Impossible to forget – Bernie Baker 1963-2026

I really don’t feel like writing this, at all. I’m not going to be able to do this man justice because he was somehow a force of nature, a vulnerable, gentle soul, and legitimate folk hero, all rolled into one. And that’s just my perspective. I might as well try and sum up the sky. Bernie Baker is, and I’m sorry, but I’m not ready to use ‘was’, a man who comes with a lot of hype, with a profile that stretches across oceans. And yet, he is very much one of those people in the world who absolutely lives up to that hype. He has bravado, charisma and confidence, but no ego. Humble yet complicated, his influence is felt across borders and even oceans thanks to his relationships with many North American compatriots, many of whom have visited him here and been fortunate enough to travel with him.

More than anyone else I know, he has worked to link the railway community – crews, industry reps and rail fans. Everyone is welcome in his circle and his generosity is boundless. A classic railwayman with a wonderfully progressive mind, his heart and mind are limitless, and yet I don’t believe it is accurate to say that he is ambitious, just … well, he could never really slow down his imagination.

When Bernie Baker passed away on the morning of Tuesday 30 June 2026, social media was soon awash with shock and tributes. It was overwhelming. So much so that I deleted the Facebook app for 24 hours as it was just too much to process. I was sharing grief with literally hundreds of people, and I wasn’t prepared for that. And I’m someone who probably hasn’t known Bernie for nearly as long or as well as probably half of those mourners. But I’m going to share my own experience and affection of Bernie, for in its own way it was complete and rich.

I met Bernie – and I finally get to tell this story now, since he is no longer here to be embarrassed by it – in 2006. I’d just started working at Railway Digest magazine a few weeks before and Bernie and Trish arrived in town. They popped by the Redfern office, as Bernie had heard I’d taken over as editor and was keen for a natter. Now at this point I’d never met Bernie or Trish before, although we moved in some of the same circles, so I was certainly very aware of him. However, after a few minutes chatting, with him talking about previous times we’d met – it started to dawn on me that that he was mixing me up with someone else – the one and only Daven ‘Woodrow’ Walters.

Brief awkwardness aside, the three of us hit it off straight away and soon became great friends. Bernie and I discovered a shared passion for diesel locomotion – his knowledge of which was always encyclopaedic – creative railway photography, and great railway journalism. Meanwhile, Trish and I bonded over our affection for her lunatic husband. I soon learned that Bernie and Trish were about inclusive and generous as two people can get, and I’m sure there are dozens, if not hundreds who can testify to being welcomed in for a meal (or three) and even a night or two crashing on the Baker family lounge room floor or in the spare room over the years.

My fondest memory of hanging out with these gorgeous people came in August 2008, when we flew over to Christchurch for a long weekend to ride and chase the TranzAlpine. We hoped for snow. We got snow. All of it. The heaviest snowfalls on Arthurs Pass since 1974! Our TranzAlpinewas the only thing that made it across the Southern Alps that Friday, and so when we picked up our hire car at Greymouth Station that afternoon, we were stuck with it on the western side of the pass for the foreseeable future.

We could drive east as far as Otira – just! – and so we had an absolute ball chasing trains through blizzard conditions for the next two days. Bernie’s face when he thought I’d lost the car keys in the snow at Otira – priceless! However, there was the small matter of eventually getting back to Christchurch for our plane on the Monday. Very fortunately, the weather eased enough for snow ploughs to clear the road over the top of Arthurs Pass on the Sunday afternoon, and we were lucky enough to be in the convoy right behind them. I’ll never forget that weekend. Ever.

As the years passed, Bernie and Trish had three amazing kids, Matilda, Megan and Stuart, and Claire and I also welcomed our own little scallywag into the world. Catch ups became far less frequent, but one significant rendezvous came in June 2017 at the inaugural Railway Photography and Art Forum held at the Powerhouse Museum in Sydney. We were both presenting and Bernie was able to meet my then nine-month-old daughter Sarah. She remains probably one of the very, very, very few people who have met Bernie, but can believably declare to possess no memory of him.

The last time I saw Bernie was at Streamliners 2022 – sequel to the ridiculously successful Streamliner 2016, both held at Goulburn Roundhouse. I was volunteering on the Saturday of the 2022 event, so had more time with Bernie than I’d probably had in a decade at the point. It was interesting to watch his tireless and endlessly generous interaction with visitors and railfans, and yet his humility was palpable. He genuinely couldn’t understand why everyone made a fuss of him.

By this time, he’d amassed a career decades long driving trains right around Australia – every state and territory except Tasmania and Queensland, in fact. When I met him, he was working for Genesee & Wyoming and driving for SCT, primarily the then newly introduced service into and out of Goobang Junction. He was to become a foremost authority on Downer Rail’s new GT46C-ACe locomotives, which were then being introduced by SCT, but are now seemingly everywhere. He later transitioned to Southern Shorthaul Railroad and his influence there eventually saw 1952-built Clyde/EMD locomotive B61 named for him.

While the original Streamliners event was percolating in Bernie’s fertile mind, he was also starring in the US-produced docu-series Railroads Australia, the second season of which managed to include Streamliners 2016 in its coverage. During June 2018 Bernie led the successful crowd-funding campaign to acquire former Aurizon streamliner CLP10. Since the acquisition the locomotive has been undergoing a gradual restoration to working order as CL17 – its original, pre-1993 rebuild identity. When I last spoke to Bernie, he was still working on the planning of a third Streamliners event in 2027, this one to hopefully be held in Seymour, where CL17 is currently located. The relaunch locomotive was intended to be the event feature. The notion that he won’t be around to see CL17 back on the mainline …

I still find myself stopping every now and then to try and use ‘was’ not ‘is’, for he was so full of life that I’m finding it difficult to adjust to the idea that he is gone. Well, I guess you can’t, and that’s how I know he’s out there somewhere even now. Train Order in hand for whatever comes next …

Chris Walters