Trackside

Richmond Main Station

The Richmond Vale Railway Museum (RVRM) near Kurri Kurri in the New South Wales Hunter Valley Region, is an excellent working museum preserving and displaying the history of J&A Brown (later, Coal and Allied Ltd). Located on the former site of the Richmond Main Colliery, the museum regularly runs heritage steam tours on the workers passenger line between Richmond Vale and Pelaw Main.

History of the RVRM

The Richmond Vale Preservation Co-Operative Society Ltd (RVPCSLtd) was founded in 1979 as a response to the closure of the Richmond Vale line (with the closure of the mines at Pelaw Main and Richmond Main, trains only ran as far as Stockrington Colliery, which eventually turned to road haulage in 1987), with the intention of preserving the heritage unique to the coalfield of the lower Hunter Valley area. Since 1979, a large collection of historically significant heritage items have been collected by the society, and stored on site at Richmond Vale, most being left in the care of the museum by their owners, which include Coal and Allied and Cessnock City Council.

Inside the cab of SMR30 is like a step back in time.

Prior to the Richmond Vale Railways final closure in 1987, the line was the last steam hauled railway in Australia, with regular services running coal from Stockrington Colliery to Hexham. Pelaw Main had ceased production in 1961 and Richmond Main in 1967. Before it’s closure, Richmond Main was one of the largest vertical shaft mines in the Southern Hemisphere, and at it’s peak employed over 1200 men and boys, with a complete underground stable for up to and over 200 pit ponies, and in the 1920’s, was regarded as being the most modern mine in Australia.

Richmond Main was once owned by John “Baron” Brown, and was the pride of his empire. It was at Richmond Main that he built his main office, as well as having his own power station and locomotive depot on site (with another such depot at Pelaw Main). The power station was originally constructed to provide power to Pelaw Main and Richmond Main, but it is thought that it was also used to power the local towns of Kurri Kurri and even Cessnock, as a result of being plugged into the local power grid.

After establishing the museum at Richmond Vale, the RVPCSLtd were aiming to rebuild the original coal line from Richmond Main to Stockrington Colliery, and then on to Hexham. This would later prove to be unfeasable as a proposed level crossing at Leggett’s Drive (formerly known as Mulbring Road) was knocked back by Cessnock Council. This was due to a forecast increase in traffic from The Hunter Valley to the F3 freeway to Sydney, and the local council did not want a major road to be frequently interrupted by a heritage train running back and forth. From 1986, RVRM operated their first passenger services on this rebuilt section of line, their trains headed up by 0-4-0 Saddle Tank Marjorie. Upon arrival at the end of the line, the train would reverse back through the station towards the locomotive workshops, before returning to the platform.

No.9 is stored out the back of the museum, awaiting her turn at restoration.

With the arrival of four SMR10 Class locomotives from Hexham in 1990, owned by Coal & Allied Ltd, and now in the care of The RVRM, efforts were redoubled on the other line running out of Richmond Main – the workers line between Pelaw Main and Richmond Main, and this line was opened to service in 1991. Originally used to transfer workers from the company cottages at Pelaw Main to the mine at Richmond Main (and back again), the line allows visitors to visit the two major coal mining sites that form the museum.

Current Exhibits

The RVRM, as well as being an excellent place to see unique heritage steam and diesel locomotives in action, offers an excellent example (indeed, the only example of such a train in the country) of a non air braked goods train, formed of a selection of non air hoppers (restored and painted in the various liveries carried by such hoppers over the years) and a restored guards van.

SMR30 at Pelaw Main

Beyond a simple train ride, the museum offers a very rich and deep history of coal mining in the lower Hunter Valley, with a lot of relics of the mines still remaining at both Richmond Main and Pelaw Main. The main mine building at Richmond Main, the administration/pay office stands stall amongst a sea of railway and mining artefacts, equipment and old machinery from decades past. Impressive structures at Pelaw Main, such as the bathhouse and wheelhouse still stand, with plans underway to restore the original locomotive depot at Pelaw Main being put into place already.

As well as SMR30, the museum has a number of other steam and diesel locomotives in various stages of restoration. Marjorie and sister unit Kathleen are both under various stages of work, as well as other examples of the SMR10 Class stored on site (The SMR10 class were used during the last years of the railway, transporting coal from Stockrington to Hexham) awaiting their own turn at restoration. A number of examples of the BHP Newcastle fleet are also on site – a number of steelworks diesels in running condition, and used to replace steam power during times of high fire danger.

The Future

SMR22 at RVRM awaiting restoration

As mentioned above, plans are in place for the eventual restoration of the engine shed at Pelaw Main, although this is a long way down the line. Plans are also being put into motion to continue the expansion of the line along the original corridor to Weston, to join the South Maitland Railway, and then on to the mainline via Maitland! This is in addition to the continual efforts to maintain the current fleet of locos, wagons and passenger cars, as well as to restore more non-air hoppers in their original colour schemes to use on the non-air train, which is a major attraction for railfans around the state.

Of course, none of this would be possible without the volunteers, whose hard work makes the whole outfit possible. Running on donations and free labour, they are doing everything from hand laying the track, maintaining the perway, right through to the restoration and care of the museums operating fleet, and the often overlooked (but still just as important) tasks such as manning the canteen and the souvenir shop. From your driver to your carriage attendant, to the nice folks that sold you your ticket that morning, everyone is a volunteer working together to ensure that steam continues to operate on Richmond Vale Railway, where it has run at some point on the line since 1855.

The museum runs trains on every Sunday in the school holidays, as well as numerous Sundays throughout the year

Given the challenges of the museum, with so many exhibits needing care, and so many big plans for the future, donations are always welcome, as well as extra pairs of hands to help with the work. The more hands that are helping, the faster the work can get done, be it selling tickets, helping passengers as a carriage attendant, or laying sleepers and rails.

For more information on how you can help the friendly and hard-working team at The Richmond Vale Railway Museum, simply click on over to their website, and help secure a piece of industrial and railway heritage for generations to come. If you can’t volunteer, pop along to the museum and enjoy a fantastic day out with like minded people. Learn about the history of the site first hand, and see for yourself the amount of work and the dedicated people that make everything you see possible.

A massive thankyou goes to RVRM member Richard Kiejda for compiling a brief history of the RVR and the RVRM, without which the information in this article would not have been possible. Before I sat down to write this, I knew precious little about the RVR, and the RVRM, and it was only from reading the notes he compiled for us, and listening to both himself and Graham Harper on the day as they showed us around. Their dedication to the museum is nothing short of inspiring.