Outback Railwaymen

Outback Railwaymen

Life on the Commonwealth Railways

By Nick Anchen. published by Sierra Publishing in 2019

248 pages, 197mm x 139 mm portrait, soft cover (paperback style).  There are 48 B&W and colour photos printed on glossy paper, and many other photos throughout the book printed on lesser quality paper. The book includes basic maps of each railway.

‘Outback Railwaymen – Life on the Commonwealth Railways’ explores the life and times of three extraordinary railways, through the recollections and humourous stories of a selection of retired railwaymen and women. These were the hardy souls who kept the trains running through some of the harshest and most forbidding landscapes on Earth – the railways in the great ‘Back of Beyond’.

Although books on the government owned railways of Australia would not normally be sold by the Society, the content of this publication covers the 3’6″ gauge Central Australia and North Australia Railways, which were renowned for their “quirkiness”, almost qualifiying as light railways. The book is up to the author’s normal standard, beautifully illustrated and with interviews of ‘old time’ railwaymen.