Newcastle R200 - Full

‘Newcastle’ is one of a series of 12 books being released in 2025 showcasing railway works and centres to commemorate ‘Railway 200’.

Packed with fascinating insights, historical landmarks, and stories of the people who forged the railways, ‘Newcastle’ is an essential read for railway enthusiasts, history buffs, and anyone captivated by the industrial age’s greatest achievement. £16.50

NEWCASTLE

As Britain celebrates 200 years of rail travel, Newcastle and its surrounding region stand proudly at the heart of a revolution that changed the world. From the earliest wooden wagonways of the 17th century to the pioneering steam locomotives of George Stephenson, this book explores the north east’s unparalleled contribution to railway history.

NEWCASTLE

Images from the Transport Treasury archive

NEWCASTLE Images from the Transport Treasury archive

1

© Images: Transport Treasury or as credited. Design: The Transport Treasury 2025. Text: Colin Alexander.

ISBN 978-1-913251-97-0 First published in 2025 by Transport Treasury Publishing Ltd. 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.

Front cover - Throughout its scandalously-short fourteen year career, BR Peppercorn Class A1 4-6-2 No 60161 North British was, appropriately, a Scottish Region locomotive. It is standing at platform 8, Newcastle Central, beneath the grimy roof girders and rusted corrugated iron of the canopy, sometime around 1960. All 49 of these handsome machines were scrapped after a ridiculously short working life, due to BR’s hasty dieselisation policy. Remarkably in 2008, the A1 Steam Locomotive Trust’s new-build No 60163 Tornado became the 50th of the class, and set the precedent for other groups to construct new locomotives to fill the many gaps in preservation. (Howard Forster/ART) Frontispiece - Deltic 55013 The Black Watch stands at platform 8, Newcastle Central, on 1S12, the 05.50 King’s Cross to Aberdeen on 4 April 1980. As teenagers, my mates and I were regular passengers on this train using the Northumbrian Ranger ticket, almost every school holiday. It cost the bargain price of £2.60 for a week and gave us unlimited travel between York, Berwick and Carlisle. Our usual move was to catch 1V75, the 07.00 Newcastle to Bristol train as far as York and catch the Class 55-hauled 1S12 to Berwick, for another Deltic on 1E10 back south. The Deltics were capable of such intensive working that the class of 22 nominally replaced 55 Pacifics. Powered by twin Napier engines, they were the most powerful single-unit diesel locomotives in the world at the time. After just twelve years in service, sister locomotive No 9010 accumulated two million miles. (Arthur Turner) Rear cover - A fine view over King Edward Bridge Junction, Gateshead, as Class 45/1 No 45108 takes the curve towards Bensham and Durham with a Newcastle to Cardiff train, on 10 April 1980. The Peaks had something of a monopoly on these north east to south west services, with other destinations including Poole and Bristol. Newcastle Central station is above the rear of the train, and the blackened spire of St Mary’s RC Cathedral punctuates the horizon. To the right of that, the East Stand of Newcastle United’s St James’ Park can be seen. That stand is dwarfed by later developments to the stadium, which now dominates the skyline. (Arthur Turner)

2

Acknowledgements: Thank you to the authors of the excellent BR Loco Database, LNER Encyclopedia and Six Bells Junction websites.

Additional thanks go to Dennis Troughton for his help with the accuracy of this book.

INTRODUCTION This 200th anniversary of the Stockton & Darlington Railway, thirty-odd miles south of Newcastle, is an opportune time to consider the role of Newcastle and its surrounding area in the development of the railways.

Although it was a Cornishman, Richard Trevithick, who built the first steam locomotives, for use in Coalbrookdale, Shropshire in 1802/3 and Pen-y-Darren in Wales in 1804, they were not particularly successful. They were too heavy for the primitive rails and relied on a giant flywheel to maintain momentum as their single cylinder provided power.

It was left to Northumbrians to tame and refine the primitive, unpredictable machine, making it safe, efficient and economical.

That statement is borne out by Samuel Smiles, biographer of George and Robert Stephenson, who said, “in no quarter of England have greater changes been wrought by the successive advances made in the practical science of engineering than in the extensive colliery districts of the North, of which Newcastle-upon-Tyne is the centre and the capital”.

At the Royal Gauge Commission of 1845, Captain J. M. Laws stated “We owe all our railways to the collieries in the North; and the difficulties which their industry overcame taught us to make railways and to make locomotives to work them.”

The collieries to which he referred were Wylam, Killingworth, Wallsend and Hetton, all within a fifteen mile radius of Newcastle-upon-Tyne. Two centuries ago, for almost two decades, this was the only place in the world where steam locomotives were built, trialled, evaluated and improved.

In short, Newcastle was the epicentre of the global railway revolution.

Newcastle is nine miles east of Wylam, where William Hedley’s Puffing Billy of 1813 steamed successfully, and where in 1781, George Stephenson was born. It is six miles south of Killingworth, where Stephenson’s first locomotive Blucher of 1814 was demonstrated. It is fourteen miles north of Hetton, where Stephenson built his first complete railway.

Yet the reputation of the area surrounding Newcastle as the cradle of the railway stretches back more than four hundred years. Coal entrepreneur Huntingdon Beaumont, who had built Britain’s earliest known wagonway in Nottinghamshire around 1604, brought his technology to the Northumberland coalfield at Bedlington, which was carrying coal to the River Blyth by 1616.

For centuries before that, coal had been exported from the Tyne using small boats called keels to load seagoing vessels for London and abroad. As the coal seams nearest the Tyne were spent, new pits had to be sunk further from the river, so the coal was conveyed to the river on wagonways which were widespread along both sides of the Tyne by 1676.

Fifty years later, the breathtaking Causey Arch was built in 1725, carrying chaldrons of coal on the Tanfield Wagonway to the Tyne. This, the world’s oldest railway bridge, still stands, a 300 year old monument to the north east’s industrial past and railway heritage. By 1800, it is estimated there was a total of 500 miles of colliery wagonways to the Rivers Blyth, Tyne and Wear, shifting a million tons of coal every year. Technology was 3

advancing continuously and wooden rails were being replaced Railway, 45 miles to the west in Cumberland. This resulted by iron. This not only reduced wear and tear, but also friction, in the production of patented rails by Bedlington Ironworks so horses could pull twice as much tonnage as before. in Northumberland, which were used by Stephenson on the Stockton & Darlington Railway.

The Napoleonic Wars had caused a national shortage of horses and increased cost of feed, so colliery owners sought By that time, George Stephenson had engineered the Hetton alternative motive power. Stationary steam engines were Colliery Railway, which combined self-acting gravity inclines, already commonplace but there persisted a belief that the stationary engines and locomotives to move coal over the smooth iron wheels of a ‘portable’ steam locomotive would eight undulating miles to the River Wear. It opened in 1822 slip on iron rails. The toothed wheels of Blenkinsop and and its success swayed him against a notion he’d fostered of Murray’s rack and pinion locomotives of 1813 were tested seeking his fortune in the United States. How different history at the Middleton Railway in Leeds and on the Kenton and might have been!

Coxlodge wagonways near Newcastle.

So Newcastle was already the nascent railway capital of It was in Wylam that William Hedley’s Puffing Billy and Wylam the world when George Stephenson was awarded £1,000 Dilly proved beyond doubt that toothed wheels and rails were (£125,000 today) by colliery owners for his invention of the unnecessary. The weight of a locomotive was sufficient to miners’ safety lamp. He invested that money wisely, using it provide the adhesion required to haul trainloads of coal, far in to build the world’s first locomotive factory off Forth Street excess of the capability of horses. His contemporaries, William in Newcastle under his son’s name, as Robert Stephenson Chapman and John Buddle tried out locomotives at Wallsend & Company, in 1821. That amount was matched by Edward and Heaton, east of Newcastle, and at Lambton on the Wear. Pease, the driving force behind the Stockton & Darlington One of their machines was known as the Steam Elephant. Railway, and his associates. By 1824, the Stephensons were George Stephenson would have observed these machines in living on Claremont Road in Newcastle. operation as he built Blucher and his other locomotives for Killingworth Colliery.

The workshop was equipped with machinery designed by Stephenson and it was here that Locomotion No 1 was built The north east’s influence on railway evolution extended in time for the 1825 opening of the Stockton & Darlington beyond locomotion. Stephenson collaborated with William Railway, along with the stationary engines for the inclines.

Losh of Walker Ironworks, in the east end of Newcastle, to produce cast iron rail in 1816. Stephenson then learned of When surveying the Stockton & Darlington Railway, the durability of the wrought iron rails used on the Brampton Stephenson used the same gauge, 4’ 8½”, as used at 4

This wonderful wintry scene, taken from the end of platforms 9 & 10 at the west end of Central station features a grimy, unidentified Raven Class Q6 0-8-0, formerly NER Class T2. It is hauling a train of coal empties from the Scotswood direction past a water crane on 2 January 1963. These workhorses were introduced in 1913 and continued in service until the end of steam in the north east, in 1967. The extensive Forth goods station is in the right background.

(William A C Smith)

5

Killingworth and Hetton. He also insisted on its application on the Liverpool & Manchester Railway, and the Canterbury & Whitstable, prophetically adding “though they may be a long way apart now, depend upon it they will be joined together some day”. This would be adopted as ‘Standard Gauge’, and today, more than half of the world’s railway mileage is laid to his standard.

closure in 1960. The conserved building is now a venue for events and is known as ‘The Boiler Shop’.

As well as the Forth Street works, there is much more railway heritage to see in the region. It is still possible to trace the routes of some of the earliest wagonways, such as the Plessey Wagonway near Blyth, Northumberland, which began operation in 1709. A steam train ride on the Tanfield Railway As well as the north east being responsible for standard can be combined with a visit to the Causey Arch of 1725 and gauge, for many years one of its many exports was expertise. the world’s oldest continuously-used engine shed at Marley The Stephenson factory was at that time the only place Hill. Nearby, the Bowes Railway is a fascinating place where where men were apprenticed on steam locomotives. you can learn about rope-hauled inclines.

As a result, many of the first railways in continental Europe hired locomotive superintendents and drivers trained at Stephenson’s birthplace cottage at Wylam, and Dial Cottage Stephensons’ in Newcastle when they took delivery of where he lived in Killingworth both survive. The Pockerley Stephenson locomotives. Among the first exports from Forth Wagonway at the wonderful Beamish open air museum Street works were locomotives to the United States, Belgium, recreates life on those early railways with working replicas Germany, Canada and France, and before long, workshops of Puffing Billy and the Steam Elephant. Killingworth Colliery sprung up across Tyneside and Britain to supply railway Billy of 1816 is among the exhibits at the Stephenson Steam equipment across the British Empire and the wider world.

Railway in North Shields. Then there is George Stephenson’s Monument on Westgate Road, Newcastle, opposite the On 27 September 1825, during the public celebrations at Literary & Philosophical Society where Robert Stephenson the opening of the Stockton & Darlington Railway, George was President.

Stephenson announced, “What we do today will change the world”.

The Newcastle & Carlisle Railway, the first to cross the country, opened in stages in the 1830s, and many of Newcastle continued to have a major say in railway matters. its original buildings and structures can still be admired.

Robert Stephenson’s Rocket, the winning entrant in the There are spectacular former railway viaducts at Hownes Gill Rainhill Trials to determine motive power for the Liverpool near Consett, and Lambley near Haltwhistle. Other viaducts & Manchester Railway, was built here in 1829, and hundreds are still in everyday use, such as Durham and the Ouseburn. of locomotives emerged from the Stephenson works until its 6

Robert Stephenson’s ingenious High Level Bridge over the Tyne and John Dobson’s splendid Newcastle Central station, both dating from the late 1840s, are magnificent reminders of the vision and ambition of Victorian engineers and architects.

The High Level Bridge was joined in 1906 by the massive King Edward VII Bridge, giving Newcastle a unique circular track layout.

The NER also introduced electric locomotives to operate the difficult Newcastle Quayside branch.

An entirely separate series of electric locomotives, built in Germany from 1909 to 1913 was commissioned by the Harton Coal Company for its railway system in South Shields.

Four of these are preserved, one at Beamish, two at the Tanfield Railway and the other in working order at the Stephenson Railway Museum.

The other half of the circle is in Gateshead, where parts of the original Greenesfield locomotive works of 1844 survive. Relics of the Brandling Junction Railway include Monkwearmouth’s Newcastle is fortunate to be located on the East Coast Main handsome former terminus, the small, Gothic station building Line, which has brought generations of iconic motive power at Felling and the remains of Oakwellgate station in Gateshead. through the region. Elegant North Eastern Railway 2-4-0s, 4-4-0s and Atlantics gave way to Gresley’s Pacifics of the LNER, There are also impressive former station buildings to see at then his iconic A4 Class ushered in the age of streamlining Tynemouth, Durham Gilesgate, Wooler and Alnwick, to name with the four-hour “Silver Jubilee” to London. They were but a few. Much of the Alnmouth to Alnwick branch line, replaced by the mighty English Electric Deltics which in turn closed in the 1960s, is being restored for heritage operation. handed over to BR’s Inter-City 125 High Speed Train (HST).

To the south is the excellent railway museum at Hopetown, The early 1990s at last brought electrification to the main Darlington, and the National Railway Museum’s ‘Locomotion’ line, more than seventy years after Sir Vincent Raven of the outstation at nearby Shildon.

North Eastern Railway planned to do so. Initially, services were provided by Class 91 locomotives and IC225 sets, which The pioneering spirit of the north east did not fade after the in turn were replaced by Hitachi Azuma trains. age of the Stephensons. At the end of the 19 century, the North Eastern Railway was concerned about a dramatic fall Away from the glamour of Anglo-Scottish expresses, the in passenger numbers on its suburban services to Wallsend, North Eastern Railway’s main income was derived from Tynemouth and Whitley Bay, due to competition from freight traffic, especially coal. The NER’s sturdy 0-6-0s evolved electric tramways. Its solution was the 1904 electrification into powerful 0-8-0 locomotives, which gave sterling service of the North Tyne loop and the Riverside branch, one of until Peppercorn’s postwar K1 2-6-0s and the superb BR the first suburban electric services in the country. It was an Standard Class 9F 2-10-0s arrived on the scene. The latter immediate success, and was later extended to South Shields. class is synonymous with the Tyne Dock to Consett iron ore 7

trains which blasted their way over some of the steepest gradients in Britain. English Electric’s reliable Class 37 diesels handled most of the region’s freight after the end of steam.

Today’s freight scene, like everywhere else, consists mostly of long-distance traffic and is dominated by imported motive power.

Gone are the ranks of taxis with engines idling under the draughty portico. Like all major stations it has gained coffee franchises and supermarkets. But the historic core of the station, John Dobson’s sandstone buildings and beautiful 1840s arched roof look better than ever. The Victorian first class refreshment room, hidden from sight for many years, now shows off its original tiles and artwork in its modern The NER’s former electrified suburban lines, having changed guise as a bar. The station is cleaner and brighter, and has over to diesel power in the 1960s formed the backbone of gained an island platform, and an underground station below. the groundbreaking Tyne & Wear Metro. This was boldly The trains are powered by electricity, as predicted by George conceived as Britain’s first fully accessible rapid transit system, Stephenson. and was designed to integrate with buses, main line rail and the Shields ferry. Tunnels and stations were excavated beneath the While Britain celebrates 200 years of the railway, Newcastle city centre, and major new bridges spanned the Tyne and the and its surrounding area is steeped in 400 years of railway Ouseburn. The first section of the Metro opened in August history, thanks to the Stephensons, their predecessors, their 1980, since when it has extended to the Airport as well as contemporaries and successors.

Sunderland and the south bank of the Wear.

Train travellers passing through Newcastle are using one of only three Grade One listed railway stations on the national network outside of London. Newcastle Central station was an integral part of Richard Grainger’s early Victorian development of the ‘new’ town centre away from the cramped Quayside.

Its architecture complements that of the city’s neoclassical thoroughfares such as Grey Street. The station today is a far cry from how it was a hundred years ago, or even when compared to the days of my youth.

Gone is the once world famous diamond crossing below the Castle Keep. Gone is the expansive overall roof across the east end bay platforms, as are all but one of those platforms.

8

At 300 years of age, the Causey Arch, seven miles southwest of Newcastle, predates the Stockton & Darlington Railway by a century and is the world’s oldest railway bridge. It was built in 1725 by a local stone-mason named Ralph Wood for the influential colliery owner Sir Henry Liddell, to carry coal from Tanfield to the Tyne for shipping. Visitors today can walk across the arch, 80-feet above the Causey Burn, and beneath its 100-feet span. What is more, they can arrive by steam train on the adjoining Tanfield Railway. (Colin Alexander)

9

Left: The world’s oldest surviving standard gauge locomotive, and the third oldest of any gauge, is George Stephenson’s Killingworth Colliery Billy of 1816. It is displayed in the museum at Stephenson Steam Railway, which occupies the former Tyne & Wear Metro test centre, six miles east of Newcastle. It is predated only by Hedley’s 5’0” gauge Puffing Billy and Wylam Dilly, which are preserved in London and Edinburgh respectively.

Thirty miles south of here in the National Railway Museum at Shildon, three more pioneers; Stephenson’s Locomotion No 1 and Rocket; and Hackworth’s Sans Pareil can be seen.

(Colin Alexander)

Right: In 1875, fifty years after Stephenson’s Locomotion No 1 caused a sensation on its inaugural run from Shildon to Stockton, North Eastern Railway 901 Class 2-4-0 No 910 was built at Gateshead works. It shows how far the steam locomotive had evolved in half a century. Edward Fletcher’s 901 Class were the backbone of East Coast expresses on the NER for fifteen years until replaced by more powerful locomotives. Northumbrian engineer Fletcher, had 46 years earlier worked on Rocket at Stephenson’s factory.

No 910 was photographed at Kirkby Stephen East on the Stainmore Railway. It is now being restored at Locomotion, Shildon, County Durham. (Craig Oliphant)

10

11

12

This early view of the east end of Central station, taken from the Castle Keep, probably dates from the Edwardian era. NER Class E 0-6-0T No 103 and a Class A 2-4-2T, later LNER J71 and F8 respectively, are in the foreground and a North Tyneside electric train is in bay platform 2. The massive gantry signal box spans the running lines and guards the famous diamond crossing, which was reputedly the largest in the world. Bottom left is the approach to the High Level Bridge, while the track to the right heads for Manors and Heaton. The expansive ridge and furrow canopy across the platforms was added in the 1890s and is now gone. (Henry Priestley)

A total of 110 Class O 0-4-4T locomotives were built at Darlington works from 1894 for the NER to Wilson Worsdell’s design. They replaced the earlier BTP 0-4-4Ts and F8 2-4-2Ts, and were the mainstay of local passenger trains in the north east until dieselisation in the 1950s.

The LNER gave them the classification G5, and No 1169, later BR No 67255, was photographed in a west end bay platform at Newcastle Central. A Clayton steam railcar is visible on the right. No G5s survived in preservation but happily, the 111th member of the class is now under construction by the Class G5 Locomotive Company at Shildon. (Dr Ian C Allen)

LNER Class J79 0-6-0T No 1787 was photographed in Gateshead shed on 25 May 1935 in the company of a Class B16 4-6-0. The following year, this locomotive was handed to the Bowes Railway to replace a locomotive that collided with an LNER train at Jarrow. Originally NER Class H2, only three were built to the design of Wilson Worsdell, a six wheeled version of the earlier Class H (LNER Y7) 0-4-0T. The elegant iron arches above the locomotives were part of the original 1844 Greenesfield station, which was converted into the locomotive works and sheds. The station became redundant after only six years when Newcastle Central opened across the Tyne. (Neville Stead Collection)

13

14

This handsome LNER Class C8 (NER Class 4CC) 4-4-2, No 731, was one of a pair of four-cylinder compound Atlantics built at Gateshead in 1906.

Emerging during the Wilson Worsdell era, it was draughtsman Walter Smith who did the design work. They were among the most successful compound locomotives ever to run in this country, and Wilson’s ideas were incorporated into the iconic Midland Railway compound 4-4-0s. The two C8s gave sterling service on the NER and LNER until demoted from top link duties upon the introduction of Gresley’s Pacifics. This undated photograph was taken in the yard at Gateshead shed. (Neville Stead Collection)

Wilson Worsdell’s successor as NER Chief Mechanical Engineer was Sir Vincent Raven. He developed a series of powerful three-cylinder locomotives, including the Class Z 4-4-2 with 6’10” diameter coupled wheels. Fifty were built from 1911 and they were in service until 1948. Classified C7 by the LNER, No 2163 was captured at platform 9, Newcastle Central in this undated image. A Gresley J39 0-6-0 can just be made out on platform 10, and the tail-end of a train of LMSR stock is in platform 8. (Neville Stead Collection)

15

Vincent Raven’s quest for increased power on the NER culminated in a class of five three-cylinder 4-6-2s, the first of which was delivered in 1922 at the same time as Gresley’s first Pacific, No 1470 on the Great Northern Railway. This occurred just before the grouping, when those two companies became part of the London & North Eastern Railway. The Raven Pacifics were a development of his Class Z Atlantics, and were known as LNER Class A2.

No 2403 City of Durham is surrounded by wagonloads of loco coal beside the coaling stage at Gateshead shed.

All five of the A2s were withdrawn by 1937.

(Neville Stead Collection)

Another large three-cylinder locomotive designed by Raven for the NER was his Class D 4-4-4T, introduced in 1913.

Classified H1 by the LNER, No 1499 was at Heaton on 25 May 1935. To increase their adhesive weight and hauling capacity, all 45 of the H1s were converted to 4-6-2Ts by Gresley in the 1930s, becoming LNER Class A8. They were used on medium distance passenger trains such as those down the Durham coast to Teesside. Heaton Junction is where the 1847 Newcastle & Berwick Railway diverged from the 1839 Newcastle & North Shields Railway.

(Neville Stead Collection)

16

Also at Heaton on 25 May 1935 was Clayton steam railcar No 289 Wellington. The LNER ordered eleven of these self-contained vehicles in 1927, joined by eighty similar railcars built by Sentinel. They were used on branch line services where they were more economical than a locomotive-hauled train.

The Claytons were easily distinguished from the Sentinels by their external bunker and water tank over the power bogie. Both types had a vertical boiler inside the bodywork, but reliability problems with the Clayton cars led to their early withdrawal after less than ten years. (Neville Stead Collection)

17

18

Sir Nigel Gresley’s LNER Class V2 2-6-2 is regarded as one of the most aesthetically pleasing locomotive designs. With their 6’2” diameter driving wheels they were ideally suited to their intended mixed traffic and fast freight duties. 184 were built, and they were capable of astonishing feats of heavy haulage.

As a result they were nicknamed ‘the engines that won the war’. No 4772, later BR No 60801, was the second of the class and was almost new when photographed at Heaton shed in 1936. No 4771 Green Arrow is preserved in the National Collection. (Peter D T Pescod)

The first Gresley Pacific, Class A1 No 1470 Great Northern, emerged from Doncaster Works in 1922. A total of 79 were built, and during production some were fitted with higher pressure boiler and improved superheating, becoming Class A3. Eventually all were given the same treatment. No 2744 Grand Parade is at platform 8, Newcastle Central on 21 June 1938 deputising for a Class A4 on the streamlined stock of the down “Coronation”. Sister locomotive No 2750 Papyrus had set a speed record of 108mph in 1935. (Neville Stead Collection)

19

The North Eastern Railway was a pioneer of electrification, introducing electric suburban trains on the North Tyneside loop from Newcastle to Tynemouth in 1904. The original wooden bodied trains were replaced in 1937 with new steel articulated units designed by Sir Nigel Gresley. A set of 1937 stock in its smart red and cream livery was photographed in Newcastle Central’s east end bay platforms circa 1938. (Graham Ellis)

20

With Newcastle No 3 signal box and Forth goods in the background, LNER Class A4 4-6-2 No 4489 Dominion of Canada departs Newcastle Central in this late-1930s portrait. The startling appearance of the A4s must have had a similar impact on the public as that of Concorde in the 1960s. With their silver or garter blue livery and sleek streamlining they were totally unlike anything previously seen on the rails. Their streamlining was not just an aesthetic gimmick though, for Gresley paid just as much attention to streamlining the internal steam passages for efficiency and power. The signal gantry, with a bewildering 57 semaphores, was said to be the largest in the world. No 4489 is preserved in Canada, one of six A4s to survive. (Neville Stead Collection)

21

22

Left: With the terraced houses of Chillingham Road on the horizon, locomotives line up between duties at Heaton Junction, a couple of miles east of Central station, circa 1948. Class N8 0-6-2T No 69371 has received its new BR number, but retains the LNER lettering. Formerly NER Class B, it was one of a class of 62, being Thomas W Worsdell’s first design in 1886.

The Class C 0-6-0, LNER J21, was the tender version. A Class J25 0-6-0 and a Gresley Pacific keep it company. (Neville Stead Collection)

Below: As mentioned in the introduction, the NER derived much of its income from the movement of freight, especially coal. By the end of the 19th century, it needed something more powerful than its fleet of 0-6-0s to cope with increasing loads. Wilson Worsdell introduced his Class T/T1 0-8-0 in 1901 and ninety were built, becoming LNER Class Q5. No 3287 is seen here running tender-first, light engine past a smoke-blackened Newcastle Central in the late 1940s. An influx of modern ex-War Department 2-8-0s after the Second World War led to the withdrawal of the Q5s by 1951. (Transport Treasury)

23

24

It was relatively rare for LNER tank locomotives to carry lined apple green livery, but one that did was Gresley Class V3 2-6-2T No 7684, photographed at Gateshead shed in the late 1940s. 92 of these versatile and well-proportioned three-cylinder locomotives were built, the first ones being Class V1.

They were widespread across the north east and the Scottish section of the LNER. All but eleven were either rebuilt or built with a higher pressure boiler as Class V3. Sadly, none survive in preservation. (Neville Stead Collection)

In steam days, travelling east from Gateshead, almost immediately another locomotive shed would be encountered. This was Borough Gardens, which looked after freight locomotives such as Worsdell Class J24 (NER Class P) 0-6-0 No 5634, seen here just after nationalisation in 1948, complete with a pipe-smoking railman on the running plate. The locomotive was in service from 1898 to 1950, when it was withdrawn as British Railways No 65634. On the left are two private owner mineral wagons containing loco coal. In 1948, BR inherited a staggering half a million such wagons from private ownership, that is, not belonging to the ‘Big Four’ railway companies. (Alec Ford)

25

26

Left: By way of complete contrast to the glamorous Atlantics and Pacifics we have seen, tucked away inside Gateshead shed around 1950 was Class Y3 0-4-0VBT No 8154. A total of 56 of these vertical boiler chain-driven shunting engines were built by Sentinel for the LNER. They were classified Y1 & Y3, the difference being in their gearing, the latter being two-speed. 8154 was built in 1927 and withdrawn in 1953 without receiving a BR number, unlike Class V2 2-6-2 No 60875, in the background.

(Neville Stead Collection)

Right Top: Gateshead shed yard is the location for this pleasing study of Class G5 0-4-4T No 67260 on 25 June 1950. In the left background is one of the War Department Austerity 2-8-0s, of which the LNER acquired 200 in 1947 and BR eventually owned 733 examples. On the right is the side tank of Wilson Worsdell Class A7 (NER Class Y) 4-6-2T No 69787. With their three cylinders and small diameter coupled wheels, the twenty members of Class A7 were designed for heavy freight haulage.

(Neville Stead Collection)

Right Bottom: Scottish locomotives of the former North British Railway infiltrated NER territory via the remote, rural Border Counties line from Hawick through Northumberland, which met the Tyne Valley line just west of Hexham.

BR Class D30 4-4-0 No 62428 The Talisman was at the west end of Newcastle on 21 September 1950 with a train for Hawick. William Reid’s D30s were a class of twenty-seven locomotives, introduced in 1912 and withdrawn by 1960.

Given names based on the works of Sir Walter Scott, they were known as the ‘Scotts’. (Neville Stead Collection)

27

28

Looking recently outshopped, Class J77 (NER Class 290) 0-6-0T No 68430 stands at its home shed of Heaton in this undated photograph. All sixty of these locomotives were rebuilt from Edward Fletcher’s NER Bogie Tank Passenger 0-4-4Ts, precursors to Worsdell’s G5s. This one started life as BTP No 57, built at Gateshead in 1879, and gave a total of 76 years of service, firstly on passenger trains and following rebuilding in 1900, as a humble shunter.

(Neville Stead Collection)

33 years after the North Tyneside electrification, the line to South Shields was similarly equipped. A new fleet of electric trains were delivered in 1937, and the older wooden-bodied stock was cascaded to South Shields services. One of the 1920-built trains, which replaced some of the original 1904 stock damaged in a fire at Heaton in 1918, was photographed at Newcastle on 28 December 1951. A 1937 unit is on the left, and on the right is a Gresley Class V1 or V3 2-6-2T, above which stands the tower of Turnbull’s warehouse, a well-known landmark dating from 1888. (Transport Treasury)

29

30

Occupying Newcastle Central’s east end bay platforms 7 & 6 are Class D20 4-4-0 No 62396 and a 1937-built electric multiple unit on a South Shields service on 12th January 1952. No 62396 was originally NER Class R No 1665, entering traffic in 1907 and lasting in service for fifty years. It was one of a very successful class of sixty locomotives, designed by Wilson Worsdell. Platform 7 is the only east end bay platform still in use, now known as platform 1. All of the others have become the station car park. A North Eastern Railway motor parcels van of the original 1904 electric stock is on display at the Stephenson Steam Railway. (Transport Treasury)

The transformation that has occurred at Central station is nothing compared to the changes that have taken place on the Quayside. The bridges survive, of course, with some newer additions, but the warehouses, transfer sheds and cranes that were off to the left of this undated photograph have been swept away and replaced by sculptures and wine bars. Former NER Class E (LNER J71) 0-6-0T No 68256, designed by Thomas W Worsdell, moves a train of five-plank wagons loaded with imported timber, presumably freshly unloaded from the tramp steamer Rivercrest of Elder Dempster Lines. The vintage road vehicles complete the picture. (Neville Stead Collection)

31

130 years after its establishment, Stephenson’s works was still building locomotives, by this time under the guise of Robert Stephenson & Hawthorn, following a 1937 merger. BR No 9474 was one of a hundred Hawksworth Class 94xx 0-6-0PTs built here for the Western Region, and was photographed on 17 May 1952, ex-works on the inclined headshunt that linked the works to the main line south of the station. Newcastle Central’s west end signal gantry towers above, and the viaduct approaching King Edward VII Bridge curves off to the left. (Roy Edgar Vincent)

32

Manors station is half a mile to the east of Newcastle Central, and was the junction where the North Tyneside loop divided. It replaced the original termini of the Newcastle & North Shields, and the Blyth & Tyne Railways.

As well as electric suburban services, main line stopping trains for the north also called here, such as that hauled by Class D20 4-4-0 No 62383, photographed in the 1950s.

This was probably a service for Alnmouth and Alnwick.

Manors was subsequently demolished, and its nine platforms were reduced to a single spartan island.

The clock on All Saints Church spire shows 5.05pm.

(Neville Stead Collection)

Another of Vincent Raven’s three-cylinder designs was the powerful Class Q7 0-8-0, the zenith of NER freight motive power. BR No 63471 is seen passing Heaton station with a coal train in the 1950s. The fifteen Q7s, formerly NER Class T3, had a long association with the heavy iron ore traffic between Tyne Dock and Consett, moving trains of 700 tons up gradients as steep as 1 in 35, with banking assistance.

First of the class, NER No 901 is preserved in the National Collection and can be seen at Locomotion, Shildon.

(Neville Stead Collection)

33

Carrying what must surely rank as one of the longest names ever bestowed on a locomotive, Gresley Class V2 2-6-2 No 60835 The Green Howard (Alexandra, Princess Of Wales’s Own Yorkshire Regiment) was built at Darlington in 1938 as No 4806 and withdrawn in 1965. Only eight of the V2s were named. It was photographed at platform 9, Newcastle Central on 10 June 1954, in BR mixed traffic lined black livery. It would later receive the standard express passenger colour scheme of dark green with orange and black lining.

(Neville Stead Collection)

In 1950, Gateshead shed’s allocation was 91 locomotives, including some of the A4s. Later it would receive six of the twenty-two Deltics. Not quite so glamorous was Wilson Worsdell’s NER Class P1 (LNER J25) 0-6-0. They were a development of his Class P (J24), introduced in 1898.

Some were still in service in 1963, but when No E5658 was photographed at Gateshead on 26 August 1954, it had been withdrawn four years earlier from Northallerton shed.

It was being employed as a stationary boiler, as a source of heat for the sheds, via a valve and pipe attached to its dome. (Neville Stead Collection)

34

The LNER’s last Chief Mechanical Engineer, Arthur H Peppercorn was appointed in 1946, only eighteen months before the railways were nationalised.

He had started as an apprentice at Doncaster works in 1905. During his brief tenure as CME he oversaw the introduction of three very successful classes.

The first of those was his mixed traffic Class A2 4-6-2, of which fifteen were built from 1947. This is No 60529 Pearl Diver at Gateshead on 26 August 1954.

Sister engine No 60532 Blue Peter is preserved and has just returned to main line action. (Neville Stead Collection)

35

36

One of Gresley’s three-cylinder Class D49 4-4-0s, No 62771 The Rufford of Blaydon shed, is being admired by two young enthusiasts at platform 12, Newcastle Central on 27 August 1954. The train is probably bound for the Border Counties line to Hawick, or for Carlisle. The leading clerestory coach must have been close to the end of its working life. 62771 is one of the D49/2 sub-class, named after foxhunts, with Lentz rotary-cam valve gear.

Compared to the east end of the station, the west end bay platforms have survived into the 21 century intact, and are still in daily use.

(Neville Stead Collection)

The final development of the NER freight 0-6-0 locomotive was Wilson Worsdell’s Class P3 with its large diameter boiler. Reclassified J27 by the LNER, 115 of these dependable and robust locomotives were built from 1906 onwards, and they could be seen all over the north east until 1967, the end of steam in the area. BR No 65797 was photographed taking the main line with a train of mineral wagons at Heaton Junction in 1954, with the line to North Shields and Tynemouth going off to the left. (Neville Stead Collection)

37

38

Bathed in contrasting light and dark, courtesy of the low winter sun, BR Class A1 4-6-2 No 60159 Bonnie Dundee awaits its southbound departure from platform 8 at Newcastle Central with “The Queen of Scots Pullman” on 29 December 1954. The A1s were the second of Arthur H Peppercorn’s designs to enter service and they were very capable express passenger locomotives. They had larger driving wheels and a longer wheelbase than his earlier Class A2.

The first of the 49 locomotives was delivered in 1948, by which time the railways were nationalised. (Milepost 92½)

Peppercorn’s predecessor was Edward Thompson, who became CME upon the untimely death of Sir Nigel Gresley in 1941. Thompson was responsible for several 4-6-2 designs of his own, such as Class A2/3 No 60519 Honeyway. It was photographed at Heaton on 8 July 1956 with a Class B16 4-6-0 and a Gresley A3, evidently during a visit by a railway enthusiasts’ society. Thompson’s Pacifics were characterised by the position of their outside cylinders, which were set further back than usual, which together with their elongated front frames, to some eyes gave them an ungainly appearance. Sadly, none were preserved. (Eric Sawford)

39

Left Top: By far, Thompson’s most successful locomotive design was the Class B1 4-6-0, of which 410 were built between 1942 and 1950. Of these, 290 came from the North British Locomotive Company in Glasgow. BR No 61356 however, seen here at Newcastle Central’s platform 8 in the late 1950s, was built at Darlington Works in 1949, and was allocated to St Margarets shed in Edinburgh at the time of the photograph. A shiny new diesel multiple unit (DMU) can be seen in bay platform 5 to the right.

(Neville Stead Collection) Left Bottom: On 16 June 1957, Heaton was host to three examples of later steam locomotive designs, in the shape of ex-LNER Class J94 0-6-0ST No 68014, Ivatt Class 4MT 2-6-0 No 43071 and BR Standard Class 4MT 2-6-0 No 76101. No 68014 was one of almost 500 built by various companies, initially for the War Department then for industry. Postwar, the LNER purchased 75 of them, and this example was built by Hunslet of Leeds in 1944 as War Department No 75134. The first of 162 Ivatt 4MTs was built for the LMSR in 1947, and they were the basis for Robert Riddles’ BR 4MT. The latter was one of twelve ‘Standard’ types introduced from 1951 onwards. (William A C Smith) Right: The railway complex at Heaton also boasted extensive carriage sheds, where Class J21 0-6-0 No 65110 was engaged in shunting on 24 January 1959. On the left is a rake of Gresley coaches, including a sleeping car.

To the right of the locomotive is the end of a Pullman set, and some BR Mk.1s in crimson & cream livery are to the right. The long-lived J21s were previously NER Class C, of which 201 were built from 1886, and the last one was withdrawn in 1962. They were designed by Thomas W Worsdell, older brother and predecessor of Wilson Worsdell. One, No 65033 is preserved by The Locomotive Conservation & Learning Trust and is currently being restored to working order. (Neville Stead Collection)

40

41

42

Left: Gresley Pacifics to the fore at the west end of Newcastle Central on 6 May 1959. Class A3 4-6-2 No 60040 Cameronian is departing from platform 10 as an unidentified A4 waits at platform 9. 60040 spent the majority of its thirty year career based in the north east, at Gateshead, Heaton and Darlington sheds. Colour light signals have replaced the semaphores, and to the right of the A3, the gable projecting through the rear wall of the station is the end of the girder bridge that housed the signalling relay room. This was still in use in the 1980s but has since been removed. An additional island platform has since been built around this outer wall.

(Neville Stead Collection) Right Top: Steam, diesel and electric at Newcastle Central on 28 August 1959. This was two years before the Deltics arrived on the scene, and although by this time some of the English Electric Type 4s (Class 40) were in service, steam was still dominant on the East Coast Main Line. Centre stage, at platform 8 is Gresley Class A4 4-6-2 No 60011 Empire Of India with the 9.30am York to Glasgow express.

A Metropolitan Cammell DMU stands at platform 9, and in the bay platform to the right is one of the electric multiple units built by BR in the 1950s for the South Shields line.

They were later transferred to the Southern Region. (D Idle) Right Bottom: For some years after the premature end of steam on BR, and well into the 1970s, the National Coal Board continued to use steam locomotives. A typical NCB 0-6-0ST, in this case a product of Robert Stephenson & Hawthorn, hauls a train of coal wagons from Harton Colliery, and is about to pass the gantry signal box beside Tyne Dock shed on 28 May 1960. This was one of many locations in the north east where NCB and BR trains shared the same metals. A rake of the bespoke bogie hoppers built for the Tyne Dock to Consett iron ore traffic can be seen in the background. (William A C Smith)

43

Below: Same location and date, but a different photographer. This view of ex-LNER Gresley Class J39 0-6-0 No 64854 on empty mineral wagons, under the lower-quadrant signal gantries at Tyne Dock on 28 May 1960, provides us with a closer look at the Consett iron ore bogie hoppers.

Being a Saturday, two rakes of them stand idle on the left with their brake vans. By this time, BR Standard Class 9F 2-10-0s had replaced the ex-NER 0-8-0s on the heavily-graded route to Consett. The J39s were the most numerous of Gresley’s designs, totalling 289 locomotives. Gantry signal boxes such as this were commonplace on the North Eastern Railway, but only two survive today, at Wylam and Hexham. (Larry Fullwood)

44

Right: Taken sometime before 1963 when the locomotive was transferred away from King’s Cross, Gresley Class A4 4-6-2 No 60006 Sir Ralph Wedgwood draws a crowd of young enthusiasts on platform 9, Newcastle Central, as it awaits departure with the down “Flying Scotsman”.

Previously named Herring Gull, in 1943 it took its new name from sister locomotive 4469, which was destroyed in a Luftwaffe air raid on York.

Like many of the A4s, 60006 ended its days in Scotland, working the Aberdeen to Glasgow expresses. It was withdrawn in 1965. Note the LNER water column on the platform. A parcels train stands at platform 8.

(Steve Rogers)

45

Left: Gresley’s first four Class A4s were delivered in a striking two-tone silver grey livery to match the coaching stock of the streamlined “Silver Jubilee” train, introduced in 1935. The names given to the four locomotives also had a silver theme. The former LNER No 2511, BR No 60016 Silver King was allocated to Gateshead or Heaton for most of its days. In deplorably filthy condition, it was photographed passing a deserted Manors station at the head of the up “Flying Scotsman” on 17 August 1961. One corner of the North Eastern Railway’s huge New Bridge Street goods station is just visible in front of the three newly-built tower blocks on the left. (Transport Treasury)

Right: The photographer must have been standing on the freight avoiding lines in order to capture Class J72 0-6-0T station pilot No 68723 on the ‘wallside’ sidings facing platform 10 at Newcastle Central. Previously known as NER Class E1, Wilson Worsdell’s J72s were built in batches between 1898 and 1951, and were a smallerwheeled derivative of the J71. 68723 was one of 25 built just along the Tyne by Armstrong Whitworth at Scotswood, and one of two that were specially repainted in a pseudoNER light green livery, a welcome change from BR’s limited colour spectrum. One of the 1951 batch, No 69023, is the only survivor, and is owned by the North Eastern Locomotive Preservation Group (NELPG).

(Neville Stead Collection)

46

47

48

Photographed sometime in the early 1960s, Gresley Class V2 2-6-2 No 60946 has just passed through Heaton station with a heavy northbound freight train, including a long rake of Presflo cement wagons and some flat trucks carrying road vehicles. The two tracks nearest the camera are the electrified route to the coast. The V2 will shortly head north on the main line at Heaton Junction. Note that all four tracks have the electrified third rail, as some express electric trains used the main line as far as Benton Junction on their way to or from Tynemouth. (Neville Stead Collection)

About eight miles east of Newcastle, the Tyne Commission Quay had regular sailings to Norway. The LNER opened a station here in 1931, and timetabled trains were operated to connect with the ships. They included “The Norseman”, a through train to King’s Cross. In the 1960s, with so many lines closing and the end of steam on the horizon, many railtours were organised for enthusiasts. Surely none could surpass the RCTS/SLS “North Eastern Tour”, which lasted five days and used fifteen different locomotives, including Ivatt Class 4MT 2-6-0 No 43129, seen here at the Tyne Commission Quay on day three, 29 September 1963. (William A C Smith)

49

50

On the following day, 30 September 1963, the same railtour was photographed on its way to visit branch lines in the west of County Durham and eventually Whitby, after two locomotive changes. Its motive power here as it passed the Cooperative Wholesale Society factory at Pelaw, east of Gateshead, was Gresley Class V3 2-6-2T No 67620. Behind the photographer was the three way junction for South Shields, Sunderland, or the Leamside line, which the V3 will take to Washington. The tour started and finished in York, passing through Newcastle four times and having traversed hundreds of miles of routes that no longer exist. (William A C Smith)

At the time of this photograph, taken 13th June 1962, the sight of two steam-hauled freight trains passing on the avoiding lines at Newcastle had been an everyday occurance for decades, but not for much longer. From the late 1950s until 1968, the monthly railway magazines would list the new diesels and electrics entering service and the steam locomotives being withdrawn in ever greater quantities. A Thompson B1 is hidden behind Worsdell Class J27 0-6-0 No 65842 as it heads an eastbound mineral train, consisting of a motley collection of wagons. This locomotive was built in 1908 and was in service for 57 years. (Leslie Freeman)

51

52

In the 1950s, ten new BR Standard Class 9F 2-10-0s were allocated to Tyne Dock shed for the arduous iron ore trips to Consett. They were arguably Robert Riddles’ best design, and 251 were built, ending with No 92220 Evening Star in 1960, the last steam locomotive built for British Railways. BR’s shortsighted Modernisation Plan doomed them all to tragically brief lives. The Tyne Dock 9Fs were distinguishable by the air reservoir, as seen below No 92062’s running plate, and the air pumps on the other side, which were used to operate the doors on the hopper wagons. It makes a magnificent sight coming off the King Edward VII Bridge with a train of vans, and is about to pass Newcastle Central. (Neville Stead Collection)

The third Peppercorn type was the Class K1 2-6-0, based on the one-off prototype Class K1/1, which was Thompson’s two-cylinder rebuild of Gresley three-cylinder K4 No 61997. Seventy of the versatile K1s were built from 1949, including No 62024, photographed on 1 August 1963 in the wallside sidings facing platform 10 at Newcastle Central. The J72 0-6-0Ts have by now been replaced by BR 204hp diesels, later Class 03, one of which is busy with some parcels vans. The locomotive crews appear to be in conversation with a shunter on the ballast. One K1, No 62005 is preserved by NELPG and is main line certified. (Neville Stead Collection)

53

54

The freight-only Newcastle Quayside branch opened in 1870, through a curving horseshoe tunnel on a maximum gradient of 1 in 27. This created appalling conditions for steam locomotive men, so in 1905 the NER introduced two purpose-built Class ES1 Bo-Bo electric locomotives, which were equipped with overhead pantographs and third-rail pickup shoes. No 26500 was photographed at Argyle Street, east of Manors station on 5 January 1964, eight months before it was withdrawn from service. The tunnel mouth at the top of the gradient can be seen under the bridge on the right. This location has changed beyond recognition, with Metro trains running alongside the East Coast Main Line here. No 26500 is preserved at Locomotion, Shildon. (John Boyes/ART)

Late in their careers, the Gresley A3 4-6-2s were fitted with smoke deflectors to help clear their exhaust and aid forward vision for the footplate men.

No 60092 Fairway stands in bay platform 4, Newcastle Central with an express in May 1964. This could either head north via Manors and Heaton, or south over the High Level Bridge. Someone has gone to the trouble of brightening its buffers and smokebox door hinges but it is looking otherwise quite unkempt, and was withdrawn from service five months later. The canopy above the locomotive used to extend across to where the Class V2 is passing with a freight train on the left. (William A C Smith)

55

56

Left: Taken sometime in the early 1960s, a rather neglected looking Raven Class Q6 0-8-0, No 63431, rolls through the equally neglected Pelaw station with a long rake of 16-ton mineral wagons. Its destination could be any of the three lines that radiate from the junction behind the photographer. 63431 was built in 1920 and withdrawn in 1967. It is carrying a 52H shedplate, indicating its allocation to Tyne Dock. The CWS factory buildings are on the right.

I wonder if that is the photographer’s Ford Anglia 100E parked near the footbridge? Q6 No 63395 and J27 No 65894 survive at the North Yorkshire Moors Railway in the care of NELPG. (Bill Bishop) Right Top: On railtour duty on 6 November 1965, was Gresley Class V2 2-6-2 No 60886, seen taking water at Newcastle Central. The Locomotive Club of Great Britain’s “Border Counties Rail Tour” ran from Manchester to Carlisle, Newcastle and back to Manchester via York, employing six locomotives in total, including a Stanier ‘Jubilee’ 4-6-0, a Peppercorn K1 2-6-0 and a Hughes ‘Crab’ 2-6-0. The V2 was responsible for the Newcastle to Wakefield leg, and was withdrawn the following April. By this time, some BR regions had dispensed with steam completely. The north east succumbed in 1967 and steam was banished from the whole of British Railways in August 1968. (John Tolson) Right Bottom: The 3,300hp English Electric Type 5 Deltics, with their high-speed, lightweight engines were designed to maximise power to weight ratio. Those allocated to Haymarket shed in Edinburgh were named after Scottish regiments, including No D9016 Gordon Highlander, photographed at Gateshead shed on 19 July 1965. Alongside are a BR Sulzer Type 4 and English Electric Type 3 No D6792. Understandably, the Deltics were disliked by steam enthusiasts, but they would attract an army of dedicated followers of their own, especially towards the end of their twenty year career. Seven are preserved, including the 1955 prototype and D9016, which is owned

by Locomotive Services Ltd, and is on static display in Margate, Kent. (William Wright)

57

Left Top: Sometime in the early 1960s, a four-car electric multiple unit of 1937 stock calls at platform 2, Manors North, with a stopping train from Tynemouth to Newcastle Central. Just visible above the rear of the train, another unit can be seen standing on one of the sidings at New Bridge Street goods station, on a higher level. These trains with their bucket seats and good acceleration, were popular with passengers, and when they were replaced by diesel multiple units in 1967, many felt it was a backward step.

The station clock tower, seen on the left, now crowns a seafront pub in South Shields. The main line is behind the photographer. (Bill Bishop) Left Bottom: In the early days of modernisation, one of the first diesels to be associated with the north east was the Sulzer-powered BR Type 2, later Class 24. Operating in pairs, they replaced the 9Fs on the Tyne Dock to Consett trains. Steam is no more so having lost its ‘D’ prefix, No 5111 negotiates a tight curve at the coke works exchange sidings, Derwenthaugh, on 26 February 1970.

This was located between Gateshead and Blaydon.

The locomotive was delivered new from Darlington Works to Gateshead shed as D5111 in 1960 and was withdrawn from the Scottish Region in 1976, by which time it was numbered 24111. The Class 24s and the later Class 25 derivatives would total 478 locomotives. (Bernard Mills) Right: The Wirral Railway Circle’s “Great Briton Limited” railtour, 1Z88, which lasted for four days, consisted of fifteen coaches including three sleeping cars. It used thirteen different locomotives of five classes, including a ‘Western’ diesel-hydraulic and some Class 24s. It left Crewe on 24 May and travelled north to Thurso and Wick.

By Sunday the 26, it was on its way down the East Coast Main Line from Edinburgh. On this leg, Brush Sulzer Class 47/0 No 47016 has paused at platform 8, Newcastle Central, while Class 40 No 40057 stands at platform 10.

From here, the tour continued to York and Sheffield then to Paddington and out again to Penzance and back to Crewe via Hereford! (Bernard Mills)

58

59

60

The 200 members of English Electric’s 2,000hp Type 4 1Co-Co1, later Class 40, attracted a large, dedicated following of aficionados, and were an everyday sight at Newcastle for 25 years. This is No 40054, formerly D254 at platform 8, Newcastle Central, having arrived from Liverpool Lime Street on 12th June 1977. At this point in time, John Dobson’s station roof was looking rather shabby. A BR Derby-built Class 108 DMU is on the right. 40054 was one of the earliest Class 40 withdrawals, being taken out of service on the last day of 1977. (Martin Buck)

Standing close to the High Level Bridge and looking west, we can see the King Edward VII Bridge of 1906, which eliminated the need for main line trains to reverse at Newcastle Central, and formed a unique circular track layout via Gateshead shed. There are triangular junctions at the south end of each bridge.

Under construction here on 8 April 1978 is the new viaduct for the Tyne & Wear Metro, making a total of three rail bridges over the Tyne in the space of half a mile. Its 540-feet main span connects the underground tunnels below Newcastle and Gateshead. The bridge was officially opened by the Queen in 1981 and named after her. (G H Taylor)

61

62

Synonymous with post-steam freight operations in the north east were the 1,750hp English Electric Co-Co Type 3s, later Class 37, of which 309 were built, including 67 at Robert Stephenson & Hawthorn in Darlington. On yet another railtour, No 37085, previously D6785, has arrived from Newcastle at Consett steelworks on 19 May 1979 with the Railway Pictorial Publications Railtours’ “The County Durham Crusader”, which started at King’s Cross.

Many of these reliable workhorses are still in revenue-earning service today. The steelworks, meanwhile, closed in 1980 after 140 years, with the loss of 3,700 jobs. (G H Taylor)

My late father used to take me to watch the trains from the top of the Castle Keep. Our reward was sights such as this. Taken on 8 April 1980, we can see from right to left, platforms 1 to 9 of Newcastle Central. Occupying most of the east end bay platforms are diesel multiple units for North & South Tyneside of Classes 101, 104 and 105. The first diesel multiple units arrived in the north east in the 1950s and quickly ousted the G5s, A8s and V3s from suburban passenger services, before replacing the Tyneside electrics in the 1960s. Most of these bay platforms became redundant once suburban services were handed over to the underground Metro from August 1980. Today only one is in use, the former platform 7, which is now platform 1 and is used by trains for Ashington and Morpeth, as well as Trans-Pennine services. (Arthur Turner)

63

64

There were usually at least two of BR’s Class 03 0-6-0 diesel-mechanical shunters on station pilot duty at Newcastle Central. Due to their short wheelbase, each of them was permanently coupled to a match truck to ensure the consistent operation of track circuits that allowed signallers to ‘see’ them on their illuminated track diagrams. This is No 03111 stabled in the wallside sidings, also known as ‘the hole’, on 8 April 1980. Nos 03094 and 03107 can be seen beyond. On this day, my mates and I had the pleasure of travelling to York behind Deltic 55004 Queen’s Own Highlander on 1A72, the 09.33 relief train for King’s Cross. (Arthur Turner)

Also on the 8 April 1980, and viewed from the Castle Keep, is a hybrid diesel multiple unit composed of Cravens Class 105 Driving Motor Brake Second No E51478 and a refurbished Metropolitan Cammell Class 101 trailer car. The train is crossing the High Level Bridge on the approach to Newcastle Central, and could have originated in South Shields, Sunderland or Middlesbrough. Notice the bars across the droplight windows, which were to stop people leaning out in the restricted-clearance tunnel at North Shields. Along the top of the opposite bank is the former Greenesfield works, now Gateshead shed.

In the foreground is the cupola of the Bridge Hotel, a long-time favourite of Tyneside railway enthusiasts. (Arthur Turner)

65

66

At the east end of Newcastle Central, with the Castle Keep (left) looking down on proceedings, a lengthy southbound ballast train picks its way across the diamond crossings behind English Electric Class 37 No 37053 on 9 April 1980. The 37s were usually confined to freight duties in the north east, but on summer Saturdays they got to stretch their legs on extra trains to seaside destinations like Filey and Great Yarmouth. 37053 was in service from 1962 until 1996, by which time it was renumbered 37344. It was eventually scrapped in 2006. The arch of the Tyne Bridge can just be seen above the third and fourth wagons. (Arthur Turner)

Some engine sheds, such as Eastfield in Glasgow, were very welcoming when young enthusiasts turned up and asked for a look around. Gateshead was almost impossible. We would cautiously approach via Greenesfield works and before we even reached the office to ask, we would be chased off.

All was not lost because the retaining wall to the south, which was once part of the steam shed afforded this view. Class 25 No 25195 is passing with a heavy mixed freight train on 10 April 1980, with part of Gateshead shed in the background. Thornaby’s Class 37 No 37100 is present, along with some Class 45/46 Peaks on the ‘ash heaps’ in the distance. (Arthur Turner)

67

68

At the same location on the same day, 10 April 1980, we can almost hear the distinctive turbocharged whistling sound as Class 40 No 40117 heads in the opposite direction at the head of a ballast train. A Class 37 stands by the fuelling point and a Class 31 is beyond that. The former D317 was one of the batch of twenty English Electric Type 4s that were built at Robert Stephenson & Hawthorn in Darlington. It was in service for twenty years, from 1961 until 1981. Fortunately, seven Class 40s survive in preservation, including Darlington-built 40106. (Arthur Turner)

Even though it was only their Class 44 predecessors that were named after peaks, starting with D1 Scafell Pike, the nickname ‘Peak’ would be applied to all 193 locomotives of Classes 44, 45 and 46. The 45s and 46s were an everyday sight at Newcastle, and here we have Class 45/0 No 45063 approaching platform 9 at Newcastle Central with 1N04, the 07.15 from Darlington via the Durham coast on 10 April 1980. This was a portion of 1N00, the 01.00 Kings Cross to Newcastle which dropped the sleepers at Darlington. The main train continued via Durham while 1N04 ran via Hartlepool and Sunderland.

The train will have travelled past Gateshead shed before crossing the Tyne on the King Edward VII Bridge. (Arthur Turner)

69

70

Just as 2025 marks the 200th anniversary of the Stockton & Darlington Railway, in 1981, the bicentennial of the birth of George Stephenson was celebrated. Wylam & District Round Table organised a charter train which made four round trips between Newcastle and Hexham on 6 June 1981.

Motive power was provided by preserved LMSR Stanier ‘Black Five’ 4-6-0 No 4767. The locomotive was the only one of the 842-strong class to be fitted with Stephenson valve gear, and at the 1975 150th S&DR anniversary it was given the appropriate name George Stephenson. It was photographed from the Castle Keep as it took the curve onto the High Level Bridge. The headboard on the smokebox reads “George Stephenson Birthday Special 1781 1981”.

(Bill Sharman)

The replacement of the comfortable first-generation DMUs with these ‘Pacer’ vehicles, their lightweight bodywork derived from bus manufacture mounted on rigid, four-wheeled wagon chassis seemed like a retrograde step. They were tolerable on short journeys but the 60 mile run along the Tyne Valley to Carlisle was a test of endurance for passengers. Class 143 unit No 143020 is painted in the yellow and white livery of the Tyne & Wear PTE, matching the original colours of the Metro, at platform 5, Newcastle Central on 2 September 1988. (John Tolson)

71

72

The Class 254 HST units, on the other hand, were a total success, and arrived on the scene in the late 1970s, rapidly taking over the most prestigious Anglo-Scottish services from the Deltics. This was the beginning of the end for locomotive-hauled passenger trains in Britain. With their maximum official speed of 125mph, they greatly reduced travelling time to London and set new speed records. Post-privatisation, they were painted in a variety of colour schemes for different operators. At the old platform 9, by now renumbered 3, Newcastle Central on 6 April 2011, an East Midland Trains set including power car No 43076 had been brought in to cover a motive power shortage on the East Coast Main Line. Compare the condition of the station roof with the 1977 photo of 40054. (Andrew Royle)

Just as the Pacifics and the Deltics before them were demoted to secondary services, the same fate awaited the HSTs following electrification and privatisation. On 9 April 2015 a unit wearing the livery of Grand Central threads its way below the Castle Keep. This company operated services on the Durham coast line from Sunderland to King’s Cross. Compare this view to the similar ones earlier in the book, to see how the station has been rationalised in the intervening hundred years, not least the sacrifice of platforms 1-6 for car parking. The new island platform on the south (left) side of the station can be seen. The Keep remains a superb vantage point over the railway, the Tyne bridges and the city. (Colin Alexander)

73

74

The Tyne & Wear Metro carried its first passengers between Tynemouth and Haymarket in August 1980, and in its first full year of operation, more than 60 million passenger journeys were made. Haymarket would soon be joined by four more new underground stations below Newcastle city centre and one in Gateshead. The original Metropolitan Cammell trains are still in service after 44 years but are due to be replaced by a new Swiss-built fleet. Having just crossed the Queen Elizabeth II Bridge, seen under construction earlier, Metrocar No 4084 forms the rear half of a Benton service in the underground Central Station on 1 April 2017. (Colin Alexander)

The HSTs were replaced by the rakish Class 91 electric locomotives, which operated a push-pull service, with similarly streamlined unpowered driving trailers at the other end of their sets of Mk.4 coaches. In a striking one-off livery, Class 91 Bo-Bo No 91101 Flying Scotsman propels its train out of platform 2 (the former platform 8) at Newcastle Central with a train from Scotland to King’s Cross on 3 February 2019. The name of the locomotive predates Gresley’s famous Class A3 by more than fifty years. It was first used in the 1870s as a nickname for the “Special Scotch Express”, originally the simultaneous 10am departures from King’s Cross and Edinburgh. (Colin Alexander)

75

76

The amount of freight through Newcastle nowadays is a fraction of what we used to see. Most of it is in the hands of the ubiquitous Class 66 Co-Cos, imported from North America. DB (Deutsche Bahn) Cargo No 66021 was passing on a Freightliner train on 16 February 2019. Behind the 1891 NER water tower (right) was the Stephenson locomotive works, from which some of North America’s first locomotives were exported two hundred years earlier.

How times have changed. The photograph was taken from the new platform 7 & 8, built outside the old external wall of the station. (Colin Alexander)

Today’s Newcastle Central station provides a cleaner, brighter environment for passengers, but (in my opinion) it is nowhere near as interesting for the railway enthusiast! Under the beautiful arched, curving train shed on 1st April 2024 are Northern Rail ‘Sprinter’ Class 156 DMU no.156454 at platform 2 and a Trans-Pennine Express Class 802 bi-mode unit from Liverpool at platform 3. The latter were built by Hitachi and can run on diesel or electric power.

Class 156s and the similar 158s form the local services to Carlisle, Chathill, and Teesside, as well as the newly reopened Northumberland Line to Ashington. (Colin Alexander)

77

78

The exterior of Newcastle Central station on Neville Street on 20 August 2024. The prominent portico (or porte cochère) seen here was added in 1863

by NER architect Thomas Prosser, better known for York station, and represents a third of the length of the station frontage. This used to be a draughty, smoke-blackened space where taxis queued, but its arches are now glazed and they enclose an airy passenger concourse. Out of sight towards the cathedral is the monument to George Stephenson. (Colin Alexander)

Appropriately, the East Coast Main Line’s current train operating company has adopted the name of its ancestor, the LNER. With the new footbridge to the island platforms 5/6 and 7/8 on the right, an LNER Class 801 ‘Azuma’ stands at platform 2, bound for Scotland, on 11th September 2024. Like the TPE Class 802s, these are also Hitachi bi-mode trains, which use the overhead electricity supply between King’s Cross and Edinburgh, but can continue to Aberdeen or on any unelectrified line using their diesel engines. The station has altered considerably over its 175 year history, with many additions and removals, but at its core is John Dobson’s original, built in the 1840s. (Colin Alexander)

79

80

The beginning, and the end. With the arched roof of Newcastle Central station in the background, this is the South Street frontage of George Stephenson’s locomotive works off Forth Street, founded in 1821. This building was the birthplace of Locomotion No 1 and Rocket. Exports began in 1828 with a locomotive for the Delaware & Hudson Railroad, and this was followed by the first locomotives in Belgium, Germany, Canada, France, Norway, Egypt and Turkey, to name but a few. It was said that in 1900, half of the ships afloat in the world came from shipyards in north east England. A similar claim can be made for the region’s influence on the world’s railways, which began here more than three-quarters of a century earlier. (Colin Alexander)

‘Newcastle’ is one of a series of 12 books being released in 2025 showcasing railway works and centres to commemorate ‘Railway 200’.

Packed with fascinating insights, historical landmarks, and stories of the people who forged the railways, ‘Newcastle’ is an essential read for railway enthusiasts, history buffs, and anyone captivated by the industrial age’s greatest achievement. £16.50

NEWCASTLE

As Britain celebrates 200 years of rail travel, Newcastle and its surrounding region stand proudly at the heart of a revolution that changed the world. From the earliest wooden wagonways of the 17th century to the pioneering steam locomotives of George Stephenson, this book explores the north east’s unparalleled contribution to railway history.

NEWCASTLE

Images from the Transport Treasury archive