The Final Years
Until the early 1960s, coal trains on the Belmont Branch consisted of rakes of non-air-braked, 4-wheel hopper wagons hauled by either a 50 class or a 53 class Standard Goods locomotive on allotment to Port Waratah depot. Locomotives operated tender first towards Belmont and carried respirators for working through Fernleigh Tunnel. From 1,963 bhp (1,464 kW) progressively introduced its own CXD bogie hopper wagons to the Belmont line traffic.
From August 1965, 48-class diesel locomotives took over from the steam engines on the coal trains, however there were brief periods when steam returned because of a shortage of diesel motive power. Later, 44, 45 and 47 class diesels were authorised to work the line, 47 class being particularly prevalent.
Following the closure of Lambton Colliery at Redhead, the last operating pit in the area in late 1991, the Belmont Branch was closed from 19 December 1991.
Read more about this topic: Belmont Railway Line
Famous quotes containing the words final and/or years:
“A poem is like a person. Though it has a family tree, it is important not because of its ancestors but because of its individuality. The poem, like any human being, is something more than its most complete analysis. Like any human being, it gives a sense of unified individuality which no summary of its qualities can reproduce; and at the same time a sense of variety which is beyond satisfactory final analysis.”
—Donald Stauffer (b. 1930)
“The years of imprisonment hardened me.... Perhaps if you have been given a moment to hold back and wait for the next blow, your emotions wouldn’t be blunted as they have been in my case. When it happens every day of your life, when that pain becomes a way of life, I no longer have the emotion of fear. ... there is no longer anything I can fear. There is nothing the government has not done to me. There isn’t any pain I haven’t known.”
—Winnie Mandela (b. 1936)