Lithgow Valley underground diesels

摘要

This article came about as a result of Mrs Given Reynolds noticing a photograph of the Lithgow Valley Colliery North British locomotive in a newsagent copy of Light Railways 202. She took it home to her husband, Bob, who very kindly provided the author with some reminiscences of his time at the colliery. Ross Mainwaring provided his research materials to fill out the story and Fred Foye added his excellent personal recollections. The Lithgow Valley Colliery Company Ltd was initially formed in 1872 to open the colliery of the same name. Just four years before, the Hermitage Colliery had opened, and from 1884 the two were in common ownership. They faced each other across the Farmers Creek valley not much more than three-quarters of a mile apart, with the town of Lithgow lying between them, Hermitage to the north and Lithgow Valley to the south. Both were tunnel mines, so at each coal could be hauled out from the Lithgow Seam workings to the surface on the level.