#DisabilityHistoryMonth starts today! The Railway Work, Life & Death project is an important resource for understanding occupational disability in the past, via the railways. Read more about just a few of the people whose life stories we've explored: www.railwayaccidents.port.ac.uk?s=disability

Smells like hot Melbourne days and a misspent youth.

Currently doing some marking. A reminder to everyone involved in archives and collections: digitisation is not preservation. If I digitise a box of records and put the files on a USB stick I haven't preserved a thing. It's all about what you do with the files post-digitisation. #archives #digipres

Having flashbacks to the $**** I spent getting my colloquium document back from a corrupted hard drive. Thesis is now in the cloud and on a backup drive and emailed to myself and typed out on an old fashioned typewriter.

Hello, if you've got a spare fifteen minutes we've put together a video on the emergence of the railway poster as a visual medium from the 1840s-1930s that you might enjoy! www.youtube.com/watch?v=A5is...

Help me turn the State Library of Victoria's digitised maps into data! https://wragge.github.io/slv-allmaps/ (bit of a soft launch, so let me know if you see any errors in the documentation...)

Delighted to have worked on a lovely & important story over the last few weeks! Part of the Portsmouth Area Railway Pasts project, we've worked with Gordon Churchill on they story of his father, Arthur - including time in a railway orphanage: www.railwayaccidents.port.ac.uk/portsmouth-a...

Slightly different to my usual programming, but we were given the keys to the decommissioned Ararat Signal Box A on the weekend. Felt like stepping back in time. #VictorianRailways #Signalling #Ararat #RailwayHeritage

Lifted my self-imposed ban from the Royal Historical Society of Victoria’s bookshop for some early Xmas presents - for me! @historyvictoria.bsky.social #books #melbourne #northmelbourne #history

Little paper cups for drinking water from VicRail train. Tea cup on paper cup. #ephemera #VicRail #TeaCup #VictorianRailways

Locomotion No 1 triumphantly recreates Stockton and Darlington Railway opening

If #Railway200 has sparked or rekindled your interest in #RailwayHistory, and you fancy study at Masters or PhD level - then come & study with Dr Mike Esbester at the University of Portsmouth! An expert in railway, transport & mobility history: www.port.ac.uk/about-us/str...

🚨What's that?🚨 You want FREE access to 17 brilliant #RailwayHistory articles from the @jtransporthist.bsky.social? All yours! For #Railway200 the JTH has put together a virtual collection of articles, & until 15 October they're free! Download & read now: journals.sagepub.com/topic/collec...

Unfortunately the train wasn’t that “special” - Collingwood lost by 37 points. 😭 #AFL #VFL #Football #VictorianRailways #Collingwood Geelong Advertiser, 5 July 1967, p 11

I’ve returned to the archives and found another 100 boxes from the Victorian Railways. I am resolved that this thesis could take another ten years to write. #VictorianRailways #Archives #PhDLife

Posting a photo of a tram in Bendigo just for @drdrehistorian.bsky.social We went for a ride but I still argue that the paddle steamer is a superior form of travel. #BendigoTramway #Tram

Save the date! The AEHS 2026 Conference - “Local History: thinking outside the archival box” - will be held 18 July 2026 in Lilydale. Tickets on sale early 2026. #SaveTheDate #Conference #LocalHistory #AEHS

Victorian Railways experts - advice on best places to research VR uniforms. #VictorianRailways #Uniforms #Research

I’m no longer being asked what my thesis is about, rather am I using AI to write it. The answer is NO - I did not come this far to get a machine to do my work. Thesis writing is hard work but rewarding. Now if AI could do my washing, housework and feed me - that would be fab! #PhDlife #AI

PHA (Vic & Tas) members had a great time at our 2025 AGM! With thanks to Al Thomson for a fascinating talk on his life as an oral historian. #phavictas

New (old) poster from the State Coal Mine, Wonthaggi. No comments about “clean coal” please - appreciate it for the #cat. #StateCoalMine #Wonthaggi #FriendsOfTheStateCoalMine #VictorianRailways

"Earning a humanities degree was not only life changing, in terms of opening up a world of knowledge otherwise beyond my reach, it also turns out to have been enormously productive – for me and many, many people around me" Thank you Tim Winton for supporting the call to repeal the JRG policy.

wrote a blog post about how scanning an old magazine made me cry and how it reminded me why I bother doing this boring stuff blog.decryption.net.au/posts/digiti...

Today’s mail call #1: A postwar-era (1960s) Victorian Railways poster advertising off-peak tickets aimed at women by subtly emphasising the advantages of shopping (in the CBD presumably) by rail over driving. This specimen is in great condition for its age & a candidate for framing in the future.

- A realistic dream of owning a home. - Pizza Hut restaurants being a big deal. - Using the only computer at school as a reward for being good.

This is how we keep warm on #Melbourne #trams #96 Bourke St, 4:20 pm @ptua.org.au @danielbowen.au

Found out where my Grandparents did their furniture shopping. They had every piece in this advertisement! (Box Hill Reporter, 13 Jan 1928, p 6) #Trove #BoxHillHistoricalSociety #LocalHistory

More “Things That Go By Train”. The Victorian Railways published this full page advertisement in The Sun newspaper on 28 May 1968. #VictoriaRailways #RailwayHistory #Trains #Advertising (VR News Letter, July 1968, p 108)

#Tram folks - what is this box for?

Thesis may be a long way off completion, but Miss 4.5 has just sorted the cover for me - they have colouring in on the cover, don’t they? I think I can… #SteamTrain #PhDLife #LongestThesisEver

Rising: Swingers - The Art of Mini Golf in the former Victorian Railways Institute at Flinders Street Station - delightful! ⛳️ 🤩 #VictorianRailways #FlindersStreetBallroom #MiniGolf #MelbourneArt

The Australian Women's History Network and Lilith: A Feminist History Journal are now accepting abstracts for their symposium "Nurturing Feminist Histories in Precarious Times" -- which will also celebrate 40 years of Lilith! Follow the link for more: theaha.org.au/wp-content/u...

Of all the items I’ve found while researching my grandmother, discovering she was a champion at the Egg and Spoon Race, Yarroweyah Children’s Events - has to be my favourite. (Cobram Courier, 8 Oct 1931, p 2) #FamilyHistory

“But if you’re a brain, you’ll go by train”. Victorian Railways marketing from a special edition of the ‘V.R. News’ produced for the 1958 Royal Show, p 2. #VictorianRailways #RailwayHistory

200 for #Railway200 - a new thread! We're 200 days out from the 200th anniversary of the 1st passenger journey on the Stockton & Darlington Railway, on 27 September 1825. To mark it, we'll post a person a day from the Railway Work, Life & Death project's research.

On our final stretch of our South Gippsland VR tour, we followed the former railway line to Korumburra to view a recently restored but well fenced Korumburra Railway Station. The station opened in 1891. #VictorianRailways #RailwayHistory #RailwayStations

Following our trip to the Eastern area of the State Coal Mine, Wonthaggi we followed the Kirrak branch line, where parts of the formation run through farming properties, out to the Kirrak Area of the State coal mine. #VictorianRailways #RailwayHistory #CoalMine

Spent a few days exploring some of the Victorian Railways history in South Gippsland. The State Coal Mine in Wonthaggi operated between 1909 - 1968. #VictorianRailways #RailwayHistory #CoalMine

Posting this glorious Paddlesteamer - just for @drdrehistorian.bsky.social - because paddle steamers are better than trains!

Last night the RHSV hosted the Engineering Heritage Victoria talk on The Yallourn Briquette Works with Matthew Churchward from Museums Victoria. Matthews’s talk included some wonderful images, including “Burnie Briquette”.

Thank you, Tim for being so generous with your knowledge and resources. 🙌 👏 So much new and useful information today 🤯

For #InternationalWomensDay2025, during #Railway200, find out more about where women have worked on Britain's railways in the past. The Railway Work, Life & Death project's blogs have explored - & found lots of unexpected things! #IWD2025 #RailwayHistory #WomensHistoryMonth buff.ly/SQj2pvB

Mrs L.V Harrington, Caretaker at Yinnar Railway Station, collecting a ticket from a passenger. May 1963 (PROV) #VictorianRailways #RailwayHistory #WomensHistory

Historians, family history researchers, genealogists - can anyone please tell me what a “MConstable” is? Presume it is a rank? #History #FamilyHistory #Geneaology

This Railway Time Table Indicator is hanging in Craig’s Royal Hotel, Ballarat. I have never seen one before. #VictorianRailways experts can you tell me anything about it or show me other examples? #RailwayHistory #Ballarat

We're so pleased to present to our members a workshop navigating non-academic careers: the registrations are open now! (Like to attend, but not a member? This is the perfect opportunity to join!)

Glad I finally asked the internet about this: what is a paragraph anyway? daily.jstor.org/what-a-parag...

Ballarat, unused semaphore signals. #VictorianRailways #Ballarat

Local Ballarat heritage group Save Our Station are conceding defeat after Heritage Victoria issued a permit for the old Lydiard St swing gates to become a static display (not reinstated as functioning level crossing gates) 3ba.com.au/local-news/f…

In 1964, Victorian Railways Commissioners made available in perpetuity to the Institute or Applied Science, the Departmental Clock that was known as “the main line starter clock” (VR NewsLetter April 1964, p 56) #VictorianRailways #MuseumsVictoria