1963
Railway bridge over Hobart Rd New Lambton. The railway led to the Lambton Colliery site a few hundred metres to the west of this location. Hunter Photo Bank. Newcastle Region Library.
2014
The railway bridges over Hobart Rd and Howe St were removed in 1966. The only subtle reminders that remain, are the slight dip in Hobart Road where it passed under the bridge, and a funny little jink in Howe St where the road needed to pass perpendicular under the narrow bridge.
I have been reading some of your comments on the Lambton Colliery and the railway line.
In fact part of the railway line still exists either side of the crossing of Georgetown Road. To the north-east, the remnants of the line almost reach the main north line (where the junction has been removed) and to the south-west the line goes as far as the Council depot (Griffiths Road and Turton Road). The remnants consist of sleepers and rails. The rails are still present embedded in Georgetown Road itself.
I am bemused by the 1963 photograph of a coal train travelling over the Howe Street bridge. If the mine was closed in 1936 where was the train going?
After the Lambton mine closed in 1936 the rail line continued to be used by other nearby collieries to transport their coal to Carrington (Bullock Island), as this quote from a 1950 article shows.
“With the advent of the Durham Pit the operations at the old Lambton Collier were considerably curtailed and eventually came to a close. The colliery sidings however remained in constant use, as there were quite a number of small mines in the vicinity whose owners made arrangements to load coal into hoppers for shipping at the Bullock Island cranes.”
“Old Lambton Colliery Railway, Scottish Australian Coal Mining Company”. G.H. Eardley. Australian Railway Historical Society Bulletin #156, October 1950.