Consett Steel Works

Friday August 1 1980 was a long day as we drove all the back from Boat of Garten, Scotland to where Don lived in Crook, Co. Durham. On nearing Corbridge the bad weather left us and on joining the A68 the sun came out but it was not a happy place we were going to. The A692 led to Consett where the steel works were closed the same month, with the certain prospect of high unemployment. The coke ovens were burning and we were able to get a number of photographs from the over bridge including a fair number of wagons and BSC diesel shunters. As we left another car load of people pulled up with the same idea; it was a sad place though, and I wanted to leave.

A diesel shunter still in use at the works. Only one of these yellow-liveried 0-6-0s survived the closure and the remainder were scrapped soon after. Where we stayed in Crook is a few hundred feet above sea level and our friends then lived in the middle of a row of terraced houses (Low Jobs Hill) above Crook. On a clear summer evening at the back of the house an orange glow lit up the sky in the distance, but no more after this month.

Newcastle

Although I spent many holidays in Co. Durham I inexplicably paid very few visits to Newcastle station; well, living near the ECML Don had ‘seen everything’ but this Wednesday June 23 1976 we took a quick drive to Durham and a dmu ride to Newcastle, resulting in a few photos. This one was taken from the south end of the station with 37066 (D6768) within spitting distance of its home depot of Gateshead on a through freight.