Australian Railway Historical Society

The Australian Railway Historical Society (ARHS) was founded in Sydney in 1933 as The Australasian Railway and Locomotive Historical Society. It aims to foster an interest in the railways, and record and preserve many facets of railway operations. Membership now exceeds 2,500, with divisions in every state and the Australian Capital Territory. The society's name was changed to the present form in 1952. Each division trades under the ARHS brand except for Western Australia which trades as Rail Heritage WA.

Each Division has published and supported publishing of books and pamphlets about the history of regional railways. Significantly Divisions have been the main resource of expertise in creating centenary and other anniversary publications regarding rail history. The New South Wales Division has a shop in Redfern. The society also maintains the Railway Resource Centre. The centre houses the thousands of documents, books, periodicals, photographs and slides that the Society has acquired over many years.

Some divisions maintain a railway museum:

Each Division publishes magazines, at various frequencies. A dedicated magazine for the whole of Australia was also published for many decades - simply as the Bulletin (1952-2003), it is now called Australian Railway History.

Prior to 1952, it was known as the Australasian Railway and Locomotive Historical Society Bulletin. It includes historical material from all states, published monthly by the New South Wales Division. The seven state and territory Divisions of that Society additionally publish magazines that vary in content and depth, but which provide items of local information about state railway history and activities.

The Tasmanian Division was originally a subdivision of the much larger Victorian Division, until 1965 when increasing interest and falling printing costs made a separate division possible.

Rail heritage is not the exclusive domain of the ARHS in Australia, and at various stages other groups of enthusiasts and individuals have endeavoured to create niches in the publishing and rail heritage businesses.

The Railway Resource Centre is a collection of Australian railways historical materials managed by the New South Wales Rail Transport Museum and available to the general public for private research only. It houses thousands of documents, books, periodicals, photographs and slides which the Society has acquired over many years. It is constantly being added to by acquisitions through donations and bequests from Australian Railway Historical Society members and others. It is located at the New South Wales division's Redfern premises.

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