Views from the 1960's to the 1990's of the East Coast Main Line from Manors north through Northumberland

Most of these views were taken just north of Morpeth where the new loop from the Blyth and Tyne route joined the ECML. The gallery features the last regular duties of the DELTICS.

These photos are mainly from the early 80's before electrification and the re-building of the station to provide more through platforms and eliminate many of the bay platforms no longer needed because of the takeover of the lines to the coast by the the Tyneside Metro. One may wonder why the old station only had 3 through platforms, but until 1906 when the King Edward Bridge was built all the East coast express trains used the High Level bridge and had to reverse in the station. There were no through passenger services westwards to Carlisle from the east side of the station and the lack of through platforms was therefore not a problem.

Views covering Gateshead shed in the late 1980's, Low Fell and Tyne Yard some dating back to 1978/9. Earlier views fron steam days are being added.

This collection covers the East Coast Main Line between Chester-le-Street through Durham, Relly Mill to Darlington.
Most of the views are from 1979 to 1989 before electrification.

Continuing coverage of the ECML southwardsthrogh the Vale Of York through York and then to Selby and Church Fenton.
Views are mainly from the late 1960's to the 1980's

These photos were taken back in 1967/8 shortly before the passenger service ceased. As they were taken with a Kodak Starmite on 120 film in somewhat lousy weather they aren't of a brilliant quality but they at least are a record and mostly in (dubious) colour of a station which closed nearly 40 years ago.
The collection now includes various views of stations on the branch from Alnwick to Coldstream; some unidentified.
These were taken either by Jim Scott or myself in the early 1960's

A collection of rather murky views mainly taken by myself and the late Jim Scott and not really worth purchasing prints. They are however a record of a group of lines now completely gone.

This album takes a look at the old Blyth and Tyne area, most routes survive today with a large part now taken over by the Metro. The lines via Newsham to Lynemouth and Morpeth exist mainly for traffic to and from the Alcan facilities at Lynemouth and North Blyth, but 20 years ago coal traffic to Blyth Power station and the 2 shipping points at West Blyth and Bates pre-dominated.
The Album is now arranged as a 'tour' commencing at Morpeth through Bedlington and Newsham to Shiremoor and Percy Main. There is also some coverage of the old B & T route through Benton to the coast although the views from Monkseaton onwards are on the diversion built by the North Eastern. Finally the lines north of Bedlington through Ashington and Winning with some coverage of the local collieries are covered.
Views date from just after the first World War and once again some images especially the older B & W ones are not brilliant quality. Bear this in mine if you are ordering prints.
The lines in the Blyth area are covered by seperate albums and Blyth port has its own album

This collection is an archive of mainly black and white views from the 1960's after closure of the various routes but whilst most of the infrastructure was intact. The photos were mostly taken by the late Jim Scott and are not of top quality but they are at least a record of many scenes which do not appear to have been recorded by few other photographers.
Newsham was the junction for the routes which formed in effect a large out and back loop. Leaving the main line the double track route to the staiths turned off right alongside the Golf Course and headed straight for the coast. South Beach estate and Rotary Way did not then exist and the line formed aboundary between the built up area to the North West and fields on the South East. Crofton Mill Pit or Cowpen Colliery (Mill Pit) as it is described on a BHC 1929 Map sidings were on the left and the line climbed to pass over Wensleydale Terrace or Links Road as it used to be called.
Behind the Park a large reception yard was laid out with further connections off to the right to service South Harbour and the various timber yards where pit props were made.
At the north end of the sidings the line climbed steeply onto a wooden trestle structure alongside the river to reach the loading spouts Nos 1 to 9 (in 1929) The line split into 3 tracks with various crossovers to facilitate the shunting of wagons.
At the north end of the Low Quay the line became double and the trestle stucture descended passing over a track to a Tug spout on the High Quay. The line curved on a stone lined embankment behind the graving docks and there were trailing connections on the south side from the Gas Works and on the north from the Shipyard.
Eventually a single track bridge over Turner Street (Regent street) brought the line into a yard to the north of the Passenger Terminus and Goods yard. Sidings on the North served South Blyth loco shed and the lines from the station merged to cross the road with further sidings to a pit on the right.
The double track now curved South West and headed back towards Newsham with a trailing connection on the right from Isabella pit and Bates Pit and shipping point. Crossing Plessey Road the route joined our starting point back at Newsham station.
Nowadays only South Newsham box survives with a single track branch following the old passenger route before turning off to take the old route to Isabella and Bates. I believe that at present this branch is out of use.
WARNING The negatives unfortunately are not really suitable for printing, bear this in mind if you decide to purchase copies.

West Blyth staiths were served by an upper yard for fulls and extra storage and a lower yard for empties which gravitated from the staiths. At the yard throat stood Cambois shed which also provided locos for traffoc to the adjacent Power station complex and also trip workings to the Alcan pots near the harbour entrance. Alumina and Petro coke was received at the \'pots\' for Lynemouth smelter and Alumina was also shipped to Fort William via the West Highland line. One of the best viewpoints was a bridge carrying a cart track over the yard throat from which one could observe activities at all the local facilities including the Power station reception sidings. The exposed site near the North sea meant that there were few trees to block the views although this made the bridge one of the windiest and coldest spots in the North East! Looking south over the yard the skyline was dominated by the 2 Power stations A and B then the staiths and finally the 2 square blocks with gantrys between were the Ash Disposal Plants. Ash was taken out to sea and dumped. Beyond the Ash plant on a clear day (which wasn't very often) the Alcan 'Pots' at North Blyth could be seen. Activity at the yards was fairly brisk but the 1984 Miners strike basically was the death knell for the staiths and deep mining in the area. Eventually the Power stations were run down with A (the smaller pair of chimneys) being at first put on stand by and then with B which was acknowledged to be one of the most efficient coal fired Powered Stations ever built both being closed, to be replaced by Gas fired Stations. With Gas now running out and having to be imported from half way across Russia at high cost, what a brilliant idea this has proved to be!In Dec 2006 I paid a return visit and what a sad sight it is, most of the track remains but is completely overhrown and the shed is derelict.

West Blyth Staithes were the last of the traditional coal staiths on the River Blyth and closed a few years after these photos were taken. Nowadays most of the railway infrastructure and even Blyth Power Station have gone with only a single line remaining to the Alcan facility, although recently a track has been laid in to Battleship Wharf and coal is being imported! from eastern Europe

In 1896 the North Eastern Railway opened their second set of staiths at Blyth on the north side of the river and these became the main shipping point for coal from the Ashington and Bedlington areas. Traffic increased until a further set of staiths were completed at West Blyth after WW1. North Blyth shed provided the locomotives for the mineral traffic until dieselisation and the contraction of the coal industry left only West Blyth serviced by the new Cambois diesel depot. Nearer the mouth of the river were the Cambois Coal Company's staiths now occupied by the Alcan 'pots', whilst further up river adjacent to the North Blyth reception sidings was Battleship wharf used in the 60's for scrapping several locomotives including some of the A4's.
Nowadays the sole remaining railway line in the area links the Alcan 'pots' with the Lynemouth smelter and Alumina is also transported to Fort William.
Recently however there has been a mini revival with a track put in to Battleship wharf for handling coal from Eastern Europe, a bit of a change for Blyth once in the 1960's the largest coal exporting port in Europe.

Blyth in Nortumberland held in the 1960's the title of the UK's premier coal shipping port. At its peak there were 5 sets of staithes, 3 originally being built by the North Eastern railway and its successor the LNER. In addition there were 2 sets of Colliery Company owned shipping points of which Bates on the Blyth town side of the river survives albiet in a much rebuilt form. The site of the Cowpen Coal Company staithes is now occupied by the Alcan alumina and petro coke unloading facility. The railway owned staithes at South, North and West Blyth were all high timber structures where coal could be teemed by gravity. South Blyth closed first followed by North Blyth whilst West Blyth, the most modern of the three lasted until after the 1984 Miners strike which effectively killed off the bulk of coal mining in the North East.
I had the good fortune to be given a conducted tour of the West Blyth staithes by John Sinclair whilst they were still fairly active and there is a seperate photographic collection.
Nowadays Blyth port earns its living by importing.

The Metro uses the old South Gosforth car sheds originally opened in 1923 to service the original elctric trains introduced by the North Eastern Railway. Situated on the old Ponteland branch which has now been re-instated as far as the Airport, there was a goods avoiding line on the north side as when the Metro opened there was still freight traffic to Rowntrees chocolate factory at Fawdon.
The 5 Metro shunters,WL1-5 were purchased cheaply as they were originally built for a cancelled export order. Not entirely suitable for use in the tunnels they were re-placed by 3 battery electric shunters a couple of years after these photos were taken in September 1986.

The majority of the images in this album are from the collection of DR Wilcock and are believed to have been taken by a former employee of the NCB at Ashington between 1960 and 1970. Other images have there origin annotated accordingly. Many thanks Duncan for your additions to the gallery!

This collection is slightly different to the other Tyne Valley collections in that it is composed primarily of black & white snapshots from 1966, the wet day was 8 May66 and the dry day 1 Jun66. Many of the buildings are now demolished.

Hexham is the largest town between Carlisle and the Newcastle upon Tyne metropolis. There were formerly branch lines to Allendale and the former North British railway up the North Tyne Valley to Riccarton Junc on the Waverley route. These had all closed by 1956 however Hexham remains the terminus of a local service to Newcastle and there are also the through trains to Carlisle, some of which are 156 powered Scotrail services on to Stranraer and Glasgow.
There used to be a thriving goods yard but the end of Speedlink services finished off the Hexham Pickup which used to convey resin and glue for Egger. Another development in the late 80's was the use of the former northern carriage sidings as a ballast terminal for stone quarried at Barrasford. The sidings were sold to the Stone company as part of the deal; unfortunately after a few years the Railway said the stone was not of the right quality and cancelled the contract.
When EWS took over the freight services they made an effort to capture the log traffic from the massive Kielder forest and ran a daily pick up from Carlisle. Unfortunately by this time most of the goods yard was unfit for use and the only siding useable could only hold 7 wagons. The stone company was approached to see if their sidings could be used but not un-naturally having paid out money for nothing they would not play ball and EWS gave up the service. Nowadays no freight traffic originates anywhere on the line between Carlisle and Newcastle but there are still several through services conveying coal, containers, limestone and for the present steel ingots.

Melkridge is a small village east of Haltwhistle, many years ago a colliery was situated here but it closed between the Wars. In the late 1980's good quality coal on Plenmeller Common high in the hills to the south of the River Tyne could be mined by OpenCast if planning permission could be obtained. Eventually it was agreed that the coal could be extracted but only on condition that road transport was not used as the local road infrastructure was not suitable.
The problem was solved by building a conveyor some 2 miles long down the hillside and across the river to a Loader on the Newcastle to Carlisle railway situated just east of Whitfield tunnel. Everything was completed by the early 1990's, however the upgrading of the local signalling system was not fully completed and loadedtrains initially continued west to Carlisle for running round before returning past the loader; an additional round trip of nearly 50 miles.
Traffic amounted usually to just 1 train per day, invariably 56 powered and the coal was destined usually for Eggbrough In Yorkshire or any other of the adjacent Power stations.
After about 7 years planning permission was requested to open the coal field up further, but the local NIMBY's succeeded in getting this refused. Shortly after this the system closed down and the conveyor and Loader were dismantled. The track is still there however, as far as I know it has only been used once since the loader closed when 2 DRS 20's on a trial trip with some containers got into difficulty and were shunted there to stop the line being blocked.

Haltwhistle is quite photogenic as apart from the modernisation of the signalling in connection with the construction of the Loader at Melkridge, the station has retained most of its buildings as they are all 'listed'. Even the Signal Box was scheduled to be re-instated however money ran out to complete the electrical installations and it is only used as an office. A few years ago most of the Goods yard was re-developed as a business park however there are still 2 sidings in use by the Permanent Way Dept. Recently the platforms were re-built the station re-painted and ramps added to the waiting rooms to improve access.
Freight traffic through the station is still fairly heavy mainly consisting of coal from Hunterston to Yorkshire, Stone from Hardendale to Teeside, Containers from Teesport to Workington and a weekly Nuclear Flask train from Sellafield to Hartlepool.
There is at present a steel ingots train from Teeside to Workington Rail Mill, however this will cease later this year when Workington closes down.
In the past there was more variety with 2 Oil trains per day from Stanlow to Jarrow, and for a while a log 'Trip' from Hexham to Carlisle.
Passenger trains are 142 or 156, however at weekends there can sometimes be diversions from the ECML, these recently have been usually GNER HST's working an hourly shuttle.

A small collection of views mainly from just prior to the line's demise in 1976

This collection contains views of localities in East Durham (old County Durham)

The electrified railway at Westoe in South Shields at the mouth of the River Tyne was one of the last colliery systems in the North East.

This collection covers various locations in West Durham from just after the first World War until the 1980's. Some of the earlier views were taken on 120 film taken with a cheap camera back in my school days!
Most of these routes have now gone, the Consett line went when the steel works closed and the Weardale line when the cement works at Eastgate shut down. Part of this route is in the throes of re-opening as a preserved line. Back in the late 1960's early 1970's Bishop Auckland still had an active goods yard and the Glaxo works at Barnard Castle brought waste by road to the former platform 4 where it was loaded onto Algeco owned wagons for shipping to Hartlepool where I believe it was piped out to sea and dumped!
The tip at Etherley on the site of the former Witton Park iron works was used as a ballast dump, Wolsingham still had coal drops, and the sidings were also used by a Steel Forge, a subsidiary of the Doxford Group at Sunderland to load castings. The works also had its own sidings now used by the Weardale line. The line ended at Eastgate cement works although formerly it continued on to Wearhead. This part of the route gradually retreated towards Eastgate and I wass lucky enough to get photos before the track was lifted at Westgate.
Many of the more important ex Stockton and Darlington double tracked stations only had one through platform, trains on the opposite line having to cross over to serve the station. This feature could still be seen at Bishop Auckland (Weardale line) and Etherley. Among other stations with this feature were Crook and Barnard Castle.
The photos of the viaduct being infilled are I think of Knitsley on the Relly Mill to Consett branch which was buried in 1919-1920. They are from old glass plates rescued over 20 years ago.

Views mainly from the late 1980's to about 2001 of trains on this busy route which serves the remnants of Teessides heavy industry. This has now been expanded to include recently acquired views taken by the late Alan Ramsey and also various images from steam days. One or two earlier views have now been added

The line from Northallerton to Redmire survived well into the diesel era mainly due to the limestone quarry at Redmire but several of the intermediate stations retained goods facilities beyond the 1970's and there was also an Oil depot at Bedale. This collection features Bedale and Leyburn in 1979 plus the odd view of Wensley and Redmire (62005 in 1967). The Wensleydale Railway have re-opened part of the route; visit their site at http://www.wensleydalerailwayassociation.com/ for information andfurther views of the line.

This collection covers the ex Midland and North Eastern lines from east of HELLIFIELD (this station is in the Railways of Cumbria Gallery) through Skipton to Leeds and Bradford and then the old Leeds Northern line to Harrogate. Many of the views were taken by David Ford

These views date mainly from the 1920's and 1930's with a few war time views of air raid damage at Sunderland. The originals were glass or celluloid negatives rescued over 25 years ago and now in the main passed on to the Armstrong collection for safe keeping. Many of the views were taken as part of a campaign the LNER undertook to tidy up its image and create gardens etc on the lineside.
Others depict line improvements and new works, some of these I have been unable to identify the locality, and if anyone is able to identify the site(s) please send me a message.

This collection features views where I do not know the location of the subjects therein. The majority are somewhere in Scotland but there are some views from the North East and Midlands. I have put the album in this gallery so that all the unidentified views are grouped together
If you can throw some light on individual locations please put a message on or e-mail me. Thanks Ernie

The colliery at Shilbottle was another late survivor of the Northumberland deep mines and was linked to the ECML south of Alnmouth by a steeply graded branch line. Again we have a collection views from when the line was still steam worked.

The Drift mine at Whittle was one of the most picturesque of the Northumbrian mines and was situated next to the A1 road and linked to the East Coast Main Line at Southside by a four mile winding mineral branch. These are views from steam days.

Locations covered include :
Backworth
Burradon
Derek Crouch Widdrington
Mech Navvies Ltd Swalwell
Winlaton Mill
Derwenthaugh

There are many other industrial views in specific galleries

This collection contains views of localities in the old County of Northumberland (I'm having nowt to do with Tyne & Wear, Teeside etc!) not covered by specific collections

Ponteland was a small terminus north west of Newcastle. The line from South Gosforth was constructed under the 1896 Light Railways Act. Work began in 1900 but the line was not completed until 1905. In 1980 powers were obtained to build an extension to Darras Hall , a locality which was planned to be a large housing development for the more affluent. In the event development was sporadic and traffic on the extension, opened in 1913 never really developed. The rise of road transport saw passenger services withdrawn in 1929. Freight traffic continued to Ponteland until August 1967.

This collection contains views of railways in Yorkshire in localities not covered by the other specific collections