The Mudgee Line was progressively opened from Wallerawang Junction to Capertree, then to Rylstone and finally to Mudgee in 1882, 1884, and 1885 respectively. This vital rail link enabled many coal, lime, shale oil, agricultural and cement facilities to be established along its route and supported the local township associated with them.
Sadly many of these businesses have now closed, primarily due to being considered economically unviable, and regular passenger rail services ceased back in 1985. The line was closed beyond Kandos, but in late 1999 the NSW government, trying to win a marginal seat, funded its reopening to Mudgee, and there was talk of reintroduction of freight traffic and passenger tourist trains. Very little traffic was generated other than the occasional heritage tourist train and, with some of the bridges marginal for potential coal traffic from Gulgong and the closing of the Mudgee abattoir, the line was again ‘stop blocked’ just beyond Kandos railway station.
Only three major businesses use rail transportation for freight on the line. Two of these are collieries, Baal Bone and Charbon, both of which ship coal south to Port Kembla. The third is the subject of this video, namely Kandos Cement, which ships cement south for distribution out of Sydney. Originally known as NSW Cement, Lime & Coal Co Ltd and now part of the Cement Australia group, Kandos started producing cement back in 1916.
This video follows the round trip operation of Kandos cement trains between Cement Australia’s Clyde distribution facilities in Sydney and the Kandos Cement works at Kandos in the period 1996 to 2001. We see the shunting activities of 48 Class assembling the empty cement wagons at Clyde and the twin 3000 HP 81 and/or 82 Class main line diesel-electric locomotives hauling them over the steep and picturesque Mudgee Line, to and from Kandos. Also seen along the tracks are a number of container trains and heavy quad 81 Class hauled coal trains. A 2009 review shows how operations have changed since 2001.
Approximate run time: 99 minutes.