150 years of continuous steam on the Richmond Vale Railway

摘要

Newcastle, then Coal River, claims the honor of developing Australia's first coal export - the loading of a small consignment of coal shipped to Bengal on the vessel Hunter in 1799. The first direct shipment of export coal was made to South America on the Anna Josephs on 6 November 1801. The coal trade has since become a major feature of Newcastle, the Hunter River and the Hunter Valley. At present, about 92 million tons of coal is shipped out of the port of Newcastle each year, all carried by rail. Several private railways were constructed in the Hunter Valley in the early years to carry the coal, but one railway can claim to a unique part in the history of railways, certainly in Australia and possibly the world: 150 years of continuous steam haulage.