"Mini Profile Series - Newcastle's Swansong of Steam (1968-1973)"
By Steve McNicol
Paperback cover 28 pages colour & black/white photos
PUBLISHER'S NOTE
Back in 1981 we produced a book titled Newcastle's Steam Finale. It quickly sold out and was followed in 1984 by Steam Around Newcastle. While Newcastle's Steam Finale covered the decline of NSW Railway's steam locomotives in the area, Steam Around Newcastle was primarily a pictorial and also looked at the private coal and industrial lines. Now, forty years later we are going to revisit the end of Government steam around Newcastle, but this time it has more of my personal recollections, not just the hard facts. We have made use of the rundown of steam notes and the Allotment Lists from the Newcastle's Steam Finale book but have enhanced this with those personal recollections and the reason we start at 1968 is quite simple. After a number of aborted attempts to visit the area earlier it wasn't until 1968 that I actually made my first trip. Prior to 1971 I only had a very basic camera so I apologise in advance for the photo quality during this period.