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This story is so far, is a bit of a fictional one, but in 2027 it might just happen in NSW. We are seeing in more and more by elections across Australia, the One Nation Party taking off seats from ALP and LNP / Nationals and this clearly has sent a very loud message to the mainstream parties, yet these parties need to change because they will be wiped from power unless they do what voters want.
Phil Buckley Photography