Bathurst Rail Museum

The Bathurst Rail Museum is more than a regional transport museum; it is a community hub which provides the city with access to its heritage. An active facility for all ages, the museum is housed in the historic, heritage-listed Railway Institute at Bathurst Railway station. Here, visitors can explore the largest public model railway in Australia and the longest BRIO wooden train set in the world.

The listed heritage building was a part of Bathurst society for over one hundred years being a training facility and social club for the extensive workforce that was NSW Railways.

FRD working with the city and local architects, developed a visitor experience predict that had both paid and free areas all respecting the heritage architecture and history of the local people. Using stories of locals some famous and some everyday folk we developed a visitor experience that enabled local pride and understanding of the rich heritage of the area.

FRD developed the content and delivered a whole package including curatorial development content delivery including research writing film production fabrication and installation swell as advise to architects and other team professionals.

Kids Central is a kid’s interactive area that hopes to ignite a love for trains. The central feature is the world’s biggest BRIO train layout with hidden cameras where children can see themselves on large screens. Children can also play in the miniature refreshment room cubby-house and Bathurst station platform designed and illustrated to resemble the heritage-listed Bathurst railway station. There are many discovery elements such as hidden creatures, sound interactives, station timetable and working telephones.  Bright and colourful illustrations of Locomotive No.1 and D50-Class Locomotive with large puffing clouds fill the height of the naturally lit space.