Brief History of the S.M.R and Passenger Trains
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/South_Maitland_Railway
The South Maitland Railway was once an extensive network of privately owned colliery and passenger railway lines which served the South Maitland coalfields in the Hunter Region of New South Wales, Australia and were the second last system in Australia to use steam haulage, having used steam locomotives until 1983.[1]
The last section was mothballed in March 2020 after operations at the Austar coal mine in Pelton were suspended.
In June 1902, a passenger service commenced between East Greta Junction and Stanford Merthyr. Intermediate stations were at East Greta and Heddon Greta, and, with the construction of the Aberdare Railway to Cessnock, a station named Aberdare Junction was opened at the junction of the Aberdare & Stanford Railways.
Stations were also initially opened at Weston, Abermain, Caledonia and Cessnock, with further stations latter opening at B Siding, North Kurri Kurri and Neath. Passengers had to make their own way between East Greta Junction and West Maitland stations and this was the source of many complaints. During 1903, the service was extended to West Maitland. The connection to the government passenger service was further improved in 1905 when a platform was constructed at West Maitland for the use of East Greta trains.[22]
These trains were operated by the East Greta Coal Mining Co, initially using a number of second hand ex New South Wales Government Railways (NSWGR) 4 and 6 wheel passenger carriages. In the following years, additional similar carriages were obtained with the total of these ex NSWGR railway carriages reaching 20.
From 1908 to 1925, 16 new bogie end platform carriages similar to the carriages running on the NSWGR were also obtained.[23][24] A carriage shed was constructed at East Greta Junction to house the passenger carriages when not in use.[25] With the opening of the line to Cessnock, passenger services were also operated from Cessnock to Maitland. Stations on this line were located at Aberdare Junction, Bee Siding, North Kurri Kurri, Weston, Abermain, Neath, Caledonia and Cessnock.[26]
Between 1929 and 1930, a lengthy industrial dispute known as the 'lockout' occurred which effectively shut all of the collieries on the South Maitland Coalfield. The railway was soon involved in this dispute with both coal and passenger services being stopped during the dispute. During the dispute, the majority of SMR's passenger carriages were destroyed on 1 March 1930 when the carriage shed at East Greta Junction was burnt down. Negotiations were then entered into with the Department of Railways, New South Wales, for the government railways to take over the passenger service, which occurred on 13 April 1930. In February 1940, a direct Sydney to Cessnock express service was introduced.[27]
The NSWGR operated services lasted until 1961 when SMR took over the majority of the services when they introduced three railcars built by Tulloch Limited.[28][29]
The services run by SMR lasted until 1967, when the SMR railcar services were withdrawn, with only the few through services run by the NSWGR to and from Broadmeadow remaining.[30] These ceased in May 1972 when all passenger services ended
