Eugene Ross Gordon
Eugene Ross Gordon, generally known as Ross Gordon or ERG, was a prominent civil engineer in the NSW Government Railways, working on a number of significant projects and positions during his 40-year career, rising to the position of Commissioner in the Public Transport Commission, before his retirement. He also had significant military service, during World War 2 and then in the Citizens Military Force (CMF) / Army Reserve. Engineers who worked for him remember Ross Gordon as a very strong personality and military bearing, reflecting this experience.
Ross Gordon was born in Allison, near Dungog, NSW on 12 October 1915, the son of Alexander and Mary Gordon. His father had been a school teacher at a small school in Scotland, who migrated to Australia in 1906, due to health reasons, while his mother was from Gulgong, NSW.
His early education was at Nemingha and Fairy Meadow Primary Schools, being taught by his father. Ross Gordon’s secondary schooling was at Wollongong High School for 3 years and then Canterbury Boys High School. Unfortunately, he had to repeat 5th Year, due to the death of his father, and attained his Leaving Certificate in 1933.
He then commenced his civil engineering career in 1934, enrolling in the Local Government Certificate Course at Sydney Technical College, which was the usual way of obtaining a civil engineering qualification at that time. Later that year, he joined the Way & Works Branch of the NSW Railways as a Trainee Engineer on 1 November 1934. In that time, the Trainee Engineers had a very practical start to their working lives, and Ross Gordon had a few years working as a labourer on Railway House, Wynyard (which was being constructed by the NSW Railways) and Circular Quay Railway Station. His following experience included survey work, in the Design Office on bridges for the Sandy Hollow Railway Line, and on the Sutherland to Cronulla Line (which was opened in December 1939).
During this time, Ross Gordon commenced his military service, enlisting in CMF in October 1939, where he studied Tactics Engineering and Military Law. Then, in May 1940, he enlisted in the Australian Army, serving in the 2/3 Australian Railway Company / Australian Railway Construction and Maintenance Group (ARC&MG), which was commanded by Lt Colonel Keith Aird Fraser, another notable NSW railway engineer and senior executive.
Gordon was posted first to France but on 12 October 1940 he was sent to the Middle East where he served for 3 years, firstly on constructing a railway line on the eastern bank of the Suez Canal. He was then posted to Lebanon, where he worked on the Beirut – Tripoli Railway, which was surveyed, designed and constructed by the Australian Army, as the last link in the railway connection from London to Cairo. During this posting, Gordon was promoted to Captain.
On completion of the Australian Army’s railway works in the Middle East, Ross Gordon returned to Australia in October 1943, then as second-in-command of the railway group, attaining the rank of major.
In Australia, the group worked on the north-south road from Darwin to Alice Springs and then Gordon attended a senior officers’ training school. Following this, he was posted to Kapooka, Morotai and to Borneo, where the group built railways and roads. Ross Gordon was discharged from the Australian Army on 3 December 1945 with the rank of major, and returned to the NSW Railways, while continuing his studies for his engineering degree at Sydney Technical College.
In January 1946, as Assistant Engineer Grade 3, he was Resident Engineer on final works for the construction of the Hawkesbury River Bridge, designed and constructed by the NSW Railways to replace the original USA structure. The bridge was opened on 1 July 1946 but during this time, Gordon attended lectures 5 nights a week, met his future wife and after a very short courtship, married her at Easter 1946. After this construction experience, Ross Gordon was transferred into the maintenance side of the Way & Works Branch, as a District Engineer directly in charge of the fettling gangs maintaining the tracks. His initial District Engineer role was at Dubbo in August 1947, followed by Sydenham No 1 Track District in September 1948.
In his District Engineer roles, Gordon became aware of the backward state of the traditional manual track maintenance methods in the NSW Railways (where NSW was far from alone across Australia and the world). This started his career long pressure to improve and mechanise track maintenance, to make it more effective and efficient.
With fellow engineer Alec Coote, they lobbied and set up the Way & Works Branch Training School for track maintenance staff, engineers and administrative staff. This was eventually relocated to Valley Heights, with residential facilities as well, becoming a very professional training facility.
In April 1951, Ross Gordon was promoted to Division Engineer, Dubbo, responsible for the maintenance of some 1,000 kilometres of track, bridges and budlings in the northwest of NSW. At the age of 35, he was the youngest to achieve Divisional Engineer ranking at that time. This was in line with the approach of the then Chief Civil Engineer, Major-General AC Fewtrell, who applied the military approach of giving young officers high levels of responsibility to his railway engineers, and Ross Gordon certainly continued this throughout his career in the Way & Works Branch.
It is also notable that the Dubbo later became the trial division for the mechanised track maintenance system, which later extended statewide.
Following his time at Dubbo, in 1954 Ross Gordon was promoted to Division Engineer, Goulburn, a much more highly trafficked area on the Main South Line (with a number of branch lines as well). Then in 1957, he was again promoted, to the role of Resident Engineer, Sydenham, in charge of the day labour construction works in the Sydney Metropolitan and Illawarra areas. The NSW rail system was still in poor condition after World War 2, so there was a considerable amount of works to be undertaken to get it back up to standard. Projects under his control were as varied as four platforms at Sydney Station, a diesel depot at Temora, rail houses at Enfield and tunnels for water pipes. In 1962 Ross Gordon and fellow maintenance engineer Laurie Mills undertook a 14 weeks world study tour of mechanised track maintenance equipment in England, France, Germany, Austria, Canada and the USA. This further increased his commitment to improving track maintenance in the NSW Railways, and he submitted reports recommending the acquisition of bigger machines that could do more tamping per hour. This was successful and the NSW Railways proceeded down that path.
Also, in 1962 Ross Gordon was promoted into Head Office Construction, before moving into the maintenance area in 1966, taking on the role of Assistant Chief Civil Engineer (Maintenance) in October that year. This gave him responsibility for the maintenance of track, bridges and buildings across the entire NSW Railways network, involving over 5,000 staff. Then in 1968, he was promoted to the role of Deputy Chief Civil Engineer, under the Chief Civil Engineer, Mr CT Parker.
Throughout the post World War 2 period, Ross Gordon continued his service in the CMF and in 1954 was seconded as Lieutenant-Colonel in the Supplementary Reserve. His service was recognised in 1962 with the award of the Australian Efficiency Decoration to Major (Temporary Colonel) ER Gordon, of the Royal Australian Engineers. His involvement with the military also included involvement in the Industrial Mobilisation Course, with a lecture on: “The Silent Revolution in Railways”. He also encouraged junior engineers in the Way and Works Branch to join the CMF, earning him the nickname of The Colonel.
In October 1972 the NSW Government abolished the NSW Railways and formed the NSW Public Transport Commission of NSW (PTC) incorporating railways, buses and ferries. Under its first Chief Commissioner, Phillip Shirley, the emphasis changed from engineering and technical competence to management, and the titles of the Chief Engineers were changed to General Manager. Thus, when CT Parker retired in July 1973, Ross Gordon became General Manager, Way and Works, and not Chief Civil Engineer, much to his chagrin! However, this still put him in charge of over 12,000 employees.
During his period in senior management and heading up the Way & Works Branch, he was involved with a number of major achievements, including:
• Implementation of mechanised track maintenance across NSW • Development of the education and training of engineers • Electrification of Gosford to Newcastle • Eastern Suburbs Railway
Ross Gordon’s career took another step upwards with his elevation to that of Commissioner of the Public Transport Commission on 13 June 1974. In this role, he was the only commissioner with experience in the NSW rail system, and he was also responsible for personnel. He remained in that position until 30 June 1980, when the PTC was broken up and he decided to retire, a few months before his 65th birthday. Following his retirement, Ross Gordon continued as a Fellow of the Institution of Engineers, Australia, and the Permanent Way Institution (PWI). He passed away in 2005, just short of his 90th birthday.
Ross Gordon is remembered by engineers who worked under him as a high achiever and senior manager who looked after staff, reflecting his personality and military experience.
As a final comment, a former senior NSW Railways engineer, John Broadley, made the following observation: One day, in an expansive mood, and following a long dissertation as to why I should join the Army Reserve, Ross Gordon spoke about his mother. When he was young, she had told him “You’ll never do as well as your older brother (a high-school teacher at Homebush High).” From his commendable military service and successful NSW Railways career, it certainly looks like Ross Gordon proved his mother wrong!
To access an oral history interview with Eugene Ross Gordon please use this link:
https://heritage.engineersaustralia.org.au/wiki/Oral_Histories_Sydney
