A private railway company was formed in about 1993 to create a national railway network from the connected State rail systems.
This network ran a standard gauge network Brisbane - Sydney - Melbourne - Adelaide - Perth and an alternate route Sydney - Broken Hill - Adelaide.
To set up the NRC, each the State of Victoria, New South Wales and the Federal Government became 'shareholders'. The State governments were required to contribute portion of their locomotive and rolling stock fleet.
Whilst the rolling stock was still owned by the State systems the NRC controlled their use and was responsible for maintenance. The wagons in the NRC system were given the prefix letter 'R' and relettered by replacing the owner system letter. In most cases the numbers were not altered.
As the the purchase of new rolling stock progresses, the older rolling stock is being returned to the original owners.
Main capital works were the construction of the standard gauge link from Tottenham to Geelong and the re-gauging of the line from North Geelong to Adelaide from 5'3" to standard gauge. Until this was accomplished, standard gauge traffic to Perth was still routed via Broken Hill and freight trains between Melbourne and Adelaide were broad gauge.