RECAP: ECHR Goods Road Tour - 28 Jan

A day out on Sydney rails.

42105 'Chumsayer' waiting to depart with the Goods Road Tour on Platform 3, Central | Vincent Cavanagh ©2024

On 28 January 2024, my father and I partook in the East Coast Heritage Rail: Goods Road* Tour from Sydney Central Station. We were on the second of the two tours for the day: 11am and 1pm AEDT, respectively.

​The tour departed and arrived on Central Station Platform 3. It was a heritage consist of various Department of Railways New South Wales railway carriages and hauled for the day by a 421 Class diesel locomotive, 42105 ‘Chumsayer’, owned and operated by private owner Chumrail.

We were booked in an N type carriage at the front of the train next to 42105.

Interior of the N type carriage at the start of boarding the train | Vincent Cavanagh ©2024

​Our train departed Central at 1pm on its balloon loop route encompassing the Inner West and Canterbury Bankstown regions. We headed out on the Western Line (T1) towards Lidcombe where we turned south briefly onto the Bankstown Line (T3) before turning back eastwards, just after Regents Park Station, onto the Sefton Goods Line. We passed through Chullora Rail Yard on the southern boundary of Rookwood Cemetery and then turned south once more heading through Enfield Marshalling Yards, one of the more major and visible reminders of the original extent of Enfield suburb before boundary redistributions by government.

Sydney Electric Train Society 8649 in State Rail Authority 'Candy' livery in Enfield Marshalling Yard | Vincent Cavanagh ©2024

After Enfield we re-joined the Bankstown Line proper at Campsie, passing through Dulwich Hill and having a gander** at the unopened Sydney Metro conversions of half of the Bankstown Line at Sydenham as part of the Metro South rail project.

Passing Dulwich Hill Tram line terminus | Vincent Cavanagh ©2024

Fleet of Sydney Metro 'Metropolis' rolling stock standing in Sydenham Yard | Vincent Cavanagh ©2024

We returned to Central Station an approximate hour-and-twenty-minutes after our departure.

All in all, it was a good day out on the rails, but I think it’s only helped crystalize my preference for journeys that have set destinations more so than just “wandering about”, but that’s just me.


Vincent Cavanagh
21 Feb 2024

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* An unfortunate Americanization of railway terminology in the past few decades in NSW. Railways in NSW (at least from their inception) used the British railway vernacular (railway, lines, carriages). Whereas South Australia has actively used the United States vernacular (railroad, roads, cars) ever since the appointment of American William Webb as Chief Commissioner in 1922.

** Gander : to have/take a quick look.