Queensland Rail Limited also known as Queensland Government Railways was established in 1865. The railway stretched from coastal ports such as Brisbane, Cairns and Rockhampton, inland for the transportation of farming produce for exportation. The first railway line was built from Ipswich inland to Grandchester in 1864 and the first passenger train service ran on 31 July 1865. The line was extended to Darling Downs and Brisbane in 1875. Between 1899 and 1915, a large network of privately owned railways lines was built by mining magnate, John Moffat, which included Mungana, Mount Molloy, Mount Garnet, Mount Mulligan and the Etheridge mining field. As a result of falling share and copper prices, the Queensland Government took over these railway lines in 1919. A major restructure on 1st July 1991 with the introduction of the Transport Infrastructure (Railways) Act meant that Queensland Rail would begin to operate on a commercial basis as a State owned corporation. In accordance with the Queensland Rail Transit Authority Act 2013 (QRTA Act), Queensland Rail ceased being a government owned corporation from the 3rd May 2013 and the company became a wholly-owned subsidiary of this statutory authority.

The Coal Industry Nationalisation Act 1946 provided for the complete nationalisation of the coal industry and on 12 July 1946 established the National Coal Board (NCB). This body, appointed on 15 July 1946, was made solely responsible for managing the industry and running it on business lines, except that the Minister of Fuel and Power, after consulting with the board, might give it directions of a general character. The minister appointed the members of the board, numbering nine in 1946, raised to a maximum of eleven of which eight should be full-time in 1949 and to a maximum of fourteen in 1973, and he presented the NCB's reports to Parliament. In October 1969 these general powers passed to the Ministry of Technology, in October 1970 to the Department of Trade and Industry, and in January 1974 to the Department of Energy. The eight departments of the National Coal Board headquarters - Production, Marketing, Finance, Labour Relations, Manpower and Welfare, Scientific, Legal and Secretary's - made up the National Board and formed the top tier of a four tier system. At the lowest level were the coalfields (each colliery had its own manager) which were divided into 48 geographical areas under the control of an area manager. The areas were grouped into 8 geographical divisions under a divisional board which reported to the National Board. On the vesting date, 1 January 1947, the productive assets of the 800 or more private colliery undertakings and the service contracts of their employees were transferred to the National Coal Board, as were the coal deposits and other assets of the Coal Commission and the functions and staff of the district selling schemes. Subsequently the board acquired other responsibilities, notably that for the coal survey from the Department of Scientific and Industrial Research in August 1947, and that for miners' hostels from the Ministry of Labour and National Service in the same year. In 1951 it took over some of the functions of the Miners' Welfare Commission, and in April 1952 it acquired responsibility for opencast coal mining from the Ministry of Fuel and Power. In 1973 it formed two holding companies, NCB (Coal Products) Ltd. and NCB (Ancillaries) Ltd. to handle two major aspects of its work not directly related to deep and opencast mining. The Coal Industry Act 1977 gave the board new powers in respect of the acquisition, treatment and sale of petroleum and of working minerals other than coal or petroleum which were discovered in the course of prospecting for or working coal and petroleum. The NCB was headed by a chairman and deputy chairman; each of the other members took charge of an executive department or research establishment. The main functions of the board as a whole were to decide and set objectives for the industry, to lay down policy directives and the limits within which management must work, to hold management to account and to provide for the future by means of research and development, and the recruitment and training of staff. It was also responsible for promoting the safety, health and welfare of employees. Many of these functions were exercised at the area and colliery level, a chain of command which replaced the previous five-tier system in 1967. The board itself continued to settle national policy, conduct national negotiations, obtain capital and provide common services such as scientific research. Before 1967 the divisional boards also exercised wide discretion in the forming of policy and applying it at area and colliery level. The headquarters departments advised the board on general policy and objectives, provided information and executed policy, and they also operated certain national services, including central workshops and the rescue service; and regional services in non-coalfield areas. On 1 January 1987, the NCB became the British Coal Corporation, which was wound up in 1997.

In 1900 the British Westinghouse Electrical & Manufacturing Co Ltd bought land in Trafford Park and built a factory which went into production in 1902 for the manufacture of mechanical and electrical equipment for the generation, transmission and use of electricity. In 1919, Trafford Park Works became owned by British Westinghouse’s successor, Metropolitan-Vickers Electrical Company (MV). The main shops, in common with factory construction throughout Trafford Park, were single floor type, with bays 1,000 feet in length, and had direct railway communication with the docks and trunk systems of the country. The main office block was a copy of the Westinghouse building in Pittsburgh, USA and the factory was to the American design and used imported steelwork for construction. Products manufactured at the Works included gas engines, stationary steam engines, electric generators, transformers, switchgear, meters, motors, control gear, and arc lamps. During the First World War, British Westinghouse built some small petrol-electric locomotives for the War Department Light Railways. In 1928 the Works were taken over by Associated Electrical Industries (AEI), which merged Metropolitan-Vickers and British Thomson-Houston, though these two companies continued their own trading names. Traction design and manufacture was always a minority of the workload at Trafford Park with the largest operations generally turbine manufacture. Very few vehicles were built there, and traction machines (i.e. motors, inductors and generators) were largely built in other places – notably at Sheffield or Rugby. Trafford Park traction manufacture was largely that of assembling control gear – contactors, switches, drivers’ controllers, camshaft controllers, relays etc. and building these into frames or equipment boxes for installation in vehicles made elsewhere. An important part of the Trafford Park Works site was the general switchgear operation, mainly for generation or distribution installations. The on-site Switchgear Testing Company was a “testing house” for these products and contributed to testing and development of traction circuit breakers and switchgear. During the Second World War MV acting for the Ministry of Aircraft Production produced more than a thousand Lancaster Bombers in the adjacent Mosley Road building. The company also manufactured war munitions and in the laboratories developed what became known as Radar. In 1959 the newly formed AEI Traction Division established its headquarters at Trafford Park, with a product range that included electric and diesel-electric locomotives; electrical equipment for tram-cars, trolley buses and trolley mining locomotives and traction motors. AEI was taken over by the General Electric Company (GEC) in 1967 whose Witton Works closed in 1969, with the design office and traction manufacture transferred to Trafford Park, as a result of the GEC reorganisation and mergers. GEC Traction Ltd took over the Works in 1972. In 1990 the former Low Voltage Switchgear site at Trafford Park (West Works) was renovated to be the new manufacturing facility for GEC Alsthom Traction, with an electronics workshop, machine shop and plating baths, and an assembly shop for switchgear, equipment cases and power modules. This building was vacated in 1998 when power modules and switchgear was moved to Tarbes in south west France. The Works housed the administrative, commercial and accounting functions, the majority of the design departments and the development section with its associated workshops and laboratories. The manufacturing area was devoted primarily to the production of components of traction control and railway signalling equipment. In 1993, as part of the rationalisation of the equipment group, it was announced that the headquarters of GEC Alsthom Traction would move to Preston, leaving only Power Module design and manufacture at Manchester, with the eventual closing of all activities at Trafford Park in 1998. The iconic original Westinghouse building was demolished and the site is now (2015) largely devoted to container handling and logistics operations.

In 1890 the Department of Works and Railways was separated into the Department of Works and Buildings and the Western Australian Government Railways (WAGR). Its headquarters were located in Perth. The network had stations in Perth, Kelmscott, Cannington and Welshpool. These lines were primarily opened to service the wheatbelt – an area which reaches north from Perth to the Mid-West region, and east to the Goldfields-Esperance region. In 1914 the function of tramways was added and the Department's title changed to Western Australian Government Railways and Tramways. The Western Australian Government Railways, Tramways & Ferries was abolished in 1949 and its functions dispersed into two new bodies, Western Australian Government Railways (WAGR) and Western Australian Government Tramways & Ferries. In September 1975, the WAGR adopted the trading name Westrail and created a logo. However, the official name of the WAGR was not changed at this point. The name Westrail was created simply to improve the company’s image. The new company headquarters were the Westrail Centre in the Perth terminal. On 17 December 2000, the Western Australian Government Railways (WAGR) freight division was sold to the Australian Railway Group along with the Westrail name and logo. The WAGR continued to operate as the Western Australian Government Railways Commission, until it was absorbed by the Public Transport Authority in 2003.

Córas Iompair Éireann (CIÉ) was formed as a private company under the Transport Act in 1944 and incorporated the Great Southern Railways (GSR) and the Dublin United Transport Company. CIÉ was nationalised and changed to a corporation status under the Transport Act in 1950 by merging with the Grand Canal Company. CIÉ railways became Iarnród Éireann in the mid 1980s.