The Consolidated Shales Mining Company Pty came into being  in the autumn of 2006, following the closure of  the previous 'company' belonging its 'Chairman', the 'McMillan Iron Ore Mining Pty', - an 'O' scale affair, which had exhausted the iron-ore reserves at its Mount Armstrong mine on an island in the Dampier Archipelago off the north-west coast of Australia in the previous year....

With the ever increasing use of shales in the chemical and cement industries, and by using as much of the original infrastructure as possible, the new 'company' was formed, and it built a new heavy-haul narrow gauge line from the port handling facility at Harrison Point to the new mine at Coolamusta.

The current 32mm gauge railway is currently erected in its second location, on the Isle of Anglesey (its first location being in North Yorkshire), and is 23.84 meters (78ft) long. - In the yard areas, at each end of the line, working by 'Line-of-Sight' applies at all times. However, the single line between the port and mine is strictly worked using a special token which is interlocked with the exit signal at each of the yard areas.

Trains are loaded through an overhead hopper at the mine loadout facility, with the wagons being automatically discharged through doors in their west side as they are fed through the unloading station after their arrival at the port. - Each wagon has a carrying capacity of 2.1Kg (4lb 11oz) of ore, and the trains that they are formed into are hauled by a fleet of extremely rugged (and some would say very noisy) narrow gauge heavy-haul diesel locomotives, the types of which are not to be seen anywhere else in the world..........................................

The ore schedule is maintained by three sets of wagons, hauled usually by one of the 'companys' Double-Diesel Locomotives - One set of wagons is usually in transit between the mine and port, whilst the other two sets of wagons are being loaded or unloaded respectively - As there are no run-round facilities at the mine, either a Double-Diesel locomotive, or two Single-Diesel locomotives working in multiple are present there to release the arriving train Locomotive and position or 'spot' the wagons for loading - Additional traffic takes the form of supply and works trains, or inspection specials.