Belmont Station - Adamstown Belmont Railway - Fernleigh Track

Dead end stop 15.51 kilometres from Adamstown.

First passenger train travelled to Belmont on 26 December 1916. Official opening occurred on 2 February 1917. With the opening of the railway extension from Burwood Extended Colliery at Redhead to Belmont pending, train crews were issued instructions on 22 December 1916. It was noted that although a private company (The Redhead Estate and Coal Company) extended the line the Government would provide the engines and rolling stock and would work the line. Drivers were warned that the line was unfenced. Therefore a sharp lookout would be needed for stock that may stray across the line. Maximum speed during the day was to be 20 miles per hour; at night maximum speed was lowered to 15 miles per hour. According to the Newcastle Morning Herald in December 1923, 3,238 passengers had travelled by train to Belmont. This was well in excess of the number who had travelled in 1922. Time of journey was recorded as slightly under an hour..

Belmont Station was once a focus for travellers arriving by train to connect with buses for destinations south of Belmont. Belmont Station sold ordinary passenger tickets, arranged booked seats to most destinations in Australia and handled both inwards and outwards parcels. Revenue for December 1970 was $620. It was made up of $159 for sale of reserved tickets and $209 for ordinary ticket sales. The station received 1581 parcels and despatched 306. By December 1970 the signal equipment had been reduced to one single action lever. The stationmaster at Belmont was Mr. Jack Patman. The last passenger service to Newcastle departed from Belmont Station in the early evening of Thursday 9 April 1971. CPH 17 performed this rather melancholy duty. Well and truly gone were the crowds and high levels of expectation that greeted the first train on 26 December 1916. Thus ended passenger services over the New Redhead and Estate Coal Company’s railway.

As at 10 May 1981 the “Belmont” station destination name still readable and “in situ” on Belmont Station. Sometime during the week of 11-16 June 1990 an internal roof fire damaged the former Belmont Station building then being used by Belmont scouts. The fire was probably caused by an electrical fault. The damage was covered by insurance. By March 1991 the fire damaged building at the former station had been demolished.

This work by Lake Macquarie City Library is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License