Historic Photo of the Day: 2025-11-01

Today's historic photo of the day: Exactly 41 years ago today, South Maitland Railways '10 class' 2-8-2T steam locomotives no 22 and 25 on the Richmond Vale Railway sit at Hexham, NSW, November 1 1984. This is the one and only time I have ever taken photographs of steam locomotives in genuine commercial operation (ie non heritage trains). At the time, the Richmond Vale Railway was the only railway in Australia to cling to the use of steam traction. This real anachronism continued to haul coal from Stockrington colliery to Hexham on the main Hunter railway where it was transferred onto Government trains for the remainder of the short trip to port. Locomotives used by the RVR were provided by the South Maitland Railway Company who, just the previous year had ceased operation of the second-last steam hauled railway when they dieselised their line South from Maitland to Aberdare, Pelton and Stanford Main. Remarkably, the Richmond Vale Railway continued to use steam until 1987, almost three years after this photo, when no 25 hauled the last revenue steam powered train in Australia. The RVR was closed in favour of road haulage in 1987, so it never saw any motive power other than steam. Fourteen 10 class locomotives were built for the East Greta Coal Mining Company (later to be known as South Maitland Railways) by Beyer Peacock, at the Gorton foundry in Manchester, England. The entire class of 14 locos ran on the South Maitland line util its closure in 1983, and four locos remained in service out of Hexham for the next four years. Both these locos are today statically preserved or stored. But being a steam railway wasn't the only unusual feature here. The South Maitland Railway was a fully commercial, privately owned railway that served the Hunter Valley coalmining industry. Whilst we do have private rail operators on the main line today, in the 1980s, most trains were run by State or Federal Government entities and private railways, in eastern Australia at least, were rare beasts.