Never heard of the term, well neither had I until today.

Driving over the Harbour bridge and 3 old double decker buses were going at a crawl at the start of the bridge with the conductors hanging off the side looking onto the train tracks. Helicopters hovering over the bridge so something had to be up…..

Then it appeared.. the ‘red rattler.’

They are the old school red coloured trains that used to run on all train lines across the Sydney Train network.

red rattler, sydney trains

The red rattler was the name given to the trains due to their red colour and the noise they made whilst travelling over the train tracks. the red rattler was the first electric train to cross the harbour bridge in 1932 and this celebration makes 90 years since the introduction of electric trains to NSW.

They were made redundant in 1992 and were replaced by the local government with newer electric trains.

Fabulous taste of our past on a brilliant sydney day

Red rattler in Sydney Harbour