This is an illustrated history of two colliery railway systems in New South Wales, and the last railways in Australia, other than heritage lines, to use steam locomotives.

John Woodhams chronicles the history of these railways through a vibrant selection of previously unpublished images.

He describes an extensive network of steam railways that served the New South Wales coalfields, which opened in 1893 with passenger services following on part of the system ten years later.

Such was the volume of traffic that parts of the railways were double-tracked and signalled.

In the mid-1900s, the New South Wales Government Railways took over responsibility for operating the passenger services, and passenger trains for miners ran until 1959.

British-built locomotives had a monopoly of operations until steam operation on the South Maitland system ended in 1983 and the Richmond Vale Railway in 1987.

Fortunately, many locomotives survived and the Richmond Vale Railway is now a museum line.

Published in August 2024 by Amberley Publishing and written by John Woodhams, this soft-cover book measures around 168 mm x 246 mm, and has 96 pages and 140 photographs.

It has a published price of £15.99, but at the time of writing, it can be purchased for £14.39 from Amberley Publishing and for £10.59 from Amazon.

In five chapters and two appendices, John Woodhams tells the story of an extensive network with striking similarities to the colliery networks of north-east England, with places names such as Hebburn, Pelaw, and Newcastle, and South Wales with Neath, Aberdare, and Cardiff.

Chapters 1 and 2 tell how the South Maitland coalfields were discovered and their railways developed, and Chapter 3 describes how the networks were extended to create the Richmond Vale Railway.

Chapter 4 provides extensive descriptions and photographs of the collieries’ locomotives, and Chapter 5 is an interesting story of how, once steam was replaced by diesels at the collieries, the heritage movement took over.

There follow two appendices detailing each colliery’s locomotives and their dimensions, dates when they were built, in service at the collieries, and withdrawn, as well as information about their subsequent fate.

The historic photographs below were taken at the East Greta mine. The 4-4-0 tank engine at the top was built in 1862 but did not start service at East Greta until 1895, one year after the view of the mine taken in the lower photo.

There were no restrictions on emitting smoke when the photos on the left below were taken around the time of the end of steam, whilst on the last day of steam on the South Maitland Railway the photo at the bottom right shows a wreath adorning the front of the locomotive.

Although the book features many colliery locomotives in a variety of locations, ‘Swamp Creek as seen at the top right must have been a favourite location for the photographer as it features in four almost identical photographs that differ only in their motive power.

The book’s last chapter summarises data about the life of the colliery locomotives and those that have been preserved.

Some of them feature in an annual festival at Maitland, where, in 1989, Flying Scotsman appeared during its tour of Australia. Unfortunately, the only photograph in this chapter is that shown below of a solitary tank engine on an isolated section of track.

Coal production at the coalfields that are the subject of this book lasted over 200 years, and for much of that time, steam locomotives reigned supreme.

In this book, John Woodhams has produced an excellent account of a network that must once have rivalled the colliery railways of north-east England.

The descriptive text provides a good appreciation of the history and development of the railways and is supported by excellent photographs depicting the terrain through which they ran, as well as the locomotive depots where the locomotives were stabled.

A major criticism is there is just a single map that, although covering the complete railway networks, has text that is much too small to read, even with a magnifying glass.

Another shortcoming is that page numbers are only included on those pages with text, whilst the photographic pages do not have headings denoting which chapter they belong to.

For anyone contemplating visiting New South Wales, this book will prove a useful primer before they travel, a history of a once-intensive network of steam railways, and a worthy addition to a bookshelf.

Overall, it deserves a rating of 4.5/5.

The book is available to purchase from Amazon and Amberley Publishing.

We would like to thank Amberley Publishing for providing RailAdvent with a copy of the book for review.