The South Maitland Railway The South Maitland Railway (SMR) was a network of privately-owned branch lines to the SW of Maitland in New South Wales. It comprised of several smaller railways that grouped to gether to become the South Maitland Railway Pty Ltd (SMR) serving the large number of collieries in the district. Most of the network is now long gone, but some heavy trains still enter onto the mainline from the former SMR branch at Maitland heading for Newcastle, occasional traffic can still be seen on the remainder. The SMR was one of the last places in Australia to see working steam and used fantasic british built Beyer Peacock 2-8-2T locos of which 14 were built and amazingly 14 survive in preservation. The original shed survives at Maitland just off the junction.
Some of the major collieries on the route were:
Aberdare
Aberdare extended
Cessnock No 1 & 2
Pelton
Stanford Main No 2
Maitland Main