Railway, who played in their famous red and green jersey, were crowned Group 10 premiers on nine different occasions in their 45-season stint in the competition from 1948-1992.

In 1976, the club was crowned premiers for the seventh occasion, and at the time were the second-most successful Group 10 club behind the Oberon Tigers, who had won 11 titles between 1961-1975.

They were led by ex-South Sydney player Bill Rose, who was later inducted into the Bathurst Rugby League Hall of Fame in 2014.

Peter Frew, who played second-row for Railway between 1975-1976, remembers the grand final-winning campaign fondly.

He had moved to Bathurst to attend Mitchell College, having played for Dubbo CYMS in Group 11, as well as representing Western Division during its successful 1974 Amco Cup campaign.

He said the season was close and looking at how the teams finished, there's no denying it.

Defending premiers Oberon captured the minor premiership with 27 points, one ahead of Lithgow Workmen's Club and Railway on 26. Workies were ahead of Railway on point difference.

"Workies were considered the favourites, even though Oberon won the year before," Frew recalls.

"Workies had the best for and against and they had a very strong team. Garry Taylor was the coach.

"We just coasted through the year. We lost only four games and had a couple of draws."

St Patrick's came in at fourth on 24 points, only one ahead of Orange Ex-Services.

Under the Group 10 format of today, Ex-Services, a club which evolved to become the Orange Hawks, would've qualified for the finals.

However, only the top four progressed to the play-offs in 1976, meaning the Orange side missed out.

In fact, Ex-Services - who were led by former Balmain player Greg Hay - were second on the ladder with two weeks remaining, but a 28-15 defeat to Oberon in the penultimate round left them in a precarious situation.

They would have to defeat Workies - who were on a seven-game winning run - and hope that St Pat's lost to a lowly Charlestons side.

The right circumstances didn't eventuate for Ex-Services, as they went down 15-6 to Workies at Wade Park, while St Pat's overcame their city rivals 29-17 at the Sportsground.

Railway, the soon to be premiers, finished the season with a four-game winning streak, thumping a winless Orange CYMS outfit 60-17, accounting for Lithgow Shamrocks 20-9, besting the Blayney Bears 12-5, before defeating Cowra 20-7 in the final round of the season.

Frew described the win against the Magpies as crucial to the club's momentum heading into the finals.

"The last game of the season, we beat Cowra and kind of went on a run from there," he said.

"We just got our confidence up and came home with a wet sail."

First up for Railway in the finals was St Pat's.

The two teams had clashed twice that season, with St Pat's claiming a 18-9 win in April, while Railway claimed revenge in July with a 13-8 win over their local rivals.

Ultimately, Railway were too good for St Pat's in the semi-final, thumping them 36-15 at the Sportsground, with Railway's score of 36 points a joint-record in Group 10 finals at the time.

It would be a bigger test in the final.

Workies had overcome the minor premiers Oberon 21-15 in the other semi-final, which meant Railway would make the trip up to Tigertown for a place in the decider.

And it seemed Railway were on their way to the grand final, up 11-2 at half-time, before Oberon mounted a comeback to lead 16-14 with 13 minutes to go.

With time running out, Rose rallied his side and they put on seven points to run away with the game.

Railway regained the lead when centre Brian Godfrey scored his second try of the match. Nev Marra landed the conversion and a penalty goal not too long later before slotting a field goal in the dying minutes to put the result beyond doubt.

Marra finished the match with 13 points from six goals and a field goal, while Frew scored the only other try.

The grand final at the Bathurst Sportsground would be between Railway and Workies, two strong teams with formidable forward packs according to Frew.

"They were very strong all round," Frew said about the Workies team.

"They had some good backs like Gary Vaught in the centres.

"Their captain was a country rep, Garry Taylor, a second rower and their other second rower, Ray Thompson, he was a tough man. Allan Northey was in the front row.

"In actual fact, Workies and Oberon had really strong forward packs, but so did we, so we were able to match those two packs of forwards."

Workmen's drew first blood in only the second minute when winger Robert Fitzgerald landed a penalty goal from right in front.

Railway were able to level the score at 2-all in the 24th minute when Marra kicked a penalty goal of his own.

Workies found the front on the half hour mark when Fitzgerald scored another penalty.

But seven minutes out from half-time, Railway's Ben Flick charged towards the line from 15 metres out and then fooled the defence when he passed inside to Frew who went over untouched. Marra added the two points and Railway were in the lead at 7-4.

Railway winger Peter Hope scored not too long later and with a successful Marra conversion, Railway had a comfortable 12-4 lead at half-time.

And 10 minutes into the second half, the game was almost out of touch for Workies, with a Godfrey try and two Marra goals leaving Railway up 19-4.

Workies weren't going to give up without a fight but two tries and goals from Fitzgerald were not enough for the Lithgow side to mount a miraculous comeback, going down 21-14.

A special moment for Frew was when Frank Hyde, a famous rugby league radio caller at the time, came into the sheds before the game and met the players.

"He was like Ray Warren, but it was Frank Hyde back then. He was a top commentator in the country," he said.

"He walked around and shook our hands. That was a great moment because he was a famous man."