Cover image for Civil Engineering Drawings of Tasmanian Railways and Works
Series:
Civil Engineering Drawings of Tasmanian Railways and Works
Series Number:
Access:
Open
Start Date:
01 Jan 1833
End Date:
01 Jan 1992
Creating Agency:
01 Jul 187201 Jul 1939

01 Jul 193901 Mar 1978

01 Mar 197815 Nov 1997
Related Series:
P1331 Contract Plans (Bound Volumes)01 Jan 188331 Dec 1975
Subsequent Series:
P1332 Architectural Drawings, Railway Civil01 Jan 193015 Nov 1997

P2213 Civil Engineering Construction Drawings01 Jan 189015 Nov 1997
How to Use:
Digital images are available for a small portion of these drawings and can be viewed online as indicated in the individual item details screens below (c.660 of the 13498 drawings can be viewed this way).

This series is closely related to P1331, which consists of volumes of contract plans for the construction of lines.

General correspondence files relating to construction of particular lines are in series PWD214.
Series notes:
Content: This series consists of maps and plans used in the construction of rail infrastructure in Tasmania. The construction process consisted initially of trial surveys of possible alternative routes, then selection of a preferred route, drawing detailed plans of the route and associated bridges, station yards and buildings, approval of the plans by Parliament followed by publication of contract plans for tenderers to quote for construction of the line and, finally, documenting amendments to the line during construction and subsequent deviations of the line. The Tasmanian Government Railways initially consisted of the lines and rolling stock of three private rail companies that failed during the late 1800s: the Launceston and Western Railway Company, the Mersey and Deloraine Tramway Company and the Tasmanian Mani Line Railway Company. Plans of these lines are in this series.

Format: Plans in this series are mainly hand drawn on paper although some are on linen. There are some photolithographic maps that have been overdrawn to show lines within a district and there are occasional blueprints, mainly relating to buildings. Unlike the Tasmanian Government Railways mechanical plans, which were drawn on standard sized papers, the civil drawings are largely A0 and A1. These are stored flat in folders. Oversized plans, some up to 5 metres in length, are stored separately rolled on cardboard cores placed in boxes.

Related records: These include bound volumes of the contract plans (series P1331), pre 1910 records are within the records of the Public Works Department, and for post 1945 records see series P2213.

These records are part of the holdings of the Tasmanian Archives
System of Arrangement:
Drawings maintained as a set in roll form and identified by coloured tags or in bound sets with an alphanumeric index in the cover of each.;;Numbering: A single number system was imposed by the National Archives (1- c.1300). This was imposed as a simple order could not be ascertained. A fair amount of churning of the plans was present at the time the plans were transferred to the archives. Consequently, parts of the series appear to have no order. As only one index is known to exist, relating to a small part of the present series, it was decided not to attempt to rearrange the series into its component parts but to simply impose a single number order upon the plans. This effectively retains any relative order that exists in the way the plans were grouped at the time of transfer. ;;Where plans are stored rolled together in boxes, the boxes or 'containers' were assigned numbers by the National Archives. Each box number is unique although non sequential. Locating plans requires both the box number and the location (i.e E60/4).;;Titles: The National Archives created titles for each item, adopting a standardised format for titling plans. Plan titles usually start with the name of the overall line [eg Western Line], then the part of the line [eg Mersey to Deloraine] and finally the particular subject of the plan [eg Plan of Deloraine Station]. Tasmanian Government Railways is abbreviated to TGR' in many titles. A unique barcode number and a unique control number were assigned to each plan during processing by the National Archives. These numbers have been included in the titles for each plan, however they are not numbers originally used by the Railways and wont assist in finding plans listed in controlling registers or lists of plans.
Information Sources:
Retreval note: check Box number field in Archives One for shelf location.
Items: