South Maitland Railway Timeline!

* SOUTH MAITLAND RAILWAY TIMELINE *

Like so many other sections, this one is also under construction.
Here we will feature a date by date listing of interesting and important events on the SMR collated from published materials and personal notes taken by myself and fellow fans. For a listing of these please see the credits.
This is a big undertaking and your help would definitely be appreciated. Dates of line openings/closures, opening of stations etc, train accidents, special passengers and the like are all required.

20-07-1892 - Work commences on new railway from West Maitland to the 'East Greta Coal Co' mine at East Greta.

1893 - Trains commence operating from East Greta early in the year. Government locomotives were initially utilized for all coal haulage duties.

1895 - East Greta Coal Company purchases their first locomotive, a Manning Wardle and Co 4-4-0T. The locomotive was numbered, not surprisingly, 1.
The locomotive came second hand, originally owned by the NSWGR.

1901 - Construction of the Aberdare Railway (Aberdare Junction - Cessnock) was commenced by the 'Australian Agricultural Company' and the ,Aberdare Collieries of NSW Limited'.
  Hebburn Colliery (later Hebburn #1) opens.

1902 - Aberdare Railway opened to Weston.

1903 - Abermain Colliery (later Abermain #1) opens.

1904 - Aberdare Railway opened to Cessnock.

1905 - Aberdare Colliery opens at Caledonia.

1906 - Neath Colliery opens.

2010 - The EL class historically start being used on the line to Pelton. The class representing the first use of mainline diesel locomotives for many decades, as well as the first use of General Electric locomotives.
  They eventually go on to replace the ALCo DL531 (48 and PL classes) that had been the mainstay since the demise of steam.