It was a temporary timber and corrugated iron building, constructed rapidly in late August to early September 1855, in time for the opening of the line to Parramatta for passenger trains.

[3] John Whitton, the engineer-in-chief, designed a neo-classical station building to be constructed of brick, with the decorative detail formed using polychromatic and relief work.

In 1895, the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Public Works advised that a royal commission should be constituted to "inquire into the question of bringing the railway from its present terminus at Redfern into the city".

The public works annual report of 1896–1897 noted that "the Railway Construction Branch was called upon to furnish voluminous plans and estimates of the cost of the various proposals brought before the commission.

After a most exhaustive investigation, the Royal Commission reported, almost unanimously, in favour of the extension of the railway into the city by the route and according to the plan as described as the St James Road Scheme".

If Belmore Park is included, all the land now occupied by the railway at Central and Redfern coincides with the company's original selection of four blocks between Hay and Cleveland Streets.

[10] During Governor Macquarie's term, the future site of the Sydney Terminal was beyond the limits of settlement, which were marked by the tollhouse located at the end of George Street and at the entrance to Railway Square.

[citation needed] An early proposal for the new terminus, and the changes to the surrounding area, were reported in the Sydney Mail in 1901:[3] One of the reforms to be incidentally effected will be the widening of Pitt Street near the railway to 100ft.

He considers that this opportunity for the improvement and ornamentation of Sydney should not be lost, especially as it will not entail a very heavy cost upon the tax payer, most of the land utilised already being the property of the crown.

It is intended that the railway traffic should run as now arranged over the Castlereagh and Pitt Street route, but, instead of approaching the station on the ground level, the two lines begin to rise from a point in Belmore Park on a grade of 1 in 20, where they will terminate with a wide colonnade of (sic) platform level.This design, with pavilions and a mansard roof, was strongly influenced by French Renaissance chateaux.

[3] As it was being built, it was reported that "Everything in connection with the new station appears to have been designed on a grand scale, from the great elevated approaches down to the system of handling luggage underground.

[3] In 1902, the Railway and Tramway Construction Branch, headed by Henry Deane, reported that "plans and detail drawings have been prepared in the office for the whole of the retaining wall and shops in Pitt-Street, both north and south of the new road in front of the Station, also for the Devonshire-Street subway and for the whole of the basement floors, including drainage, telephone tunnels, &c." At this stage, the estimated cost of the works was 561,600 pounds, however, it was "probable that his estimate will be exceeded".

Facing the working class terraces in Surry Hills, the eastern wing was finished in brick rather than stone when shortage of funds hurried completion of the first stage of the station in 1906.

[3] South of the station buildings, additional works built to accommodate the electrification and expansion of the city and suburban lines included extensions to the Cleveland Street Bridge and flyovers.

The start of this modernisation program coincided with the 125th Anniversary of the NSW Railways and it was at a time when many major service advances were being made to the State Rail System.

In the first decades of settlement goods were loaded and unloaded in Sydney Cove, however, as the city expanded the wharves extended round into Cockle Bay (Darling Harbour).

For a time, the remainder of the former Darling Harbour Line, from Sydney Yard to Hay Street, remained disused and functional, and was used to transfer trains to the Powerhouse Museum.

Although no architectural drawings of these buildings have been located it is assumed that metal roof trusses and cast iron internal columns were used, similar to the structural system favoured in England, and later employed at Eveleigh.

Little physical evidence remains of the layout or the functioning of this once extensive railway yard as many of the structures were removed to allow for the construction of platforms 16-23 and subsequently the city electric station.

[3] The Mortuary station, or the Receiving House as it was known, was originally constructed for funeral parties, the mourners accompanying the coffin on the journey to the necropolis at Rookwood Cemetery.

Most documentary sources date the building as being constructed in 1869, however, the outline of the station first appears on the 1865 MWS&DB (Metropolitan Water Sewerage & Drainage Board) plan.

The inner Sydney cemetery or New Burial Ground, also known as the Sandhills or Devonshire Street station, was located in the Brickfields, a site now occupied by the main terminal building.

[3] The stonework of the Mortuary Station was very delicately worked, with a number of different foliage motifs forming the capitals, the trefoil spandrel panel within the main arches and the medallions.

[3] The arcade detail of Mortuary Central, with its pointed trefoil arches, medallions and foliated capitals, is reminiscent of the hotel at St Pancras Station by Sir George Gilbert Scott, designed in 1865 and constructed in 1868–73.

This elevated siting also permits the use of the topography to gain road access to more than one level enabling the development of an extensive subterranean luggage network and separation of differing modes of transport.

The Electric Station was part of the construction works overseen by Bradfield that included the excavation of the tunnels, the building of the Harbour Bridge, and electrification of the suburban rail network.

The Rail Yard connects to the passenger platforms of Sydney Terminal which are as originally designed and built, with the infrastructure for steam locomotives having been removed - these being water columns between each track near the buffers.

This was a major activity at the Sydney Terminal that has become obsolete due to the introduction of technological changes such as fixed sets of rail cars, and the phasing out of locomotive-pulled trains.

Although it has progressed through various configurations, the landscape has maintained the same ground level since 1856 with its final layout being enlarged in 1906 by the removal of some houses and the realignment of Regent Street to its present format.

Central Grand Concourse is the eastern terminus of the L1 Dulwich Hill Line that operates to Chinatown, Darling Harbour, Pyrmont and the inner west suburbs.