Wednesday, 4 October 2000, Canberra

A re-enactment of the first passenger train's arrival in Canberra - honouring the Territory's famous 1210 locomotive - will occur next September to mark the Centenary of Federation.

ACT Chief Minister Kate Carnell announced 14 grants, including $8,600 to the ACT Division of the Australian Railway Historical Society, to organisations staging events for the 2001 centenary.

"The ACT Government is delighted with the range of events and festivities being funded," she said.

"These activities will make the Centenary of Federation celebrations even more special here in Canberra."

The full scope of the special event, to be held on Thursday, 6 September, will feature a day-long program of events.

Locomotive 1210 will haul heritage carriages earmarked for special attention under the grant, to run a re-enactment of the first regular passenger train into Canberra on 25 May, 1914.

The journeying will depart from Bungendore, north of Queanbeyan, NSW, and arrive at Kingston Railway Station in Canberra.

Later that day, shuttle trips will operate between Kingston and Queanbeyan Stations.

The occasion is likely to feature train crews on the day in period attire and promotions coinciding with the special event.

Work on the restoration of the carriages to be used for the event are presently in the Society's railyard of the Kingston-based Canberra Railway Museum.

Between 1876-82, Beyer Peacock, Dubs and Coy, and the Sydney firm of Atlas Engineering, built 64 4-4-0 tender locomotives (class C) for working country passenger and mail trains on the New South Wales Government Railways (NSWGR).

They were closely related to the 'Metropolitan' 4-4-0 tank engines built by Beyer Peacock from 1864 onwards for the Metropolitan and District underground lines in London, and they were destined to become one of the longest-lived classes of steam locomotives ever to run in New South Wales.

* 1210 was built by Beyer Peacock (Manchester, UK) in 1878 (maker's number 1767) and entered service as C class no. 120 in September of that year.

From the 1890s onwards, the C class engines were gradually displaced from main line working by more powerful locomotives, but they saw many more years service on secondary duties.

Between 1896 and 1902, 20 were converted to 4-4-2 tank engines for suburban passenger services and these were later used on some country branch lines, including the tramway from Yass Junction to Yass Town, where they worked until 1965.

The remaining 48 tender engines were renumbered 1201-1248 in 1924.

Twenty-three of them were withdrawn between 1928 and 1933, but many of the others survived until the 1950's working light passenger trains on the lines radiating from Dubbo, Werris Creek, Narrabri and Moree.

Locomotive 1210 herself was out of service from 1932 to 1935 and probably narrowly escaped the scrap heap.

The engine was recommissioned in 1935 and sent to Moree to work the Inverell branch passenger train. Locomotive 1210 moved to Narrabri West in 1950 and Port Waratah in 1953, but returned to the north-west in 1955 to take over the running of the Werris Creek-Tamworth school train.

The steam engine moved to Parkes in 1957 and in March 1958 was withdrawn from service pending scrapping.

However, she was once again reprieved and in December 1959 re-entered service, painted green to work the vintage train and other historical excursions.

In this role, 1210 ventured as far afield as Dunedoo, Canowindra, Junee and Parkes.

Her last run was on 27 January 1962 when she and her sister engine 1243 (housed in a static display at the Canberra Railway Museum), worked a special train to Canberra for the ceremony at which she was handed over to the National Capital Development Commission for preservation in commemoration of the fact that she had brought the first train into Canberra station in 1914.

For the next 22 years, 1210 stood on a plynth on a length of track in the gardens outside Kingston Railway Station until approval was given by the ACT Government for the transfer to the society's nearby Railway Museum and subsequent restoration back into operation in the late 1980s.

Note: * The Canberra Times columnist Norma Allen wrote in 1999 a fitting piece eulogising the 121st birthday celebrations of 1210.

"Happy birthday, dear choo-choo. Dear old 1210, the green steam engine, turns 121 next month (November' 99).

"If only it had been fitted with an odometer when it began its career back then, it must have travelled almost to the moon during the years when bullock drays took nine days from Bungendore to Sydney, and trains took seven."

The constitution under which the Commonwealth of Australia was established in 1901 provided for the building of a new national capital, to be situated in New South Wales at a distance of at least 100 miles (120km) from Sydney.

In 1904, the Commonwealth Parliament decided that the capital should be at Dalgety, but this site was strongly opposed by the NSW Government and attention was turned to the Yass-Lake George-Canberra area.

The Canberra site was finally selected in 1909, the Federal (now Australian) Capital Territory came into being on 1 January 1911 and construction formally began with the laying of the commencement stone on Capital Hill on 12 March 1913.

One of the advantages of Canberra was its proximity to an existing railway, and in February 1913 the NSW Public Works Department began work on an 8.5 kilometre branch line from Queanbeyan to the site of the power station (Power House) and Commonwealth stores depot in what is now Wentworth Avenue, Kingston.

A small platform was erected on the site of the present station at Kingston, although there was no immediate intention of introducing a regular passenger service.

On 25 May 1914, C Class 4-4-0 locomotive No 120 (renumbered 1210 in the 1924 reclassification) brought the first goods train into the new city and thus ensured itself a place of honour outside Canberra station when it was finally withdrawn from service in 1962 (see additional notes on 1210).

The Canberra branch maintained a rather tenuous existence until the seat of government was transferred from Melbourne in 1927.

Goods traffic did not come up to expectations and after only four months of operation, the New South Wales Government Railways decided to withdraw the engine stationed at Queanbeyan to work the branch (normally a CC class 4-4-2 tank engine) and instead provided a service on Tuesday and Friday afternoons only by extending a Goulburn-Queanbeyan train to Canberra.

The officer-in-charge of Canberra station was withdrawn on 28 September 1914, the station becoming an unattended platform and siding under the control of the station master at Queanbeyan.

At the time of the reduction in train services in October 1914, the Commonwealth authorities considered purchasing a CC class engine so that they could take over the working of the line themselves.

However, nothing came of the proposal and to this day all trains and crews working on the Canberra branch are provided by the New South Wales system.

Military trains operated over the Canberra branch on at least one occasion during the First World War, but it took local residents nearly a decade of campaigning to secure a regular public passenger service.

In 1917, representations on the subject got as far as the Prime Minister (Mr W M 'Billy' Hughes), who decided that it would be inadvisable to incur further expenditure when the country was at war.

By the winter of 1923, it was estimated that between 100 and 200 workers were travelling from Queanbeyan to Canberra by bicycle or sulky every day and on 15 October 1923 a mixed (that is, a combined passenger and goods) train was introduced between Queanbeyan and a platform adjacent to the Power House at Kingston.

A platform was also provided for workers living at the old Molonglo Internment Camp in what is now Fyshwick.

Trains left Queanbeyan at 6.45am and 3.45pm and Canberra at 9.15am and 5.15pm (12.15pm on Saturdays); there was no service on Sundays.

With the approach of the transfer of Parliament to Canberra, a number of improvements were made to the railway facilities.

The branch had been available for general public goods traffic since September 1916 and on 21 April 1924 a new station, loop and goods siding were brought into use on the present site at Kingston, although the workers' trains continued to terminate at the Power House.

Canberra was re-opened as a booking station for passenger and goods traffic on 1 July 1924.

During 1927, a new weatherboard station building was erected, together with additional sidings and a crane for goods traffic.

A new branch from Canberra station to the transport depot at Kingston was provided on 7 March 1927.

The introduction of regular passenger services also required safer methods of train control.

The Queanbeyan-Civic Centre ordinary train staff, which had replaced the original Queanbeyan-Canberra staff on 8 August 1922, was itself replaced by a Queanbeyan-Canberra miniature electric staff on 22 April 1927.

An ordinary train staff was retained for the Canberra-Power House branch until 24 October 1927 after which this section was worked as a siding.

On 28 January 1925, the points in Canberra yard were connected to a lever frame and on 22 April 1927 all points in the main and loop line were interlocked and home and distant signals provided to protect the approach to the station.

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