Commonwealth Railways Construction Train Carriage InformationComrails Logo

Construction Train

Camp Train circa 1915

Due to the speed with which the construction train cars were put togeather all vehicles were built to a standard design with minor interior and window location changes to suit the particular use of the car. Those used at the Western end of the line were constructed at Kalgoorlie Workshops and placed on 8 x 65ft. underframes supplied by "Westralia Ironworks Ltd" of Rocky Bay, North Fremantle, WA. The Eastern end train was built at the Port Augusta Workshops and placed on 8 x 65ft underframes supplied by "Barbat and Sons" of Ipswich, QLD. At the end of construction these underframes were reused under various carriages. The bogies were all new being supplied by Forman and Co.

Camp Train circa 1915

Originally the construction train format was Hospital, Store and kitchen (the latter termed Dining), Offices, Sleeping and Passenger cars (converted from the original proposed Dining and Police cars before they entered service). Each of the cars was lighted by Kerosene lamps.

Navvies, shearers and miners were the main users of the four passenger cars.

Eastern End (Port Augusta) Train Photographs Western End (Kalgoorlie) Train