Tracking Down: In Search of BR Freight in the 1980s by TransportTreasuryPublishing

Tracking Down: In Search of BR Freight In the 1980s

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Embark on a mesmerising journey through time and memory, where the click of a camera shutter captures more than just images—it preserves the essence of an era. In this enchanting volume, Craig’s lens becomes a time machine, whisking us back in time to the early 1980s to the smoke-blackened landscapes and bustling railways of Northeast England. From the coalfields of Southeast Northumberland to the industrial heartlands of Teesside, each photograph opens a portal to a bygone age. Feel the pulse of excitement as diesel locomotives thunder past, their engines echoing the spirit of an era on the brink of change. Through Craig’s masterful eye, we witness not just trains, but the soul of a region—a region shaped by its railways, its industries, and its people. With every turn of the page, we journey alongside Craig and his friends, soaking in the sights, sounds, and stories of a vanished world. This isn’t just a collection of photographs—it’s a tribute to resilience, a celebration of friendship, and a testament to the enduring magic of the rails. Join us on this unforgettable odyssey, where nostalgia meets innovation, and where every image is a window into a world we thought lost to time.

Compiled by Craig Oliphant and Colin Alexander

ISBN 978-1-913893-51-4

Tracking Down: In Search of BR Freight in the 1980s

by Craig Oliphant and Colin Alexander

Tracking Down: In Search of BR Freight in the 1980s

by Craig Oliphant and Colin Alexander

© Images and design: Transport Treasury 2024 Text: Craig Oliphant and Colin Alexander ISBN 978-1-913893-51-4 First published in 2024 by Transport Treasury Publishing Limited. 16 Highworth Close, High Wycombe, HP13 7PJ. Totem Publishing an imprint of Transport Treasury Publishing. The copyright holders hereby give notice that all rights to this work are reserved. Aside from brief passages for the purpose of review, no part of this work may be reproduced, copied by electronic or other means, or otherwise stored in any information storage and retrieval system without written permission from the Publisher. This includes the illustrations herein which shall remain the copyright of the copyright holder. www.ttpublishing.co.uk Printed in Tarxien, Malta by Gutenberg Press Ltd. ‘Tracking Down: In Search of BR Freight in the 1980s’ is one of many books on specialist transport subjects published in strictly limited numbers and produced under the Totem Publishing imprint using material only available at The Transport Treasury. Front Cover: On 2nd February 1983, Gateshead’s 37250 passes the wreck of Carr House West signal box, as it surmounts the 1 in 55 gradient from Consett Low Yard towards the town’s High Yard with a trainload of scrap steel, resulting from the demolition of the industrial giant that was once Consett steelworks. Carr House itself was formerly the stables, granary and pony training centre of the Consett Iron Company. 37250 fared better than the steelworks, being preserved at the Wensleydale Railway. Frontispiece: This moody composition captures BR Class 08 diesel shunter 08148 at the neck of the line leading to the coal staithes at North Blyth, once Europe’s biggest coal exporting port, on 25th November 1982. As well as coal for export, the black stuff was brought here by rail in vast quantities from all over the Northeast coalfield and beyond to feed Blyth Power Station until its closure in 2001. Its quadruple chimneys dominated the skyline for miles around until their demolition in 2003. The site has recently been in the news as the location of a stalled business start-up for the manufacture of car batteries. Rear Cover: Sign of the times. As Britain’s traditional industries withered, so did British Rail’s freight operations. Dated 20th August 1984, these freight closure notices for Heaton coal depot and Blaydon public delivery siding were displayed at Newcastle Central Station. They echoed similar posters that appeared all over the country two decades earlier in the era of the infamous ‘Beeching Axe’.

Introduction

first met Craig at Newcastle Central station in the late 1970s. We were both in our teens, in fact precisely the same age having been born on the same day in 1964, he in Durham and I in Northumberland. I was slightly envious of Craig because he always had decent photographic equipment while I had to make do with a Kodak ‘Instamatic’ camera, with all of its shortcomings. His armoury included a Praktica MTL 3, Zenit EM and a Pentax MX, with a variety of lenses. More importantly, he knew how to use them. Looking at Craig’s photos from the early 1980s, it is obvious that he was influenced by some of the great railway photographers such as Trevor Ermel, Ian S. Carr, Malcolm Dunnett, and the ‘Master Neverers’ such as Ian Krause and Paul Riley, who so brilliantly and poignantly captured the last days of steam on BR. Craig has similarly, in my opinion, captured the last days of ‘proper’ diesel and electric traction on the national network before privatisation and the influx of homogenous imported motive power. Perhaps more significantly, his photographs recorded for posterity the dying days of Northeast England’s traditional industries, almost all of which were rail-served.

he was unable to do so. Undeterred, Ian laid out his quality images along the lecture theatre writing desks. He explained each image in turn as the audience progressed along the line of benches. One of the many images that caught Craig’s eye was of Hawker Siddeley prototype diesel HS4000 Kestrel departing southbound on Durham viaduct, and Craig commented how much he liked it. Ian then graciously picked up the print and presented it to Craig. This was the beginning of a friendship during which the duo ventured out together on several photographic expeditions. Both Craig and I have been interested in railways from a very young age, having been taken to several nascent preserved lines by our respective parents. However, in Craig’s case, his interest in photography came first, picking up a camera at the age of six. Although at one time he could rattle off a decent sketch, he knew he was never going to reach the same level of artistic skill with a paintbrush as either his father or grandfather. At senior school, Craig’s camera went from being an ‘instant sketchbook’ for his artwork, to being the tool of what later became his trade.

On Oliphant family outings, railways would magically Craig remembers going along with some school friends appear as a surprise reveal at the end of long country to the University of Durham’s Railway Society, where walks. One memorable example was during a seemingly Ian S. Carr was presenting an evening of his photographs. endless ramble, surmounting the brow of yet another The intention was to project his prints directly onto a exhausting hill to unveil a wonderful smoky vista over screen using a piece of equipment called an epidiascope. the engine shed at Bridgnorth on the Severn Valley However, due to a technical issue with the equipment, Railway, followed by a steam train ride back to the car. 3

On another occasion, the family were driving through woodland in the Lake District and glimpsed billows of steam between the trees alongside. It was a ‘Black Five’ 4-6-0, in non-authentic green livery and newly christened Magpie, on the Lakeside and Haverthwaite Railway. Craig was captivated by these brief encounters with preserved steam locomotives.

the legendary EE ‘Deltics’. It was one thing to witness these mighty locos passing from the lineside, but more was to come. Craig’s friends went on to explain that they did far more than passively observe the comings and goings of the Durham railway scene, which was at that time still quite varied.

Like most contemporary young enthusiasts in the Northeast, Craig’s obsession would be fuelled by the revelation that was the ‘Northumbrian Ranger’ ticket, a week-long window on the region’s railways. A mere £2.30 bought seven days of limitless travel bounded at that time by Berwick-upon-Tweed, Carlisle and frustratingly, Thirsk, just short of the railway city of York. Thankfully, it wasn’t long before BR extended its coverage to York, with a 30p price hike (!), giving us full access to the famous 44-mile long ‘racetrack’ between the Yorkshire city and Darlington. This is where the aforementioned ‘Deltics’, all named after racehorses and regiments, really hit their stride, and travelling behind them filled most of our school holidays. Thousands of miles could be clocked up in seven days of diesel-fume-filled fun, faces freckled with two-stroke oil from leaning out of carriage windows. That was it, His friends went on to explain that the ‘40s’ were built by Craig was hooked, and so was I! English Electric, who produced some of the best diesels on BR. This information was absorbed as the next This volume showcases some of Craig’s evocative locomotive accelerated past with an express passenger photographs from four decades ago, illustrating the train, the throbbing hum of twin Napier engines being huge losses that were about to be suffered by industry forever imprinted on his consciousness. This was one of and the railway. These were the days when a variety of Moving up to secondary school, Craig made new friends who introduced him to their interest in what until then he’d regarded as ‘dirty diesels’. This involved a lunchtime sojourn via a shortcut from school through the woods and a well-used ‘Tarzan’ swing up to the side of the East Coast Main Line, just north of Durham. On reaching this secluded vantage point for the first time, a tremendous racket burst out from beneath ‘The Red Bridge’. The source of the noise was a large locomotive with a long nose at each end whose distinctive turbocharged whistling sound shattered the peace of the woodland idyll. “That’s a Class 40”, Craig was informed, as the 2,000hp monster prepared to dig her heels in for the gradient out of Durham towards Relly Mill with a southbound mixed freight.

freight trains could be witnessed on the BR network, hauled by numerous different types of diesel locomotive. Some were short-haul, serving branch lines and industrial sites. Some covered longer distances, carrying coal, road vehicles, military traffic, parcels and bulk liquids. Much of it ended with the wholesale decimation of Britain’s traditional industries in the 1980s. Some of those industries had been around for centuries. Coal had been mined and ships built on Tyneside since the 13th century. Many communities would be left without an identity, and without a hope, when those industries were closed down.

Craig would like to acknowledge Les Abram (and his trusty Chrysler Avenger) for being his unofficial driver back in those days, and the late Arthur Ranson, BR roster clerk, who was a regular provider of ‘gen’. I would like to thank Craig for allowing me to write about his photographs, and I must also mention two other former denizens of Newcastle Central station, Keith Buckley and especially Antony Kornas, for their help.

Craig’s photographic hobby had been supported by his parents from a very young age, and with a Patterson Darkroom Kit providing the ideal Christmas present (alongside his school’s own darkroom), black & white processing became a passion. It soon dawned upon him that he could process the negatives and worry about printing later, this allowed him to take more photographs than would otherwise have been afforded to him. Craig’s nostalgic, monochrome images show a vanished Northeast, in the industrial parts of Southeast Northumberland, Tyneside, County Durham, Wearside and Teesside. The images are arranged in approximate geographical order from north to south. His photography captures the end of an era, and most of the locations featured are now changed beyond recognition. 5

The Northumberland town of Ashington was known as the world’s largest coal-mining village. Its colliery railway system was extensive, with its own workshops and engine shed. It became home to several redundant BR Class 14 650hp diesel-hydraulic locomotives. This dramatically backlit image, taken 28th October 1982, depicts BR’s D9536 in its NCB guise as no.5, geometrically framed by a footbridge and semaphore signal. Today, while there is no trace of Ashington colliery, the refurbished buildings of nearby Woodhorn colliery now house a fascinating museum about the Northeast’s coal-mining communities and heritage.

Taken on the same day, this more conventional shot of NCB no.5 shows some of Ashington’s colliery buildings, pithead winding gear and more semaphore signals. As well as the interest generated by the presence of the former BR Western Region diesel-hydraulics, there was always a remarkable variety of rolling stock to be seen here, including ancient, multicoloured wooden-bodied coal hoppers. In steam days, the colliery also had its own passenger stock that was used to convey miners to and from surrounding villages for their shifts.

To many enthusiasts, this NCB Barclay diesel shunter would not be as interesting as Ashington’s ex-BR Class 14s, some of which can be seen in the background here, on 28th October 1982. This photograph shows the extent of the locomotive sheds, but more interestingly it captures an unusual way of working. The locomotive is attached to a rake of hoppers using a rope. As soon as the diesel has cleared the points they will be switched and the wagons will travel along the adjacent road. This was possibly because the track layout prevented conventional running round. The fact that the hawser was readily at hand suggests it must have been regular practice.

Off-grid? Typically uneven NCB permanent way gives the impression that the filthy 56080 may be ‘off the road’, but all is well amongst the array of wagons, ancient and modern, at Ashington. This classic industrial scene, on 28th October 1982, is completed by the mobile crane and the NCB workman casually leaning on a former North Eastern Railway 20-ton wooden hopper wagon. A small corner of the workshop building is in the background, beyond which lies open countryside towards Longhirst. A business park occupies most of the colliery site now.

This is snowplough-fitted 37200 arriving at Ashington colliery with a train of empty hoppers, again on 28th October 1982. Once loaded, it is probably headed for one of the region’s power stations, the most likely candidate being Blyth. The locomotive was built in 1963 as D6900 by English Electric at Vulcan Foundry, Newton-le-Willows, and was allocated to Cardiff Canton depot from new. In 1967 it was sent to Gateshead, and it spent most of the rest of its career in the Northeast, ending its days in a Rotherham scrapyard in 2009 as 37377.

The Ashington system was connected to British Rail via the former Blyth & Tyne Railway. It served collieries in the surrounding area such as Ellington and Linton, as well as the aluminium smelter and power station at Lynemouth. On these radiating branch lines, trains made up of wagons that would not be considered ‘roadworthy’ on BR could be seen well into the 1980s. An example of this is seen here on 28th October 1982, with a Class 14 on a short train consisting mostly of ex-NER wooden hoppers. Several other 14s are visible in the background.

Left Top: Are you Winning? Winning signal box is the location for this shot of 56076, which was given the name Blyth Power in November 1982. On the 25th of that month, Craig photographed it passing with a load of coal for North Blyth staithes. The term ‘winning’ simply meant the extraction of coal. The box here controlled the eastern apex of a triangle of lines, with one side curving south, connecting the Cambois branch to the main Blyth & Tyne line towards Bedlington, and a northbound curve to Marchey’s House Junction, North Seaton viaduct and Ashington.

Left Bottom: English Electric 37065 propels a load of coal towards the staithes at North Blyth on 25th November 1982. The permanent way seen in the photograph proved to be anything but permanent and is gone now. Above the locomotive is Cambois (pronounced ‘Cammus’) First School, beyond which a single line remains. This serves Battleship Wharf and the alumina loading silos where raw material for Alcan is transferred from ship to rail. This part of Northumberland was once known as Bedlingtonshire and was until 1844 an isolated exclave of County Durham.

Right: The aforementioned alumina silos at North Blyth are a familiar landmark on this low lying spit of land, and are seen to good effect in this striking image of 37005 beside the North Sea, taken 25th June 1984. Sixth of the class, it entered service as D6705 in January 1961, and remarkably it is still in service today 63 years later as Rail Operations Group’s 37601! Since Lynemouth’s aluminium smelter closed, alumina has been transported from here to Fort William. This freight working attracted much attention in 2011 when, due to locomotive shortages, GB Railfreight hired preserved Deltic 55022/D9000 Royal Scots Grey.

Most of Northumberland is sparsely populated with vast expanses of wild country and countless historic sites. In contrast, its Southeastern extremity, which until 1974 included Newcastle and North Tyneside, was heavily industrialised. Its rich coalfield gave birth to some of Britain’s earliest wagonways, long before the same area witnessed the pioneering work of Hedley and the Stephensons in steam railway locomotion. Fast forward to the 1980s and that coalfield is about to stop production forever. This was Cambois diesel depot on 25th June 1984, with a Class 56 and a 37 visible outside while 37195 runs past, light engine.

Individual mines in the Northeast were often given women’s names, usually after the wife or daughter of the owner. The Isabella pit in Blyth was served by a branch that diverged from the main Blyth & Tyne Railway line at Newsham. Although the pit closed in 1966, its sidings were on the route to Bates colliery, which was still active in the early 1980s. The sidings were used as an exchange point where BR locomotives handed over to NCB motive power. Bates closed acrimoniously in 1985, with the loss of 1,700 jobs. Here is 37200 again, backing a rake of empty hoppers into Isabella’s reception sidings on 15th May 1983.

An early member of the same class, 37003 is on a loaded coal train at Bedlington, passing the North signal box on 25th November 1982. The station buildings have survived largely intact into the 21st century despite closing to passengers in 1964. Public pressure by the South East Northumberland Rail Users Group and others has resulted in investment in the former Blyth & Tyne Railway. Passenger services are due to be reintroduced between Newcastle and Ashington in 2024, a rare instance of railway regeneration in the Northeast. 37003 is now preserved by the Class 37 Locomotive Group, based at the Mid-Norfolk Railway.

Long before its famous stint on the GBRf Alcan trains, Deltic 55022/D9000 made its preservation era main-line railtour debut in November 1996. Sadly, having got from Edinburgh to Berwick, a minor exhaust fire meant the train had to be rescued by a Class 37. That locomotive was 37702, previously numbered 37020, seen here at a wintry Morpeth North Junction with an engineers’ train on 18th December 1982. Built in 1961, it was eventually exported for use in Spain where it was scrapped in 2007. The curve snaking off to the left leads to the Blyth & Tyne route to Bedlington via Hepscott.

On the East Coast Main Line just south of Morpeth is a notorious curve that has seen several derailments due to excessive speed. This is the morning after one that occurred on the night of 24th June 1984. Class 25 25154 is nearest to the camera with tool vans in front of 47314 and a crane. On the right is the stricken 47452. The latter had been hauling the up ‘Night Aberdonian’, consisting of BR’s new Mk3 sleeping cars, and it entered Morpeth station at around 90mph. The speed limit for the curve was 50mph. The leading sleeper came to rest in the bedroom of a house, but miraculously there were no deaths.

When in 1981 the Tyne & Wear PTE introduced Metro services to Bank Foot on the former Ponteland branch, freight for the Rowntree factory at Fawdon shared the metals with the new ‘Supertrams’. This practice continued until 1987, with BR freight trains using the avoiding line past South Gosforth car sheds to join the main line at Benton. On 25th November 1983, 31290 was propelling vans into the sidings where the company’s diesel shunter waited. Occasionally, the freights would continue to ICI’s explosives depot at Callerton, gaining them the unofficial nickname ‘gelignite and jelly tots’. The Metro has since been extended to Newcastle Airport and the confectionery factory has closed.

Left Top: The North Eastern Railway’s ‘Riverside’ branch diverged from the Tynemouth line at the east end of the Ouseburn Viaduct and hugged the north bank of the curving Tyne to Percy Main, serving shipyards and other industries. It closed to passengers in 1973 but it continued to see freight traffic into the late 1980s as far as Carville, Wallsend. 31169 is seen here shunting at the worldfamous Swan Hunter shipyard on 25th October 1983. Beyond the buildings on the right, hidden beneath terraced streets, is the site of the Roman fort of Segedunum, the eastern extremity of Hadrian’s Wall, now excavated and open to the public.

Left Bottom: Perhaps even more interesting than the Ashington system was the NCB network centred on Westoe colliery in South Shields. It is well known that the North Eastern Railway was a pioneer of electrification, modernising the North Tyne loop using a third rail in 1904. What is less commonly appreciated is that in 1908, to cope with the gradients and curves on its route to the staithes, the Harton Coal Company began using electric traction with overhead wires. NCB no.13 is seen in charge of a short train at St. Hilda’s, South Shields in summer 1985, with her crew making sure they get in the photograph! Note the magnificent Edwardian town hall on the horizon.

Right: No.13 was one of a series of five Bo-Bo electric locomotives built for the former Harton system by English Electric and Baguley in the 1950s. Prior to their delivery, it was monopolised by German-built motive power that predated the First World War. Four of those original locomotives survive in preservation. In this summer 1985 view, the low profile of the locomotive, due to limited clearance in tunnels, can be appreciated as the train heads for Harton Low Staithes. It was fascinating to watch this operation, which ended in 1988, from the ferry landing. A ferry is berthed across the river at Smith’s Dock, North Shields.

Newcastle-upon-Tyne is the regional capital of the Northeast and has preserved much of its historic fabric. It was the location of the world’s first locomotive factory, built by George Stephenson. John Dobson’s Central Station was famous for the diamond crossings at the east end, below the city’s Norman Castle Keep. At the west end of the goods lines that bypassed the station on 8th April 1983, Scottish Region Class 26s 26043 & 26015 double-head 7X30, a Leith to Derby pipe train. This train exchanged locomotives at Tyne Yard, ensuring that the locomotives were returned to Scotland and not ‘borrowed’ by another region.

West End boys. The west end of island platform 9 & 10 at Newcastle Central was the social epicentre of our teenage years. Unlike the modern scene, dominated by garishly liveried multiple units, we enjoyed a variety of traffic and traction. Overnight, there were several sleeping car trains, many of which included non-passenger vehicles. In this atmospheric nocturnal shot on platform 10, taken 8th April 1983, the station clock shows 23:10 as 40153 shunts parcels vans from platform 8 (far left) as part of 1E35, bound for London King’s Cross. Note the tail lamp and water hose on the platform near the locomotive.

A Metro-Cammell Class 101 DMU stands in platform 5 at Newcastle Central on 15th May 1982 as Class 03 station pilot 03021 busies itself with a TPO (Travelling Post Office) van at platform 8. Gateshead shed’s 204hp diesel-mechanical shunters displayed ‘winter plumage’, consisting of a sheet of cardboard as rudimentary frost protection for their radiator grilles. 03021, recently transferred here from Lincoln, was obviously still feeling the cold in May! Platform 5 is now part of the station car park, along with all but one of the former east end bays, which became redundant when the underground Metro station opened.

40056, viewed from a passing train on the King Edward VII Bridge, spent most of its 24 years of BR service based in the Northeast. It is hauling a Ribble Cement train from Grassington to Elswick. The locomotive entered service as D256 in 1960 but like the rest of the class at the time of this shot in May 1984, it was living on borrowed time. By October it was on the scrap line at Kingmoor, Carlisle, and was broken up at Doncaster in January 1985. The bridge had opened in 1906 and meant that Anglo-Scottish trains no longer had to reverse at Newcastle.

Unlike 03021 & 03022 with their conical exhausts, most of the 03s based in the Northeast, such as 03078, had the ‘flowerpot’ version. On 21st September 1984, it was shunting the scrapyard on the Redheugh branch. This was part of the original 1837 Newcastle & Carlisle Railway which terminated by the Tyne at Redheugh station in Gateshead. Another of Tyneside’s power stations, Dunston B, can be seen on the left while to the right two diesel shunters, one of which is a Ruston & Hornsby, are visible next to a grounded van body. Happily, 03078 is preserved at the Stephenson Steam Railway in North Shields.

Each of Gateshead’s Class 03s was permanently attached to a former Conflat wagon used as a match truck, to ensure reliable track circuit operation. Craig captured 03022 just 12 days before its withdrawal, shunting Blaydon yard with a trip freight from Tyne Yard, on 26th October 1982. It was built by BR in 1958 at Swindon, one of a series of 230, and found its way to Tyneside late in its career. Like 03078 it survives in preservation, close to its birthplace at the Swindon & Cricklade Railway. Stella’s cooling towers and chimneys loom on the horizon.

Left: Parallel lines. East of Blaydon at the confluence of the Derwent and the Tyne was Swalwell disposal point, where opencast coal was handled. It opened in 1945 and after closure would become the site of Gateshead’s IKEA store. On 26th October 1982, 37197 was in attendance with lines of hopper wagons on the overgrown sidings. The pale building in the distance is Vickers-Armstrong Scotswood works, builder of tanks and other armoured vehicles. This is the last vestige of Lord William Armstrong’s immense industrial complex which once stretched for 70 acres along the river. In its heyday, the 60,000-strong workforce built ships, armaments, locomotives and hydraulic machinery for export all over the world.

Right: Black gold and silver threads. Smoke drifts lazily from the chimney of a hut as BR 350hp diesel-electric shunter 08148 lurks among the sinuous trackwork of Derwenthaugh coke works exchange sidings, on 22nd September 1983. This was built on the site of Crowley’s iron works, once the largest in the world. The coke works opened in 1928 and was owned by the Consett Iron Company, forerunner of that town’s great steelworks. Like most places in this volume, this site is transformed, and part of the route is now occupied by the football pitches of Swalwell Juniors FC.

Craig’s friend Les Abram watches from the rickety timber footbridge as the secondman of 47068 uses the telephone beside a barely legible ‘Whistle’ notice. The locomotive awaits departure from Derwenthaugh exchange sidings with a brake van on 22nd September 1983. The sidings were west of the Derwent, opposite Swalwell. The Class 47s were the most numerous main-line diesel locomotives on BR. 512 examples were built by Brush at Loughborough and BR’s Crewe works, with several variations. 47068 was built at Crewe in 1965 as D1652, and spent most of its life on the Western Region.

In England’s green and pleasant land. At Derwenthaugh coke works on 11th November 1982, a Hunslet diesel shunter is in the kind of ugly, polluted industrial setting that has almost completely vanished from Northeast England. While some may bemoan the demise of our traditional heavy industries, it must be said that we now live in a cleaner, more attractive world. While many of these brownfield sites have become retail or business parks, several are now country parks and wildlife havens. Indeed, the once-filthy Tyne is now recognised as England’s finest salmon river.

Left: At Stella South Power Station on 28th October 1983, Tyne Improvement Commission Ruston & Hornsby no.31 exemplifies the lyric “And she was heavy laden” from Geordie Ridley’s famous song The Blaydon Races, a celebrated spectacle which once took place here. Stella South was also on the site of the Battle of Newburn, of 1640, in the Civil War. Stella’s twin power stations dominated the flat landscape on either side of a bend in the Tyne west of Blaydon. Stella North was built on the grounds of Lemington Hall. They were in operation from 1954 until 1991.

Right: 37066 is nicely framed between two upper quadrant signals at Stella South on 26th October 1982. A CEGB diesel shunter can be made out in the left distance. Stella marked the western limit of Tyneside’s industrial conurbation, which stretched 16 miles along both sides of the twisting course of the river from its mouth. Shipbuilding was predominant but there were many other engineering works, numerous coal staithes and other railconnected quays and docks. In 1955, during construction, a switchgear explosion in Stella South’s substation shut down the generators, overloading Dunston power station and blacking out Tyneside. 400,000 customers were affected and 20,000 miners trapped underground.

Left: A year later, on 28th October 1983, the semaphore signals have gone as 37066 shunts its train of empty hoppers beside the Tyne. 309 of the 1,750hp Class 37s were built between 1960 and 1965, and they were among BR’s most successful and versatile diesels. Many are still in service in 2024. Sitting on the wall to the left is another of Craig’s friends, David H. Allen. To his right is the main Newcastle to Carlisle line, which passed Stella South. This was Britain’s first cross-country railway, opening throughout in 1838.

Right: Still at Stella South, back to 26th October 1982 again and turning through 180°, Craig photographed 37067 heading west with a train of bitumen tanks from Elswick to Skipton. Along with the points that allowed admittance to Stella South’s sidings, the magnificent lattice bracket signal was controlled by Cowan’s Crossing signal box, which would close soon after these photos were taken. The location is thought to be named after an old ferryman. Three weeks earlier, the Scotswood Railway Bridge had closed, so this train would have been routed via Newcastle Central and Dunston.

Coal was transported to Stella North along the route of the Wylam Wagonway of 1748. It was here in 1813 that two of the earliest successful steam locomotives in the world, William Hedley’s Puffing Billy and Wylam Dilly, operated, passing George Stephenson’s birthplace. The terraced houses of Tyne View, Lemington look down on a filthy 56075 on 11th November 1982 as it hauls empties from Stella North, with the pit heap of Walbottle colliery above the rear of the train. 105 of these freight locomotives were built in BR’s workshops at Doncaster and Crewe, following an initial batch of 30 from Romania in 1976.

The railway from Scotswood to Stella North once continued to North Wylam then crossed the Tyne on the graceful West Wylam Bridge where it rejoined the Newcastle & Carlisle Railway. By the time the Class 56s were employed in taking coal to Stella North, the line was truncated just west of the power station. On 28th October 1983, 56076 Blyth Power passes Lemington on an eastbound train of empties. Above the rear of the locomotive is the only survivor of the four cones built in 1797 for Lemington glass works. At 130 feet high, it is said to be the largest brick-built glass cone ever built.

The largest centre of population on the Tyne Valley line between Newcastle and Carlisle is the ancient market town of Hexham. Semaphores are much in evidence as Brush Class 47 47149 passes beneath the NER gantry-mounted signal box, built in 1896, with a westbound oil train on 19th May 1983. These structures were a common sight in the Northeast, but Hexham and Wylam are now the only survivors, and both are Grade II listed. Despite much of the mechanical signalling still being in use today, at the time of this photograph work was underway installing 650v power supplies for track circuits and point machines, hence the new concrete troughing.

On 13th September 1983, 31163 was shunting the sidings at Hexham. The tanks were used to convey epoxy resin from Duxford, Cambridgeshire, to a chipboard manufacturer in Hexham. This was the end of the era of small goods yards as road haulage took over. 31163 was built by Brush in 1960 as D5581, and began its BR career in East Anglia, later being renumbered 97205 and now preserved. Like all 263 members of the class, its original, troublesome Mirrlees power unit was replaced by an English Electric 1,470hp engine in the 1960s.

Two regiments for the price of one. Framed by Hexham’s graceful North Eastern Railway footbridge on 13th September 1983 is BR Sulzer Class 45/0 45043 The King’s Own Royal Border Regiment with the 07.20 Workington to York freight. The consist includes the National Railway Museum’s two-tone green Deltic, 55002 The King’s Own Yorkshire Light Infantry. It was being returned to the NRM at York after being exhibited at an open day at Workington. The Class 55 was officially withdrawn from BR service on 2nd January 1982.

The same train was captured later that day arriving at Tyne Yard, Lamesley, south of Gateshead. According to a first-hand account on the excellent Derby Sulzers website, the journey was not without incident. The first leg up the Cumbrian coast to Carlisle was behind a Class 25. The secondman, having connected the brake hoses between the 25 and the Deltic, failed to attach the coupling. The result was a broken vacuum pipe, which had to be reattached! The 25 was replaced at Kingmoor by 45043 for the trip along the Tyne Valley and down to York.

Left Top: Larger, heavier, and more powerful than their Class 37 cousins, the English Electric Class 40 was introduced in 1958. 40057, originally D257, spent most of its working life allocated to either Gateshead or York and was photographed at the head of a Freightliner train at Tyne Yard on 30th June 1984. This was one of several large marshalling yards constructed by BR in the 1960s. Today, it is a shadow of its former self, and what remains is used for ballast trains and stabling multiple-units. Smithy Lane bridge, which runs across the picture, was always a favourite vantage point for enthusiasts.

Left Bottom: Viewed from Smithy Lane on a frosty 12th April 1984, 37031 lifts its Carlisle-bound tanker train away from Tyne Yard. Back in the day, there was always something to see here. There were Deltics roaring past at 100mph on express passenger trains on the adjacent main line, and almost constant movement of freight trains in the yard. Note the ex-works Class 08 shunter in the rake of mineral wagons above 37031. It was in these back roads at Tyne Yard where the author remembers seeing redundant Clayton Class 17s in the very early 1970s.

Right: Sadly, by the time of these photos, the Deltics were no more, HSTs ruled the main line, and Class 40s were being phased out. Like the Deltics, the 40s attracted a dedicated following of enthusiasts. This is 40099 entering Tyne Yard from Carlisle Kingmoor on 11th May 1984 with a mixed, fitted freight including two bogie-bolster wagons laden with steel. Days were numbered for the former D299, as it was withdrawn in October of that year. Happily, seven of the once 200-strong class are preserved, and two are main-line certified, so we can still enjoy the turbocharged whistling sound that made an impression on those Durham schoolboys in the 1970s.

Left: The Iron Giant. Consett, County Durham, was synonymous with its steelworks, which at its peak employed 12,000 people. Its closure in 1980 resulted in a local unemployment rate of 35%, double the national average. The Consett line was notable for its severe gradients, on which ex-NER 0-8-0s and BR 9Fs were tested to the limit with heavy iron ore trains from Tyne Dock, carrying more than one million tons annually. Soon after closure of the plant, on 2nd September 1983, 37173 heads a rake of 16-ton mineral wagons down the incline to the Low Yard, to collect scrap from the remains of the works. The former steam shed is to the right of the locomotive.

Right: A Grifter and a grafter. Captured from the front of a Newcastle-Sunderland DMU, a young lad has stopped his Raleigh Grifter on the footbridge. He awaits the blast of warm exhaust from an unidentified Class 56 as it powers a westbound train of loaded coal hoppers past Wearmouth signal box, Sunderland, in September 1983. The box, which once controlled access to an extensive goods yard, closed the following year. This stretch of line is now shared by ‘Sprinters’ on the Durham coast route linking Tyneside with Teesside, freight traffic and Tyne & Wear Metro services to Sunderland and South Hylton.

The former Hebron church towers over 56082 as it runs light engine through Monkwearmouth towards Gateshead, passing empties destined for Wearmouth colliery on 2nd March 1984. Behind the 56 is Monkwearmouth station, the elegant, Greek-revival structure built by the ‘Railway King’, George Hudson, in 1848. Originally a terminus, it was eventually connected to Sunderland by the Wearmouth Bridge in 1879. At the time of the photograph, it was a railway museum, which eventually evolved into the Stephenson Steam Railway, several miles north at the former Metro Test Centre on Middle Engine Lane, North Shields. Monkwearmouth now houses the Fans Museum, a collection of football memorabilia.

This striking composition of angles is another view which is now altered beyond recognition. 37212 is almost lost among the allotment gardens and industrial structures of Wearmouth colliery, on 4th October 1983. One of the later Class 37s, it enjoyed a 40-year career beginning in South Wales and was scrapped in 2004. Wearmouth was the largest coal mine in Sunderland, and it operated for almost 160 years, being the last in the Durham coalfield. Following closure in 1993, the site was redeveloped as Sunderland AFC’s Stadium of Light, opening in 1997 to replace Roker Park, a rare example of a football ground relocating closer to the town centre.

Further west along the former Hylton colliery branch on the same day, NCB 0-6-0 diesel-hydraulic shunter 211-125, Hunslet 6612 of 1965, has a rake of hoppers for loading at Wearmouth. The line once continued west to join the Leamside line near Washington. Most of its route has disappeared beneath roads and the giant Nissan car plant. The distinctive Halfway House pub stands above the bridge, cranes line the River Wear on the right, and allotments flank the railway. Compared to the Tyne, a much shorter length of the Wear was industrialised, with a dense concentration of shipyards and staithes crowded on the steep river banks of Sunderland.

I see no ships, only hardships. The same truncated branch line also served the shipyard of Austin & Pickersgill, which was doomed to closure despite massive investment in the 1970s, when it was expanded for the construction of bulk carriers. By the time the end was announced in 1988, it had become part of North East Shipbuilders Limited. Demolition followed in 1990, bringing down the curtain on 600 years of shipbuilding on Wearside. On 4th October 1983, BR diesel-electric shunter 08512 heads towards the yard with a delivery of sheet steel as a trespasser casually walks past. Like many closed railways in the area the track-bed here is now a cycle route.

Bridge over troubled water. With neat stacks of steel plate surrounding the sidings, 08512 has now safely delivered its consignment to Austin & Pickersgill’s shipyard. The massive Queen Alexandra Bridge can be seen beyond the modern gantry crane. The North Eastern Railway built the double-decked structure over the Wear in 1909 to allow coal trains from the Washington and Annfield Plain areas to access Sunderland’s South Dock. After the First World War, coal exports declined dramatically and the railway deck closed in 1921. The lower deck remains in use for road traffic.

Viewed from Londonderry Junction signal box on 2nd March 1984, 37061, complete with shunter’s pole slung across the front, takes coal towards Sunderland South Dock, as classmate 37100 takes empties in the opposite direction. The miners’ strike began the following week and lasted a year. It would lead to three deaths, and bitter family feuds that would never heal. The eradication of coal mining would take place over the next few years, eroding the very foundations of the industry that created the world’s railways. The name of the junction derives from the Londonderry, Seaham & Sunderland Railway, which was absorbed by the North Eastern Railway. The Marquess of Londonderry was a major County Durham colliery owner.

Nicely framed by matching arrays of miniature arm semaphore shunting signals, 37001 passes an unidentified Class 56 as it waits for the ‘board’ at Londonderry Junction, on 2nd March 1984. The ash ballast, signal wires and telegraph pole are all now history, just like the grand old signal box which closed in the year this photograph was taken. 37001 was the second of the class, introduced in 1960 as D6701 and scrapped in 2011 as 37707. Class leader D6700 became 37119 in the TOPS numbering scheme and is preserved in the National Collection.

Surrounded by wasteland, 37001 propels loaded hoppers under a disused signal gantry into the reception sidings at Hendon, Sunderland. The photograph was taken on 2nd March 1984 from the steps of Hendon Junction signal box, which closed in 1995. Apparently, early in the miners’ strike, people would enter the sidings and unlock the bottom doors of loaded hoppers so that coal that was intended for export would end up in the fireplaces of Sunderland. Part of the branch is still in use, with imported Class 66s taking trainloads of scrap from Londonderry sidings to Cardiff, joining the Durham Coast line at Ryhope Grange Junction.

Further down the coast on 9th November 1982, 37193 heads south at Dawdon with a brake van. Oblivious to this, two sea-coalers who have struggled up from the beach with sacks of coal draped over their bikes are now loading a Commer van with their spoils, while their trusty Alsatian waits patiently. Sea coal was readily available on the shore wherever the seams were exposed, and during the strike many people resorted to this as a source of fuel. Note the ramshackle barricades around the allotment gardens, constructed of old doors.

Here we have 37003 again, this time arriving at Dawdon with empties for Seaham colliery on 9th November 1982. The train will be propelled back into the colliery on the track nearest the camera. The yard here was known as Polka sidings, possibly after the coal seam of that name at nearby Murton colliery. Below the railway here at right angles was the line down to Seaham Harbour, which opened in 1831. This facility was the brainchild of John Buddle, a County Durham entrepreneur. Unlike the Tyne and the Wear, Seaham Harbour had a dock with lock gates, so that ships could sail without waiting for the tide.

Taken 2nd December 1983, this image shows the 150-year-old former South Hetton Railway. There were several such rope-worked colliery railways in County Durham. Swine Lodge Bank Head was on the Hesleden Incline which led to Seaham Harbour. The ‘raft’ of wagons is stopped in a ‘dish’, an engineered depression in the track used to hold loaded trains before departure. There were also humps known as ‘kips’. Both used the changes in gradient to assist braking and prevent runaways. Many steel wagons were rebuilt with wooden bodies due to corrosion. Examples of both are seen here.

Taken on the same day, we are now looking down the rope-worked incline from Swine Lodge past the substantial Dawdon Hotel to the bridge that carries the Durham Coast main line. Note the shared centre rail, a common arrangement which reduced the width of the formation, cost of land, complexity of pointwork, size of overbridges and so on. Also, it ensured the up and down ropes were separated. Wherever rafts of wagons passed each other, a passing loop or ‘meeting’ was provided. The miners’ strike spelled the demise of this, the last self-acting incline in use in Britain. The Bowes Railway near Gateshead possesses the world’s only preserved standard gauge rope-worked incline.

Compared to Northumberland, the Durham coast south of Sunderland was heavily scarred by the coal industry. Here were several major collieries, including Horden, ten miles south of the Wear, where the coal came mostly from below the seabed. On 9th November 1982, this NCB Barclay diesel has propelled four BR hoppers onto a staithe where colliery waste is ‘teemed’. For many years, such waste was dumped on the beaches, often by means of overhead conveyors. Today the shoreline has recovered from its industrial past and is branded as Durham’s ‘Heritage Coast’.

37216 has two brake vans in tow as it heads south, passing 37193 with a load of empties on 9th November 1982. The lofty pithead gear of Horden colliery looms in the background forming a scene that was typical of the East Durham coalfield, and one that is unrecognisable today. When we were growing up, the landscape of Southeast Northumberland and much of County Durham was punctuated with headstocks and pit-heaps everywhere. Now, the few surviving pitheads are museum pieces and the heaps are landscaped. Horden’s new station opened in 2020, its predecessor having closed in 1964.

Taken slightly further south than the previous shot, also on 9th November 1982, 37193 is running round its rake of empties destined for Horden colliery, seen in the background. The signal box came with parking, as evidenced by the Datsun Cherry. A friend of Craig’s, Arthur Ranson, worked here, and was due to start his shift in the wee hours of one winter’s morning. He rode his Honda C90 moped from Durham through freezing fog, and his mate, awaiting the arrival of his relief, witnessed a frozen Arthur unable to let go of the handlebars of his bike and skidding to an undignified heap at the base of the box!

Let us spray. 37065 makes its second appearance, in ex-works condition, on 21st June 1983, having been outshopped from Doncaster Works 5 days earlier following the removal of its buffer beam skirt. It is hauling a weed-killing train, which had traversed the Consett branch as far as the High Yard earlier in the day. It is heading south on the Leamside line at Penshaw North, where the NER gantry signal box had recently been demolished. Immediately behind the train, the line curves onto the graceful Victoria Viaduct. The gentler curve to the right was the trackbed of the former line to Sunderland via South Hylton and Pallion.

Travelling in the opposite direction, a slightly dented BR Sulzer Class 45/1, 45134, approaches Penshaw North with a Freightliner train bound for Follingsby on 15th June 1984. The track on the left was the connection to the former Lambton, Hetton & Joicey Railway. This was an extensive colliery railway with workshops at Philadelphia and its own fleet of characteristic 0-6-2T locomotives, two of which are preserved at the North Yorkshire Moors Railway. The train is about to cross the Wear on the Victoria Viaduct, built by the Durham Junction Railway in 1838.

We have already seen some distinctive NER signal boxes, such as that at Hexham. Others, like Haltwhistle and here at Fence Houses, had a double overhang. This was designed to fit the constricted space between the Leamside line on the left and what was once the Lambton, Hetton & Joicey Railway that passed to its right. On 13th June 1984, Brush Class 47 47187 powers a coke train away from Fence Houses crossing, on its way from Lambton coke works via the connection at Penshaw North. I remember clearly the fiery glow from the coke works viewed from passing overnight trains diverted from the main line.

Class 45/0 45060 Sherwood Forester passes Railway Cottages, Dubmire, near Fence Houses on 18th March 1982 with the Heaton to Red Bank empty newspaper train. The Leamside line lost its passenger service in the 1960s but continued in use as a freight line and diversionary route. It was officially ‘mothballed’ in 1992 following closure of the Freightliner terminal at Follingsby. The track was lifted in 2012. A strategic group named Transport North East is campaigning for the reopening of the line in stages, beginning with the section from Pelaw to Washington and a connection to the Metro terminus at South Hylton.

The Leamside line, which from 1844 formed part of the original main line to Gateshead, bypassed Durham, the all-powerful Dean & Chapter of the cathedral having initially opposed any railway building in the city. The railway was finally brought into Durham when a branch opened to Gilesgate station from a junction at Belmont. Further north on the Leamside was Lambton coke works, which dominated the horizon above Fence Houses. Here we see 47418 on the York leg of 6O44 on 15th June 1984. This was a Speedlink service from Tyneside Central Freight Depot, Gateshead, to Hoo Junction in Kent, which included vans from Rowntree’s at Fawdon.

BR Class 46 46039 approaches Shincliffe, on the Leamside line near Durham, with the Heaton to Red Bank empty newspaper train, on 7th August 1983. There were once two stations here on different lines. First was the grandly named Shincliffe Town, built in 1839 for the Durham & Sunderland Railway. The Dean & Chapter’s opposition to railways meant that Durham-bound passengers had to complete their journey to the city by stagecoach, having made their way by rail via Murton and Pittington using a combination of rope haulage and horse traction. Whitwell signal box, which guarded a farm crossing, is in the far distance.

Peak performance. The driver of 46011 applies 2,500 Sulzer horsepower to the rails on Durham Viaduct to get a load of coke moving up the 1 in 114 incline towards Relly Mill on 7th December 1983. The present station at Durham opened on 1st April 1857 on the line from Sunderland to Bishop Auckland. Later it served branches to Blackhill and Waterhouses, then it was linked to Ferryhill in the south. When in 1872 the line through the Team Valley to Newcastle was completed, Durham finally claimed its rightful place on the modern East Coast Main Line.

English Electric Class 20s would appear at Durham occasionally, mostly light engine or hauling locomotives from depot to depot, but were a rarer sight on freight. 20040 & 20096 head north with a 26-wagon fitted coal train over the city’s majestic viaduct. At the time of the photograph, 27th June 1985, it was nearing the end of a refurbishment in which sandblasting returned the sandstone to pristine condition, removing a thick layer of soot from more than a century of coal smoke from hundreds of chimneys. The viaduct dates from 1857, and an unusual feature is a drinking fountain incorporated in the base of one of its piers.

46010 was in service from 1961, as D147, until 1984, the year after 56118 was built. The latter had come to the rescue after the Class 46 failed while hauling a bogie wagon carrying sheet steel, seen here passing Durham, northbound in June 1984. 46010 had the last laugh, though, as it survives in preservation while the Class 56 was scrapped in 2009 after latterly working in France. This was not Durham’s last station; that being the short lived Elvet terminus of 1893, which closed to passengers in 1931. It remained in use for the annual Durham Miners’ Gala and for goods traffic until the early 1950s.

27th October 1983 gave a rare opportunity to photograph a normally nocturnal working in daylight, after a 6 hour delay caused by signalling difficulties. 31306 is shunting one of the last deliveries of household coal to Durham freight terminal. The yard, just north of the station on the west side, also handled scrap for Charlie Newton (whose house appeared in the film Get Carter) and had formerly been the site of the locomotive shed and a brickworks. Beyond is Wharton Park, whose castellated terrace, intended for viewing the Norman cathedral and castle, provided a grandstand view of the station and viaduct, as seen in the shot of the Class 20s.

Approaching Durham from the north on 12th August 1982, 37062 heads a classic summer flow of empty grain hoppers from Muir of Ord to Doncaster. It will return with barley from the fertile fields of England’s eastern counties for the whisky distilleries of Scotland’s Black Isle to produce the water of life. These trains were trip worked from various locations in East Anglia to the marshalling yard at March before being forwarded to Doncaster, then Millerhill. It also served the maltings at Burghead, near Elgin. The distinctive blue-liveried bulk grain hoppers were built in the 1960s by Pressed Steel for British Railway Traffic who leased them to the Scottish Malt Distillers Company.

In 1983, the wagons in the previous shot were superseded by these French-built 80-tonne Polybulk bogie hoppers. They were some of the first since nationalisation to display private owner branding, such as Distillers Company (Cereals) Ltd. Despite this investment the grain traffic was lost to road transport in less than a decade. The wagons were later used to transport urea, china clay and powdered limestone. This summer 1984 broadside view shows 31183 crossing Relly Mill viaduct, south of Durham. It dates from 1897, replacing the original timber structure, the northern abutment of which remains today. South of the viaduct was the triangular Relly Mill Junction, with branches to Lanchester, Bishop Auckland and the Deerness Valley.

Made in Dagenham. In July 1983, 37003 heads north alongside Darlington’s Bank Top station with a lengthy train conveying new Ford Fiestas, Granadas, Capris, etc. The station is on the East Coast Main Line, 22 miles south of Durham, and at the north end of the 44 mile ‘racing stretch’ across the Vale of York. Trains not booked to call at Darlington can speed past on these avoiding lines. In our youth, we always looked out for Stephenson’s Locomotion of 1825 and Kitching’s Derwent of 1845 on a plinth under the station roof. These venerable locomotives are now in Shildon’s Locomotion and Darlington’s North Road museum, respectively.

31218 is seen shunting Shildon wagon works, glimpsed on the far left, on 15th June 1984. On the right is Soho engine shed, dating from 1826. It was built as a store for Messrs Kilburn of Bishop Auckland, iron merchant, and was strategically placed to access the new Stockton & Darlington Railway. By the 1840s it had become part of Timothy Hackworth’s works, building locomotives for home and abroad. Hackworth had previously worked for the Stephensons in Newcastle. His output included the Sans Pareil, which was ROCKET’s chief Rainhill Trials rival. The building was later used to dry freshly painted locomotives with the help of underfloor heating, hence the prominent chimney.

Fall and Rise. The sidings for Shildon wagon works in March 1984 contained plenty of work for the soon-to-be-closed facility, wagons for repair, dispatch, or scrapping. 08200 stands on the weighbridge. This was part of the original Stockton & Darlington Railway route to Brusselton Incline. The closure of the works had been announced the previous year and would eventually happen in 1984 after a lengthy period of campaigning. 86% of the town’s male workforce were employed there. In 1975 it hosted a cavalcade of historic locomotives to mark the 150th anniversary of the opening of the S&DR, and in 2004 the National Railway Museum opened its Locomotion outstation here.

Having come from the cement works at Eastgate, deep in rural Weardale, 37120 hauls a loaded train past Shildon signal box on 30th June 1983, showing the crowded reception sidings of the doomed wagon works. The train is passing between the curved platforms of Shildon station, where trains from Darlington call on their way to Bishop Auckland. Facing the sidings in the ‘V’ of the junction are the arches of the Stockton & Darlington Railway coal drops, dating from 1846. Today, in front of them is a single demonstration line used for brake van rides from the Locomotion museum.

Diesel shunter 08225 propels a load of engineers’ waste towards Etherley tip at Witton Park in March 1984. The nearby coal mines were the point of origin of the world-famous Stockton & Darlington Railway, which opened in 1825. Its bicentennial is to be celebrated in 2025, with some major events planned, including the expansion of the Head of Steam railway museum at Darlington North Road station. The remains of Etherley station, which closed in 1965, can be seen on the left. The substantial buildings are now converted to residential use. The railway line here survives as part of the Weardale Railway.

A token gesture. The Weardale Railway is a 16-mile-long heritage line from Stanhope to Bishop Auckland, where it connects with the main line network. Currently operated by diesel multiple units, there are plans to reintroduce steam traction. Forty years ago, it was a freight line. The driver of 37029 slows his train of empties for Eastgate cement works to receive the token from signaller Ernie Dinsdale on 10th June 1983. This was the last day of operation of Wolsingham’s charming North Eastern Railway signal box. It was the subject of an unsuccessful preservation attempt by the photographer standing on its steps, Alan Ainsley Wilson, who lived in the former station building.

In contrast with the areas covered so far, much of Teesside’s industrial sprawl has lingered on into the 21st century. Its landscape of steelworks and chemical refineries can be seen from miles around. On its southern fringe is the important railway crossroads of Eaglescliffe, the meeting point of routes from Northallerton, Darlington, Stockton and Middlesbrough. On 3rd July 1983, 37066 snakes its way across Eaglescliffe North Junction, which is much rationalised today, with a potash train from Boulby to Severn Beach. Just north of here the line to Stockton was crossed by the Newport to Shildon line, electrified by the pioneering NER in 1915.

This is 37091 travelling from the Ferryhill direction past Norton East Junction with a stone train bound for the Steetley works, Cemetery North, Hartlepool on 30th August 1983. The signal box here, situated on one apex of the triangular junction, dates from 1870 and has its gable facing the railway. As such it is a rare survivor and is one of the few to have received listed (Grade II) status after closure. As a result, it remains intact today. The line curving to the left forms part of the Durham coast route from Sunderland and Hartlepool to Stockton and Middlesbrough.

The beginning, and the end. In the low evening sunlight of 28th October 1983, 37036 shunts Transfesa ferry wagons at Stockton South Freight Terminal. This facility was just yards from the original Stockton & Darlington Railway booking office at St John’s Well, where the first rails were laid in 1822. Ferry wagons, as the name suggests, were capable of being carried across the English Channel on the rail decks of train ferries. One of the longest and most bizarre workings conveyed Scottish feta cheese (!) to Iran. Fellow photographer, the inspirational Ian S. Carr, can be seen near the rear of the train.

Tracking Down: In Search of BR Freight In the 1980s

£13.50

Compiled by Craig Oliphant and Colin Alexander

ISBN 978-1-913893-51-4

Tracking Down: In Search of BR Freight in the 1980s

by Craig Oliphant and Colin Alexander