Until the arrival of Interail on the NSW coal scene back in the early 2000s, coal was hauled by rail exclusively by Freight Corp. National Rail entered coal haulage in the mid 2000s with their Macquarie Power contract and then took over Freight Corp and, after becoming PacNat, competed with QR National (who by then had taken over Interail) for the local coal business.
The local coal producers have been skeptical of this duopoly and have endeavoured to control coal haulage costs by purchasing some of their own locomotive and wagon fleets and utilising existing approved rail operators to operate this equipment on their behalf. Early examples of this were Whitehaven and Xstrata, both of which utilise PacNat crews. Centennial have formed a similar alliance with Southern Shorthaul Railway.
Centennial Coal, which was established in 1989, operated some 12 mines, including Airly, Angus Place, Awaba, Charbon, Clarence, Ivanhoe, Lidsdale, Mandalong, Mannering, Myuna, Newstan and Springvale. This DVD-R concentrates on the coal operations hauled on their behalf by SSR and, to a lesser extent, by PacNat. Locomotives seen in this presentation include C, CEY, G, GL, LZ, T, 44, 442, 48/830, 49, 81 and 82 Classes.
Approximate run time: 96 minutes.