Norris G. BellPrint Page

The plaque commemorates Norris G. Bell who was the Engineer-In-Chief from 1914 to 1917 controlling the construction of the Trans - Australia Railway, and the first Commonwealth Railways Commissioner from 1917 to 1929.

Norris Garrett Bell (1860 – 1937), was a Scottish-born railway engineer in Australia. He was employed as the Commissioner of Railways from 1917 to 1929 and played a significant role all aspects of constructing the Oodnadatta to Alice Springs  railway link, "The Ghan".

In 1917 he was appointed the first Commissioner for Railways and tasked (along with Sir John Forrest) with heading construction of the Trans-Australia Railway across the Nullarbor and later the railway from Oodnadatta to Alice Springs. The Trans-Australia was built to standard gauge and the section towards Alice Springs, mainly due to budget constraints, was built to narrow gauge. This would cause many problems until its conversion to standard gauge in 1980.

Bell is remembered as a visionary: while the states of Australia looked at their railways parochially, Bell pushed for national consistency within the railway. He argued that standard gauge should be adopted as the national railway gauge and spoke often about the logistical problems of operating "break of gauge" railway stations. Bell played a significant role in assisting Sir George Dibbs in founding the Australian Standards Association. Bell retired in 1929 just after the arrival of the first steam train (NM35) into the tiny town of Stuart (now Alice Springs), 

Tablet Unveiling 1929

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