Private Railways
A number of private lines were built to connect the South Maitland coalfields (discovered in 1886) with the Great Northern Railway at East Greta Junction near Maitland. By 1918 most of these had been merged into the South Maitland Railway.
A narrow gauge railway was built by South Australian Railways from Port Pirie, South Australia to Broken Hill, in 1888 to serve its silver and lead mine, which was becoming the largest and richest of its kind in the world. Since the New South Wales Government would not allow the South Australia Railways to cross the border, the last 30 km (19 mi) was built by a private company as a tramway, the Silverton Tramway from Cockburn, South Australia to Silverton, New South Wales and Broken Hill. In 1970 the line was replaced by a standard gauge South Australia government line, completing the standard transcontinental gauge line from Sydney to Perth.
A number of other private railways have been built in New South Wales to serve coal mines, steel works (notably the Port Kembla steel works, formerly operated by BHP (now BlueScope Steel) and quarries, especially in the first half of the 20th century.
Read more about this topic: Rail Transport In New South Wales
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