Peter J Vincent's Website

Rail Photography - Rob O'Regan

NSW Rollingstock

Andrew Mays West Australian Rolling Stock

Preservation
Sites

National Railway Museum - Port Adelaide

Commercial
Sites

Series 567 Rail Video

Cygnetic - Hobbies in Riddells Creek

Volume 8 is close to ready.
It is anticipated to be released in late October.

Supplies of Volume 2 are running out. There will not be a reprint.

Volume 6 "Tank Wagons of Victoria" has sold out.
There will not be a reprint. Most shops should still
have copies but they will not last.

Brief History Books – Victoria


After many years of collecting information and photographs, mostly about modern Victorian wagons, I decided to put it all together into a book.  I wrote up a rough copy based on the book on NSW wagons by John Beckhaus – Freight Wagons in New South Wales  1982.  

After several setbacks I finally got it all on the computer and printed a rough draft which was to become “Bogie Freight Wagons of Victoria 1979 to 1999”. Jim Coy suggested a book on the older Bogie Wagons. I spoke to Peter Vincent for advice and he suggested that we do 'everything'.  

We agreed to co author these books, which will eventually become a series of 15 books, describing virtually every piece of Rolling Stock in Victoria - with the exception of locomotives. That was the start of “Brief History Books”  

We are getting as many photographs together as possible from as many people and organisations as possible to add to Peter’s vast collection combined with Peter’s Rolling Stock Register information, therefore we are able to provide the basic information required and the remaining books are in various stages of completion. It is a huge project with well over 3,500 pages to date.  

One could not imagine the problems that have been faced (writing the actual books is the easy bit) but the first book (Number 3 in the series) was printed in January 2006. The remainder will follow as they are completed but in no particular order.  

A lot of wonderful people have helped this project in so many ways and we are very grateful to each of them. It would not have been possible without them.  Daryl Gregory has become very involved by providing tremendous help from his collection of information and overseeing each book for additions and omissions and we now consider him a co-author.  

Each book will have many pages of photos, diagrams and history of the all the known rolling stock of Victoria.  

There is a Photo Galery with many color photo's (use only as a guide for the color of the vehicle's, photo colors varry). The gallery's have been arranged in Volume Order. You can find them Here. Interstate Photos will be added as time permits. Many Photo's have been submitted by friends and will be credited in the captions.  

Many years ago, Peter Vincent told me (and everyone else he saw) to take photos of everything because everything will change and what we see will not be around forever. Some time later my situation improved and I purchased a second-hand camera and started clicking. Now I have about 20,000 photos and this web site is a good way to share them with everyone interested. The photos are just scanned without any fiddling and with light, cropping etc. Many are of poor quality but are included because there is some feature that may help someone. Photos will be added in a random manner as time and space permits.      

We hope you enjoy this series as much as we do.  

Norm Bray
Co Author


Books in the 'Brief History' Series
Vol. No Title   Released Corrections
Photo's Required
1 A Brief History of Bogie Freight Wagons of Victoria 1871 - 1979 Part 1 Sold Out  YES
2 A Brief History of Bogie Freight Wagons of Victoria 1871 - 1979 Part 2 28/03/07  YES
3 A Brief History of Bogie Freight Wagons of Victoria 1979 - 1999   26/01/06 YES
4 A Brief History of Fixed Wheel Freight Wagons of Victoria Part 1    
5 A Brief History of Fixed Wheel Freight Wagons of Victoria Part 2    
6 A Brief History of Tank Wagons of Victoria   22/03/08   
7 A Brief History of Departmental Vehicles of Victoria Part 1    
8 A Brief History of Departmental Vehicles of Victoria Part 2    
9 A Brief History of Departmental Vehicles of Victoria Part 3    
10 A Brief History of Electric Suburban Coaching Stock of Victoria      
11 A Brief History of Fixed Wheel Coaching Stock of Victoria      
12 A Brief History of Bogie Wooden Coaching Stock of Victoria      
13 A Brief History of Steel & Special Coaching Stock of Victoria      
14 A Brief History of Rail Motors, Brake Vans of Victoria    Nov 07  YES
15 A Brief History of Preserved Vehicles, Railway Containers, Other Information & Index

* Click book links for brief outline of each book and any corrections.

We welcome any feedback on the books for instance - any mistakes or omissions can be forwarded to us via this site.

 

Please contact us for any comments, questions, requests for additional photos, changes, omissions or additions here.