To my delight, coal trains were again on the move from Maitland...

To my delight, coal trains were again on the move from Maitland towards the Port of Newcastle NSW by about 2055 AEST on Tuesday 17 August 2021.

The leading AZJ locomotive allegedly incorrectly ran through what railways call 'catch points'. These are typically placed on sidings to stop wagons from rolling onto the main line, but unusually there's apparently a set just before the points that allow trains to diverge from the 'coal line' (as noted above) to the 'passenger line' east of Maitland station.

There will be congestion into (and out of) the Port of Newcastle as the coal (un)loaders have been unused for hours but a better outcome than I'd feared.

It's possible that two of the four tracks east of Maitland (towards the port) are unable to be used. I don't have visibility on that. If so, it reduces the number of available train paths on what is for Australia a very busy line section. Well worth spending a few minutes at East Maitland or elsewhere to see how frequently coal trains roll by.

Except for track maintenance and mishaps as we're saw today, it's a procession.

Never ideal to have unscheduled mishaps like this but fortunately (unlike flooding in recent months on the main Maitland - Brisbane north coast line) it was rectified in about 10 hours.