Home and Away: Maddison Brown explains ‘so much’ went into train disaster 2025 season finale

Home and Away favourite Maddison Brown is urging fans to brace for impact as the show heads towards its devastating finale this week.

The final episode for the year, set to air on Wednesday, sees a devastating train derailment, triggering chaos, carnage and casualties.

“It wouldn’t be a Home and Away finale without cliffhangers and drama — and fans will have more than enough to sustain them through the summer break,” Brown said.

“They have never done a train crash before — I am so excited to see what happens.”

The star, who joined the show earlier this year, can’t give away what transpires, but will say that the lives of several Summer Bay’s favourites hang in the balance.

They’ve boarded the party train en route to Off the Rails, a three-day musical festival in Broken Hill. Remi (Adam Rowland) and Sonny (Ryan Bown) have secured a performance slot for their newest signing star, Eddie Shepherd (Stephen Madsen), who is dating Brown’s character, Jo.

“Jo is on the train with her sister and Eddie — she is going along to support him at the music festival,” she explains.

“While on the train, Eddie actually pops the question!

“I won’t reveal what her answer is yet, but fans will be very excited, I am sure.”

The events that unfold in this year’s finale are being billed as “one of the most shocking disasters in the show’s 38 year-history”, and as Brown says, production went all-out to ensure the scenes looked as realistic as possible.

The show filmed in rural NSW, with a specialist team brought in to recreate the disaster, complete with real train, emergency services workers and mass casualties.

“So much went into it,” Brown said.

“We have such amazing series producers, and they absolutely planned it all down to the nth degree and down to the minute.

“The shoot was just so much fun, and it was so nice to change up the scenery from Palm Beach and the studio.”

The scenes were filmed on location in Cowra and Orange, a four-hour drive west of Sydney, with the cast and crew relocating to shoot the scenes

“Those kinds of shoots are always fun — it feels like a school camp,” Brown said.

“It’s nice to have a working holiday in a way, to get out of Sydney and the normal routine, and for us all to be together.

“It was a lot of fun.”

Brown is continuing to film Home and Away for another month and will then take time off at the end of December before returning to the hit soap early 2026.

During her summer break she will head to New Zealand with her fiance, Simon Mead, to spend time with his family.

“It’s going to be a lot of rest, relaxation, and going to the beach,” she said of her time away.

“My finance’s dad has a boat, so we are going to go fishing, and catch tuna and make tuna sashimi straight out of the ocean — we’ll be having a very idyllic, beautiful New Zealand Christmas.”

Then it’s back to Sydney and straight back to Summer Bay, and her other full time job — running her successful skincare company, Outside Beauty & Skincare, with sister, Allyson.

Brown says she is still “very involved” with the suncream business she started four years ago, which has seen huge growth in the past 12 months.

“As soon as I get home from work, I am on my laptop doing emails and calls — (the business is) very much 50/50, and that won’t change,” she said.

“I am very dedicated and I don’t let much stop me from pushing myself and helping the business grow.”

Home and Away’s feature-length season final airs Wednesday at 7pm on Seven