page_title: South Maitland Railway
section_title: East Greta Coal Mining Co / South Maitland Railways
hierarchical_section_title: South Maitland Railway / Locomotives / East Greta Coal Mining Co / South Maitland Railways
caption_attribution_description: English: SMR 10 to depart Maitland during Hunter Valley Steamfest 2007
context_page_description: 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.
  The last section was mothballed in March 2020 after operations at the Austar coal mine in Pelton were suspended.
context_section_description: Upon the formation of South Maitland Railways in 1918 the new company took over the existing locomotive fleet of the East Greta Coal Mining Co. In 1935, with the withdrawal of all the other classes except the three passenger locomotives, the fourteen 2-8-2T wheel arrangement 10 Class became the main motive power, assisted on the shorter runs by the three ex passenger locos (15,16 & 29).
  Beyer Peacock & Co, Manchester, built the fourteen 10 class locomotives to a design specifically for the East Greta Coal Mining Co/SMR. After the withdrawal of the last passenger tank loco in 1965, the 10 class locos then solely worked the coal traffic both on the SMR and from March 1973 they also worked the Richmond Vale Railway until its closure in September 1987. The four locomotives working the Richmond Vale Railway upon closure were the last four steam locomotives in normal commercial operation in Australia. After the end of steam on the SMR all fourteen were placed under a preservation order. The leader, SMR 10, was the most recent to be restored to working operation, and it is currently located along with No.18 at the Hunter Valley Training Company which is based in the former South Maitland Railway workshops at East Greta Junction. SMR 17, 20, 23, 26, 27, 28 and 31 are stored at the Hunter Valley Railway Trust. The locomotives at Rothbury have been since sold to the Dorrigo Steam Railway & Museum and approval for this was obtained from the NSW Heritage Council for the relocation of these engines. Nos.19, 22, 24, 25 and 30 are located at the Richmond Vale Railway Museum at Richmond Main.
  Upon steam working finishing on the SMR in June 1983, operation of the coal trains was taken over by the State Rail Authority with 47 and 48 class locomotives. Following track strengthening Pacific National began operating EL class locomotives on the line in January 2011.
caption: SMR 10 at Maitland during Hunter Valley Steamfest
exif: {"Image Make": "Canon", "Image Model": "Canon PowerShot A410", "Image XResolution": "180", "Image YResolution": "180", "Image ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Image Software": "Picasa", "Image DateTime": "2013:08:16 08:36:51", "Image Artist": "Picasa", "Image YCbCrPositioning": "Centered", "Image ExifOffset": "212", "Thumbnail Compression": "JPEG (old-style)", "Thumbnail XResolution": "72", "Thumbnail YResolution": "72", "Thumbnail ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormat": "2404", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormatLength": "7637", "EXIF ExposureTime": "1/500", "EXIF FNumber": "7/2", "EXIF ExifVersion": "0220", "EXIF DateTimeOriginal": "2007:04:22 14:14:56", "EXIF DateTimeDigitized": "2007:04:22 14:14:56", "EXIF ComponentsConfiguration": "YCbCr", "EXIF CompressedBitsPerPixel": "3", "EXIF ShutterSpeedValue": "287/32", "EXIF ApertureValue": "29/8", "EXIF ExposureBiasValue": "0", "EXIF MaxApertureValue": "29/8", "EXIF MeteringMode": "Pattern", "EXIF Flash": "Flash did not fire, auto mode", "EXIF FocalLength": "9771/1000", "EXIF FlashPixVersion": "0100", "EXIF ColorSpace": "sRGB", "EXIF ExifImageWidth": "1451", "EXIF ExifImageLength": "1313", "Interoperability InteroperabilityIndex": "R98", "Interoperability InteroperabilityVersion": "[48, 49, 48, 48]", "Interoperability RelatedImageWidth": "2048", "Interoperability RelatedImageLength": "1536", "EXIF InteroperabilityOffset": "2256", "EXIF FocalPlaneXResolution": "2048000/179", "EXIF FocalPlaneYResolution": "102400/9", "EXIF FocalPlaneResolutionUnit": "2", "EXIF SensingMethod": "One-chip color area", "EXIF FileSource": "Digital Camera", "EXIF CustomRendered": "Normal", "EXIF ExposureMode": "Auto Exposure", "EXIF WhiteBalance": "Auto", "EXIF DigitalZoomRatio": "1", "EXIF SceneCaptureType": "Standard", "EXIF ImageUniqueID": "6f3bc19d904a6a893331706a28374f6e"}