JOHN DUNN..
  Noel

In The Sydney Morning Herald of today, Thursday, 14 February, 2013, the
following obituary was published for John Dunn -- Christian Author and
Train Designer, formerly of Commonwealth Engineering "COMENG" -- Granville
NSW.


Train designer also Christian author


*

JOHN DUNN, 1938 - 2013

Quantum leap ... Dunn worked on XPT trains.

Quantum leap ... Dunn worked on XPT trains.

You could say that John Dunn had a two-track mind, or rather that his life
ran on parallel rails according to design, because the two great passions of
his life were trains and the Christian faith. He was one of Australia's
pre-eminent train designers and the historian of Commonwealth Engineering,
as well as being a respected Bible teacher and Christian author.

John Charles Dunn was born on November 5, 1938, the youngest of five
children to George Dunn and his wife, Edith (nee Hall). In 1956, after
finishing school, he began working with Commonwealth Engineering
(Granville), a firm founded in 1921 as Smith & Waddington, as an apprentice
draughtsman. A neighbour, C. C. Singleton, a founder of the Australian
Railway Historical Society, had befriended John as an eager, train-mad
teenager and taught him many skills that gave him a head start in his
career.

He chose not to seek ordination and returned to Commonwealth Engineering.

Dunn studied mechanical engineering at Sydney Technical College and, later,
theology at the Adelaide Bible Institute and Moore Theological College. He
chose not to seek ordination and returned to Commonwealth Engineering.

Passion for industry ... the first volume of John Dunn's history of
Commonwealth Engineering was launched by Tim Fischer.

Passion for industry ... the first volume of John Dunn's history of
Commonwealth Engineering was launched by Tim Fischer.

He rose to senior concept engineer in rolling stock design. In the 1970s,
Dunn's design work was involved in the first double-decker electric suburban
trains for the Sydney system, designed and built by Commonwealth
Engineering. His ideas were also incorporated in the design and construction
of XPT trains for the NSW State Rail Authority, described as a quantum leap
in the development of modern long-distance passenger trains in Australia.

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The firm was flourishing and productive, despite difficulties often caused
by political decisions when it was taken over in 1982 by Australian National
Industries. After the firm's closure in 1989, Dunn worked for a decade as a
design and production consultant for the new owners of the Dandenong branch,
ABB.

When he retired, Dunn continued working on his history of Commonwealth
Engineering (the first three volumes published between 2006 and 2010). The
books, which cover almost 70 years of Australian industrial history, include
Dunn's photographs along with thousands he rescued from the Commonwealth
Engineering archives just hours before the bobcat and tipper trucks moved in
to strip the Granville factory site.

Former deputy prime minister Tim Fischer, who launched the first volume,
said the book was worthy of a much wider audience, for it strikes universal
chords and touches on issues such as maintaining Australian research and
development and protecting innovations.

From his teens, Dunn was also active in Christian leadership and part of a
gifted, enthusiastic group of young people that, in 1961, helped to found a
venture called Teen Ranch, a non-profit organisation providing
non-denominational Christian adventure camping for young people. Teen Ranch
now has many international branches.

Dunn moved to Chatswood in 1972 and belonged to St Paul's Anglican Church
for the rest of his life. Over those years, Dunn, unpaid, was loyally
engaged in a program of Bible teaching every Sunday after morning services
as well as midweek in homes. He provided and printed teaching notes at his
own expense, many of which were later published as books by New Creation
Teaching Ministry in South Australia.

He made friends internationally in Christian and railway engineering
circles. However, he never married.

Despite his worsening motor neurone disease, with the help of family, church
friends and voice recognition computer technology, Dunn completed the last
two volumes of the history of Commonwealth Engineering. In recent years, he
also wrote and distributed sets of free daily Bible reading notes and,
before the end of November, completed December's notes, covering the last
month of the year - and of his life.

John Dunn is survived by his sisters-in-law, Eleanor, Lyn and Flo, and their
children, Peter, Catherine, Jennifer, Anthony, Pauline, Ian, Claire, Robert,
James and Steven. His siblings, Ted, Bill, Bruce and Mary, and his
brother-in-law, Rex, predeceased him.

Lesley Hicks

Read more:
<http://www.smh.com.au/national/obituaries/train-designer-also-christian-aut
hor-20130213-2ed77.html#ixzz2KrltALqA>
http://www.smh.com.au/national/obituaries/train-designer-also-christian-auth
or-20130213-2ed77.html#ixzz2KrltALqA

Noel Reed.

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