Type : Station/Loop
Line : North Coast Line
Distance from Sydney : 776.472km
Opened : 6 November 1905 (as Murray's Siding) renamed to Rappville 19 March 1907
Closed : 11 January 1976 (station), 1983 (signal box)
Status : In use
Name meaning : Named after the owner of a nearby property (Rapp)
Notes : A 1536 metre Up side crossing loop is in use, a short dead end siding facing the down side of the loop also exists. Down side concrete platform was 76.2 metres in length (this replaced the original timber platform 7/4/1911). The replacement building erected in 1911 was of prefabricated concrete and is perhaps the earliest example of this method of construction on the line. The 15.8 metre building had a lamp room, ASM office and general and ladies waiting rooms. 2/3/1911 - 393 metre crossing loop added. 1915 - 5 ton gantry crane added. 1/4/1919 SM residence built (replaced an earlier one destroyed by fire). 15/7/1925 - cattle yards added. 1944 - ashpit installed. 1946 - BPK type building added for Traffic Branch staff. New loop opened 17/7/1995. Stock siding removed 6/6/1988.
Rappville, 1982 (Greg Lee)
Ray Geraghty:
Is the stock yards siding on the down side just on northern side of level crossing in its day was the longest loop/siding between Casino and Grafton it held 74 and 1 mainline unir
Greg Lee:
Ray Geraghty I checked out those stockyards about 40 years ago. All rail posts, and all posts cut with a "set" which was a large cold chisel hit with a sledge hammer. Those poor old buggers did it hard.
Wal Browning"
Thanks for the memories 74 years ago Mt Neville = a local on the Up side had a Still in the bush making te-tree oil I was holiday relief Stroud Road to Border Loop 1948 the backbone of the Railway "The Fettlers" would help pitch your tent conditions were not easy but that was the way it was no social life only teased by the Ganger`s Daughter
Greg Lee:
To me Rappville was a strange sort of a place. It was definitely a back water; it was the last place I saw that still had a sanitary can collection service. In the early '80s some crazy Christians pulled a stunt throwing money off the balcony of the pub, to demonstrate that money wasn't really worth anything. And it was also the home of a delightful young lady known as "Rappville Rose".
Philip Tatarinov:
I remember Yeerongpilly drivers, would request crib here, going to Grafton/ Yeerongpilly & fireman's job, go to pub & get a carton!!!!!🤣🤣
Ray Geraghty:
The signal box was on northern end of building I remember in early 1967 I was waiting for 402 to pass around 1245hrs I was looking out window towards level crossing a movement caught my eye in garden about a yard from box was the biggest black snake I've ever seen fortunately it was making its way towards back fence I reckon a good 7 foot
Donald Bourke:
I was here as TO one time with the resurfacing gang ,let a string of machines out of the siding into the loop (up end) and not thinking threw the points back ,next thing hears a loud couple of thumps .I had opened the catch point in front of the tie handler .As the gods were looking down you would not believe it but the TI had just walked onto the platform and saw the whole thing happen . Perway wore it .(not stop at a stop signal(point indicator)and travelling to fast to do so.
Rappville, Greg Lee
Philip Tatarinov
44231/442??, on NL2 Brisbane Limited auto exchanging at speed. Rappeville in 80/81
Greg Lee
Railway refreshment room at Rappville, New South Wales, 1920 / Michael Terry. the station opened in 1905 as Murrays Siding and was renamed to Rappville in 1907
Rappville bridges, bushfires, October 2019
Location of Rappville station (Six Maps)
Railway bridge at Deep Creek near Rappville, 1913 (Sydney Mail)
44231/442?? Charging through Rappville on the very point of auto exchanging the staffs on NL2 Brisbane Limited in 79/80. (Philip Tatarinov)
Rappville level crossing (undated, State Archives)
Rappville, undated (State Archives)
No 234 Express Goods at Rappville (C Munro)
No 273 Express Goods at Rappville (C Munro)
No. 345 Goods at Rappvile (N Munro)
Rappville, 1/7/1982 (State Archives)
Rappville, undated
Loading cattle out of Rappville on to the train on 21st April 1967. Tom McCormack sitting on fence straight on in white shirt, Keith Cox man on right on the ground outside and Sam Claydon leaning over from the fence on the left. (Helen Trustum)
Greg Lee states :
I believe that the Rappville stockyards are gone now; I visited them in the early '80s. They were quite substantial, and as can be seen the posts were made from rail.
Being from a Per Way background I was interested to observe that the rail posts had been cut by "cold set". A cold set was a large cold chisel, which was held with tongs, and hit hard with a sledge hammer. (In Qld rather than tongs they had a wire handle, but same idea.) Cutting rails this way was hard work.
The rail would be marked all round with the set. If it did not break it would be left until first thing in the morning when the steel was cold. Then it would be given an almighty hit with a sledge hammer, and lo and behold it would break where it had been marked with the set.
Try and tell that to young railway engineers today and they wouldn't believe you.
When I saw all those posts at the Rappville stock siding which had been cut by cold set, I shook my head in wonder at what the old blokes did.
Rappville, 1/7/1982 (State Archives)
44212 and 44211 stand at Rappville at the head of NL1 Brisbane Limited in the second half of the 1970s awaiting track clearance of a derailment ahead. (Richard Hamann)