The Spirit of Progress was the most prestigious way to travel between Melbourne to Sydney from 1937 to 1962
William Charles Henry Collins was an engineman with Victorian Railways and captained the Spirt of Progress
- Charles was Divisional Secretary of the Victorian Division of the Australian Federated Union of Locomotive Enginemen (AFULE)
- He joined the railways in 1925.
- His father, William Collins was also an engineman with the Victorian Railways.