North East Industrial

North East Industrial

£13.50

Embark on a captivating visual journey through the industrial heartlands of Northeast England with the remarkable collection of Neville Stead. From the smoky landscapes of Northumberland, the bustling quaysides of Tyneside, County Durham, and as far as Teesside, this volume presents an evocative exploration of Britain’s railways at their zenith.

Through meticulously curated images spanning from the 1930s to the mid-1980s, witness the enduring legacy of traditional industries etched into the rugged terrain. Each photograph unveils a rich tapestry of industrial heritage, from gaunt colliery headstocks to bustling shipyards.

Compiled by Colin Alexander

ISBN 978-1-913893-47-7

North East Industrial Compiled by Colin Alexander

North East Industrial

Compiled by Colin Alexander

© Images and design: Transport Treasury 2024 Text: Colin Alexander ISBN 978-1-913893-47-7 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. ‘North East Industrial’ 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: A general view of the yard at Ashington Colliery with NCB 0-6-0PT no.22, ex-GWR no.718 in front of the engine shed on 12th June 1957. This was an example of a Barry Railway Class F, formerly no.72 and rebuilt by the GWR with pannier tanks. It was sold in 1935 to the Ashington Coal Co and scrapped by the NCB in 1962. It had been built by Sharp Stewart in Glasgow in 1895 as works no.4502.

Frontispiece: This undated photograph, probably from the early days of nationalisation and taken beside the water purification plant at Backworth shows National Coal Board 0-6-0ST no.2. Once a member of the North Eastern Railway’s 1350 Class, and numbered 1364, it was bought from the NER as early as 1912. A product of R W Hawthorn, works no.1671 of 1876, it was scrapped in 1954. It is coupled to an ‘Internal Use Only’ wooden hopper wagon.

Rear Cover: On 10th September 1954, former Lambton, Hetton & Joicey Collieries 0-6-2T no.31 has just passed through Millfield station with a train of loaded coal wagons for the docks. Situated on the south bank of the Wear in Sunderland, Millfield has since 2002 appeared on the Tyne & Wear Metro map, with the new station sited close to where the photographer was standing. No.31 was built by Kitson’s of Leeds as works no. 4533 of 1907.

Introduction

T

he late Neville Stead (1937-2023) was a Yorkshireman and a prolific railway photographer who also assembled an incredible archive of negatives from other photographers. Many of his images cover the less glamorous side of Britain’s railways, and this volume is testament to that.

Based in Whitley Bay for most of his life, he was able to capture much of the Northeast industrial railway scene at its steam-powered zenith. He was also a benefactor of the North Eastern Locomotive Preservation Group, which saved ex-North Eastern Railway Class P3 0-6-0 no.2392 (BR J27 65894) and T2 0-8-0 no.2238 (Q6 63395) for preservation.

When I was growing up in the Northeast in the 1960s and 1970s, it was impossible to escape the visual legacy of our traditional industries. The past was there to see in the smoke-blackened ancient buildings of Newcastle city centre and the austere transfer sheds on the Quayside. Gaunt colliery headstocks and ugly pit heaps loomed over almost every outlying town and village, aerial ropeways crisscrossed County Durham conveying colliery waste for tipping, and great ships slipped between the cranes on our rivers on their way to and from all parts of the world.

Point and the Tyne Commission Quay at Percy Main.

There we would see the passenger ships LEDA and BRAEMAR bound for Norway, and busy NCB saddle tanks bringing long rakes of wagons down to the Tyne to deposit their coal into waiting colliers.

My own interest in local industrial railways stemmed from these childhood glimpses into the past, catching sight of a tank engine on a crossing at Backworth or Dudley with a train of wooden wagons. Dad took me to the NCB sheds at Philadelphia when it was home to preserved LNER A4 4498 Sir Nigel Gresley. In the early 1980s I returned there to see the ex-BR Class 11 diesels.

Visits to Ashington and Weetslade collieries followed, now armed with my camera to capture the last days of their fascinating former Western Region dieselhydraulics. The NCB staff were always welcoming and it was not unknown to be offered footplate rides across the fields. Westoe colliery in South Shields and its Edwardian electric locomotives was another destination for my camera and I. All of these locations were reached by bicycle. It is into this world, or rather the steamdominated world that preceded it, that Neville Stead’s collection takes us.

Of course, industrial railways are not unique to this part Sadly for me, I am just too young to remember steam on of Great Britain. However, the Northeast was where British Railways, but I have vivid memories of being steam railways developed successfully from the 1810s taken by my Dad on numerous occasions to Whitehill onwards, and we are never far from the pioneering 1

legacy of the Stephensons and their contemporaries.

Furthermore, whereas 0-4-0 and 0-6-0 tank locomotives sufficed across most of the country’s private lines, the Northeast boasted a number of larger engines, including several tender locomotives, and many that previously belonged to main line companies from all over England, Scotland and Wales. Both of these factors add to the interest.

there are some omissions, but I have tried to include as much variety as possible.

While railway enthusiasts visiting the region today will find almost no trace of its industrial railways in situ, there is much to be seen at the Stephenson Railway Museum, the Tanfield Railway, the Bowes Railway, Beamish Museum, the Head of Steam Museum in Darlington, the NRM’s Locomotion outstation at Shildon, and the This selection of images spans from the 1930s until the Woodhorn Colliery Museum. mid-1980s, in some of the grimiest, gloomiest industrial locations of Northumberland and Durham. Some images I would like to acknowledge the assistance of the I have chosen for their location and background, others excellent websites of the Durham Mining Museum, the I have selected for the variety of motive power shown. Industrial Locomotive Society, Graces Guide and When the average enthusiast thinks of industrial railways Preserved British Steam Locomotives. I also want to they probably automatically think of the ubiquitous thank my friend Craig Oliphant for his input, as well as Hunslet Austerity 0-6-0ST. In fact that type appears only Billy Embleton and Trevor Ermel for their help. once in here as the main subject of a photograph.

The settings range from some of the most smokeblackened, heavily polluted industrial sites to remote countryside. Of course, the predominant industry is coal mining, but others feature, including quarrying, shipbuilding, electricity generation and iron and steel.

In order to provide some sort of structure, the book begins at the southern extremity of what I consider to be the industrial Northeast, and we work our way northwards through Teesside, County Durham, Wearside and Tyneside until we reach Northumberland and finish at one of that county’s more northerly outposts. Naturally, 2

About 16 miles east of Middlesbrough lies the coastal town of Skinningrove. It was ideally situated for iron production, and later steel.

This undated photograph shows outside-cylinder 0-6-0ST Minnie, built by Fox Walker, works no.358 of 1878. The company built its locomotives at their Atlas Works in Bristol and was taken over by Peckett & Sons in 1880. Minnie was used in the construction of the coastal railway from Whitby to Middlesbrough. It was then sold to Skinningrove Iron Works where it worked until replaced by diesels in 1963. It is preserved at the Mangapps Farm Railway Museum in Essex.

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Staying at Skinningrove, here we see the first of many ex-main line locomotives to be encountered on our industrial journey through the Northeast. No.81 was originally named Jersey, one of 25 London & South Western Railway Class B4 0-4-0T locos, and was used for shunting Southampton docks. They were designed by William Adams and built at Nine Elms, London. No.81 entered service in 1893 and was withdrawn by BR in 1949. Sold on to Skinningrove Iron Works it was finally scrapped in 1962 by which time its owner was the Iron & Steel Corporation of Great Britain.

Thankfully, two of these pretty tank engines are preserved.

Before we leave Skinningrove, here is something altogether more unconventional, an 0-4-0VBT (vertical boiler tank) locomotive. This 1871 machine was a real rarity, one of only a few built by Cochrane & Co at the New Ormesby Ironworks, Middlesbrough. The photograph was taken on the 13th September 1952, and shows the train on the jetty that curved out into the North Sea. It opened in 1888 for the transfer of pig iron onto ships to be taken to Grangemouth in Scotland. Note the steeply inclined railway above the wagons that leads up to the iron works. More wagons and a crane are in evidence on the quay to the left.

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This magnificent industrial scene, captured on 29th September 1951, portrays a locomotive crew posing with their battered machine at Cargo Fleet, east of Middlesbrough. Outside-cylinder 0-4-0ST no.4 was built by the Yorkshire Engine Company of Sheffield, works no.289 of 1877. Previously known as Cleveland Port, several iron works were established at Cargo Fleet in the mid-19th century, which over time became a massive integrated steelworks. Following the decline in the steel industry, the community of Cargo Fleet has all but disappeared from the map.

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Once the largest steelworks in the UK, by the time of this photograph on 29th September 1951, Dorman Long’s of Middlesbrough was still by far the largest on Teesside. It is best known for the Sydney Harbour Bridge and its smaller cousin that spans the Tyne at Newcastle. The firm occupied several sites on both banks of the Tees from Newport to Redcar. The Britannia works was on the south bank just downstream of the Newport Bridge. Sporting oversize dumb buffers, 0-4-0ST no.40 stands below a rudimentary water crane with a couple of bolster wagons. Another locomotive can be seen in steam in the background.

Complete with a headlamp on a bracket, a diminutive 0-4-0ST built in Leeds by Manning Wardle, works no.1027 of 1887 rests at Stockton quayside on 20th June 1951. The locomotive was employed by Coast Lines Ltd, which had absorbed its previous owner the Tyne Tees Steam Shipping Company in 1943. Note the van with the open door, bearing chalked destinations including Charlestown and Cork. It was near here in 1822 that the first rails were laid for the Stockton & Darlington Railway, trade from which sparked the development of the town of Middlesbrough, and of Teesside as an industrial centre.

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In contrast to industrial Teesside, the infant Tees tumbles from the Pennines and flows through a landscape of wild moors and spectacular waterfalls. At its heart is the market town of Middleton-in-Teesdale, which once had a terminus station on the North Eastern Railway, closing in 1964. This is 0-4-0T no.898, first member of the NER’s Class H, later LNER Y7. It was built at Gateshead in 1888 for use in Darlington North Road Works and was sold to Middleton Quarries in 1929. The quarry produced whinstone, which would have been brought to the NER by no.898 for onward shipment by rai.

The village of Aycliffe is situated between the Stockton & Darlington line to Shildon and the East Coast Main Line north of Darlington.

The quarry was beside the main line and produced Magnesian limestone; and like most such sites it used rail haulage. One of its locomotives was 0-4-0ST Ayresome No.5, photographed on 23rd June 1951. Note the unusual angled dumb buffers, designed to cope with traditional 2½ ton chaldron wagons as well as contemporary rolling stock. The locomotive was built by Manning Wardle in 1881 as works no.777. The tower of the parish church of St Andrew’s is in the background.

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Another product of Manning Wardle, 0-4-0ST, Elsa was works number 1328 of 1898. It was photographed in the barren surroundings of remote Weardale at Parson Byers quarry, south of Stanhope, in County Durham. This was another limestone working with a quarry face three miles in length, and 250 feet above the NER line to Wearhead. Material was transported down to valley level by a self-acting incline.

Elsa would have been used to move wagons between the head of the incline and the working quarry face, although this photograph would suggest its working days are over. Note the curved track and assorted wagons in the background.

Present-day visitors to the County Durham town of Crook would be astonished that it was once the location of an industrial undertaking the size of Bank Foot coking plant. Here, coal was processed in coke ovens, which along with the associated brickworks employed up to 2,000 men. The massive growth in Crook’s coal and coke industry was sparked by the coming of the Stockton & Darlington Railway in 1843. The coke works was in operation from 1850 to 1960. Among the locomotives employed there in June 1951 was NCB no.11, a sturdy short wheelbase 0-4-0T built by Hawthorn Leslie in Newcastle, works no.2685 of 1906.

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Brancepeth Colliery was on the edge of Willington in County Durham and was a source of coking coal. Having once employed 1,200 men, it closed in 1967. On 23rd May 1954, it was home to this splendid outside-cylinder 0-6-0ST Stagshaw, which had a very unusual history. It was built in 1923 by Hawthorn Leslie as an experimental compressed steam locomotive powered by two 150hp marine petrol engines, using the Paragon-Cristiani system. In this form it was not successful and in 1927, as Hawthorn Leslie works no.3513 it emerged as Stagshaw. Happily, it is preserved at the excellent Tanfield Railway, together with many other industrial locomotives of the Northeast.

The unusually titled Dean & Chapter Colliery was situated between Ferryhill and Spennymoor, and took its name from the ancient governance of Durham Cathedral. It was a relatively short-lived pit, working from 1904 to 1966, and was one of several in County Durham that used aerial ropeways as well as rail transport. The site is now given over largely to woodland. Another Newcastle-built product of Hawthorn Leslie was 0-6-0ST Carlton No.7, works no.2607 of 1905. By 27th March 1954, when photographed at the Dean & Chapter, it was the property of the National Coal Board.

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Tudhoe is to the north of Ferryhill, on the northern edge of Spennymoor. Its colliery, like so many, was the site of an underground disaster. In 1882 there was a firedamp explosion, killing 37 men and boys. Tudhoe was an early closure, shutting down in 1935, but it reopened at the end of the Second World War as Tudhoe Park Drift, employing about 200 men until 1969 when final closure occurred. On 27th March 1954, the associated coke ovens were home to unkempt NCB 0-4-0ST no.21, built by Kerr Stuart of Stoke-on-Trent, works no.4028 of 1919. The coking plant would close the following year.

Thornley Colliery lay southeast of Durham, and was in operation from 1835 until 1970. Coal was taken by rail to Hartlepool, and this trade was a catalyst to the development of the port there. This outside-cylinder 0-6-0ST no.18 dated from 1874, and was built by R W Hawthorn at Forth Banks, Newcastle, as works no.1622. This firm had built its first locomotive in 1831 for the Stockton & Darlington Railway. In 1886, it amalgamated with shipbuilders A Leslie & Co of Hebburn to form Hawthorn Leslie. No.18’s crew strike a casual pose, surrounded by the detritus of the mining industry.

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A few miles north of Thornley was the pit village of South Hetton. Here we find another long-lived locomotive with an interesting past.

0-6-0ST no.9 originated in 1848 at Robert Stephenson’s factory, South Street, Newcastle, as works no.624, an 0-6-0 tender engine for the London & Birmingham Railway, numbered 246. Becoming London & North Western Railway no.216 and later 816, it was first sold into industrial use in 1875. Purchased by the South Hetton Coal Company in 1895 it received the name Sir George . It was rebuilt as a saddle tank in 1910 and would eventually be scrapped in 1948, after a century of service.

The seams at South Hetton lasted 150 years and could produce 300,000 tons of coal per annum. Resident in this undated photograph is 0-6-2T 67 Gordon, built in 1897 as Class O1 no.28 by the Taff Vale Railway in Wales. It was sold by its successor, the GWR, to the government in 1927, for use on what became the Longmoor Military Railway. Bought by the NCB in 1947, it worked in the Durham coalfield until 1960. Now at the Gwili Railway in Carmarthen, its restoration is nearing completion and visitors will soon be able to appreciate this Welsh rarity in action.

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Much of South Hetton’s output would be shipped from Seaham Harbour, which was a magnet to enthusiasts for its eclectic stud of fascinating old locomotives and chaldron wagons. The latter form the background to this shot of miniscule 0-4-0ST Dick, built by the Hunslet Engine Co of Leeds as works no.628 of 1895. The new town of Seaham Harbour developed in the early 19th century when Durham coal magnate Lord Londonderry wished to avoid paying the heavy dues levied on coal shipped from the Tyne and Wear. The harbour opened in 1831 and shortened the rail journey from Londonderry’s pits.

Seaham’s harbour was engineered by John Buddle and William Chapman, with input from renowned Tyneside architect John Dobson.

Photographed there on 14th May 1960, between a Sentinel and what appears to be a Peckett 0-4-0ST, was NCB no.44. It is unusual in having a taper boiler and Belpaire firebox, features usually associated with large main line locomotives of the GWR and LM&SR. It was originally an 0-6-0ST, built 1917 by Manning Wardle & Co as works No.1934, for Inland Waterways & Docks, Sandwich, Kent. In 1951 it was rebuilt by the NCB then sold in 1960 to the Seaham Harbour Company, before being scrapped in 1963.

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Mars was an ex-North Eastern Railway Fletcher Class 964 long-boiler 0-6-0ST, no.1661 built in 1875 by Robert Stephenson & Co in Newcastle. Upon withdrawal in 1908, it was sold to the Seaham Harbour Co where it lasted until 1963. Its nameplate survives in the National Railway Museum, having been fashioned from the original NER numberplate with the numerals ground down. Seaham Harbour’s railways were on two levels. The upper level was mainly for feeding colliers from coal staiths. The lower level ran below the staiths and was used to deliver supplies to ships and for maintenance of the breakwaters.

Connecting the two levels at Seaham Harbour was a 1 in 11 gradient on a cliff ledge nicknamed ‘Dogger Bank’, with almost no ‘run-up’. It would have been a test for the driver of 0-4-0VBT no.17, built by Head Wrightson of Thornaby, works no.33 of 1873 for the Londonderry Railway. Its size made it very useful as there were tunnels with limited clearance, and tight curves around the harbour. Among the surrounding clutter is the cab of Clio, an 0-6-0 from the Blyth & Tyne Railway. Miraculously the cab is preserved at the Stephenson Railway Museum in North Shields, the largest surviving fragment of any B&TR locomotive.

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The most celebrated of all the Seaham Harbour locomotives was this tiny 0-4-0ST. Stephen Lewin’s works in Poole, Dorset, only ever built five locomotives, including Seaham’s no.18, originally a well tank. Lewin’s only standard gauge locomotive, it dated from 1877 and by the time withdrawal came in 1969, it was the oldest working locomotive in Britain. No.18 was always highly regarded by its crews but when the end came, its work was taken over by road vehicles. In 1975, along with Head Wrightson no.17, the unique surviving Lewin found a home at the wonderful Beamish Museum, where it has since steamed.

This handsome machine is 0-6-0T no.1 Seaton, originally intended as a passenger 0-4-4T for the Londonderry Railway. While under construction at Seaham Harbour Engine Works, the Londonderry Railway was absorbed by the North Eastern Railway which already possessed a large fleet of passenger locomotives. The unfinished engine went to the Seaham Harbour Company workshops in 1902 to be completed as an 0-6-0T instead. Sadly, it was scrapped in 1962. Incidentally, the Seaham Harbour Engine Works was also responsible for the manufacture of several motor cars, the sole survivor of which is preserved at Beamish Museum.

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The working life of Ryhope Colliery, between Seaham and Sunderland, spanned from 1857 to 1966, typically employing about 2,000.

Outside the engine shed on 18th May 1959, with a crude chock placed beneath its 4’7” diameter centre drivers, stands Worsdell 0-6-0T, formerly North Eastern Railway Class E no.1144, still in the faded livery of the Ryhope Coal Company Ltd. It was built at Darlington in 1892 and withdrawn by the LNER in 1937. The majority of the 120-strong fleet survived into BR days as Class J71, some lasting until the 1960s.

Inland from Ryhope, Silksworth Colliery lasted just over a century from its establishment by Lord Londonderry in 1869 until closure in 1971. It was one of the last strongholds of BR steam in the region, and the gradient up to the pit was a severe test for J27 0-6-0s. The Lambton, Hetton & Joicey Collieries Railway carried coal from a large area of the Durham coalfield for shipment at Sunderland. 0-4-0ST no.23 was built by Black, Hawthorn & Co of Gateshead as works no.688 of 1882 and was photographed blowing off impatiently at Silksworth, whose landscaped pit heaps are now the location of a dry ski-slope.

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The hub of the Lambton, Hetton & Joicey Collieries Railway system was the extensive Philadelphia Works between Washington and Houghton-le-Spring. This became the principal workshops for the maintenance of NCB locomotives from the whole Northeast area.

Receiving its last overhaul there on 22nd August 1968 was 0-6-2T no.5, built by Robert Stephenson & Co in Darlington in 1909 as works no.3377. In 1969, the locomotive entered preservation at the fledgling North Yorkshire Moors Railway, Grosmont, where it was put to immediate use. It is now the subject of an extensive overhaul.

Although synonymous with its 0-6-2T locomotives, the Lambton system was one of several industrial railways in the Northeast to use tender locomotives, which seem to have been much more common here than in other parts of the country. LHJC 0-6-0 no.25 was home-built at Philadelphia Works and is seen outside the sheds there. Out of the Lambton fleet of sixty locomotives, ten were 0-6-0 tender engines from a variety of manufacturers. The destinations for coal trains from the Lambton system were the complex of staiths (or ‘drops’) above the Wear, west of the Wearmouth bridges, or Sunderland’s South Dock.

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In order to reach Sunderland, the Lambton engines enjoyed running powers over stretches of main line. Washington South Junction was the meeting point of lines from Consett, Biddick Colliery, Glebe Colliery and the Leamside line over the Victoria Viaduct. The NER signal box looks down on LHJC 0-6-2T no.42, built by Robert Stephenson at Darlington as works no.3801 of 1920. Like most Lambton engines, it had a cut-down cab roof to negotiate the low tunnel clearances on the system. Note the ancient brake van at the head of a mix of wooden and steel bodied hopper wagons.

An early example of the classic Lambton 0-6-2T, no.29 came from Kitson’s of Leeds in 1904, works no.4263. The location is Pallion station, west of Sunderland on the south bank of the Wear. This illustrates the practice of NCB locomotives having running powers over BR lines. The date was 4th August 1956, eight years before passenger services ended on the Sunderland to Durham route. Pallion is once again on the passenger map, for in 2002 the Tyne & Wear Metro opened a new station just to the north, on its extension to South Hylton. No.29, meanwhile, is in working order and is a regular performer at the North Yorkshire Moors Railway.

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William Doxford’s Pallion shipyard opened in 1857, and it became renowned among enthusiasts for its distinctive crane tanks bustling up and down the steep gradients between the exchange sidings and the slipways while carrying 4-ton steel plates. Taken on 22nd August 1968, this is 0-4-0CT Southwick, Robert Stephenson & Hawthorn works no.7069 of 1942, built to a 1902 design. The crane was raised and lowered using steam pressure and the enlarged cylindrical firebox was the pivot for the jib, which could rotate through 360°.

All were named after districts of Sunderland and four were preserved following their eventual withdrawal in 1971. The massive doubledecked Queen Alexandra Bridge is beyond.

Crowded into a tight space on the north bank of the Wear, opposite to and slightly upstream of the Lambton coal drops, was Wearmouth Colliery, the largest in Sunderland. The pit was in operation from 1835 until 1993, employing 2,000. One of the locomotives there on 22nd August 1968 was this handsome 0-6-0T no.1 Bunny, possibly named after nearby Bunny Hill. Built by Andrew Barclay in Kilmarnock as works no.911 of 1901, it was displayed at the Glasgow International Exhibition in Kelvingrove Park before delivery to the then Wearmouth Coal Co Ltd.

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Like so many of the locations seen in this volume, all traces of Wearmouth colliery have been swept away; in this case to be replaced by the Stadium of Light. Taken on the same day as the previous photograph, one of Wearmouth Colliery’s regular steam performers was this neat Hawthorn Leslie 0-6-0T Jean, works no.2769 of 1909. Behind it is an Austerity 0-6-0ST and a brake van. Sadly, Jean’s smart lined blue livery counted for little, and she went for scrap in 1971. Wearmouth was the last operating pit in the Durham coalfield.

In the deceptively rural setting of Fulwell Quarry on the northern edge of Sunderland in June 1951, the photographer captured Joe, Hawthorn Leslie 0-4-0ST works no.2431 of 1899. Deceptive, because just off camera to the right was the Fulwell Lime Works, beyond the ramshackle tippler wagons. A connection was made with the main Newcastle to Sunderland railway line, the embankment of which is discernible, level with the top of the locomotive’s smokebox. To this day, most of this landscape looking across the fields to Cleadon remains open country, and the lime works is now a nature reserve and golf driving range.

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East of Cleadon lies Whitburn, once the southern terminus of the South Shields, Marsden & Whitburn Colliery Railway, which ran for 2¾ miles. This carried stone from the Lighthouse Quarry at Marsden and coal from Whitburn to the Tyne at South Shields. At Whitburn on 26th May 1951 was 0-6-0 no.4, former NER Fletcher Class 398 no.1333, built at Gateshead in 1883 and sold in 1925. Note the modern cab and outside-framed tender. It was scrapped in 1952, while the colliery closed in 1968. Passengers were carried between South Shields and Whitburn Colliery using a motley collection of elderly coaching stock, nicknamed ‘The Marsden Rattler’.

The rapid growth of industry on the Tyne coupled with the expansion of railways feeding coal into its ships was not at first matched by improvements to the river itself. In the mid-19th century its busiest stretch, from the mouth to Newcastle was only two feet deep at low tide, and there was a staggering 1¼ square miles of sandbanks. This led in 1850 to the formation of the Tyne Improvement Commission, which built Tyne Dock upstream of South Shields. With the grand terraced houses of Temple Town forming the background, Tyne Improvement Commission 0-6-0ST no.27, built by Robert Stephenson Hawthorn, works no.7212 of 1945 is at rest between its duties there.

Wardley Colliery was tucked inside the junction of the Leamside and Sunderland lines east of Pelaw. Part of the Bowes empire, it was in production from 1855 to 1974. In 1936, the Bowes Railway was given this 0-6-0T no.5, a Worsdell NER Class H2, LNER J79 no.1787, as compensation for a locomotive that was written off in a collision with an LNER train near Jarrow. Only three Class H2s were built, and they were a six wheeled version of the Class H seen at Middleton-in-Teesdale. The locomotive was built at Gateshead in 1897 and scrapped in October 1946, the same year this photograph was taken.

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The Bowes Railway, formerly the Pontop & Jarrow Railway, was established by a group of colliery owners known as the Grand Allies.

Carrying coal from Springwell, Kibblesworth, Marley Hill and Dipton to staiths on the Tyne at Jarrow, it extended over fifteen miles. It was engineered by George Stephenson using a combination of inclined planes and locomotive-worked sections, and it opened in 1826.

The engine shed at Springwell Bank Foot, off Leam Lane, is the location of this undated photograph of NCB 0-6-0PT no.9, formerly GWR no.717, a rebuilt ex-Barry Railway 0-6-0ST of Class F, and one of several to find its way to the Northeast.

Springwell Bank Foot was four miles from the Bowes Railway staiths at Jarrow on the Tyne. The shed was built in the 1850s and was equipped for repair work. The new housing that would eventually engulf the site is under construction around NCB 0-6-0ST no.24, built

by Hawthorn Leslie as works no.2545 of 1902. The shed still stands and now houses preserved buses. The railway’s other shed at Marley Hill is now the headquarters of the Tanfield Railway and claims to be the world’s oldest operating engine shed. It is well worth a visit.

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The name Ravensworth applied to several collieries to the south and west of the Team Valley Trading Estate, and the Ravensworth Betty pit was one of them. It was owned by Pelaw Main Collieries, who in 1931 purchased 0-4-0T no.1308 from the LNER. Another former NER Class H, it was built at Gateshead in 1891 and allocated to Tyne Dock. Pictured at Ravensworth on 24th August 1962, it appears to have reached the end of its working days. Two Class Hs are preserved including no.1310, which also worked for Pelaw Main.

West of the Team Valley and over the top of Lobley Hill lay Watergate Colliery, which yielded coal for a mere forty years before closure in 1964. NCB no.68 was an outside-cylinder 0-4-0ST named Claude, and was another product of Hawthorn Leslie, emerging in 1896 as works no.2349. In this photograph from 11th June 1957, the driver appears to be leaning on a stack of large lumps of coal that is blocking the entrance to the footplate. Note also the damage to the cylinder casing. Another site that has since been returned to nature; Watergate is now a forest park.

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Derwenthaugh, between Gateshead and Blaydon, was the location of another coke works, originally owned by the Consett Iron Company. Photographed there on 1st August 1962, was NCB 0-4-0ST no.57. The Consett Iron Company’s 0-4-0 tanks were Class ‘B’ and this one was originally B No.22. It was a rare example of a Chapman & Furneaux engine, built at their Gateshead works, no.1163 of 1898.

They were the successors to Black, Hawthorn and took over their Quarry Field works, where they built a total of seventy locomotives between 1896 and 1902. Subsequently, its drawings, patterns and goodwill were handed over to Hawthorn Leslie & Co.

The Consett Iron Company classified its 0-6-0T locomotives as ‘A’, and no.5 was the first of its Stephenson long-boiler 0-6-0 pannier tanks. The first of many, ordered over a sixty year period. A No.5 was built by Kitson of Leeds in 1883 as works no.2509, and became NCB no.41. At one time it was the NCB’s oldest working locomotive. It is now preserved at the Stephenson Railway Museum in North Shields. I was involved as a volunteer in its original restoration to working order, and in 1983 witnessed it being steamed in preservation for the first time, in its centenary year.

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Beamish Colliery was one of the longer lasting pits, producing coal from 1763 until 1966. At the time of nationalisation it was part of the Lambton, Hetton & Joicey Collieries portfolio. When this photograph was taken on 6th April 1958, this elderly 0-6-0ST Stanley, built by Robert Stephenson & Co in 1872 as works no.2014, appears to have been out of use for some time. Like the Consett Iron Company’s A no.5, it is of the Stephenson long-boiler design, where the short wheelbase allowed space for a deep firebox behind the rear axle.

The curiously-named Morrison Busty pit on the southern edge of Annfield Plain was a producer of coking coal, which was mined here from 1927 to 1973. In this 23rd August 1968 view, NCB no.79, an 0-6-0ST built by Robert Stephenson Hawthorn, works no.7545 of 1949 was out of use, despite its relative newness and its diesel-style wasp stripes. Its replacement was almost sixty years older, in the shape of Twizell, an 1891 product of Robert Stephenson & Co, Newcastle, works no.2730. Built for James Joicey & Co′s Beamish Railway, Twizell is preserved in working order at the Tanfield Railway.

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With a greater lifting capacity than the crane tank locomotives seen elsewhere, this self-propelled steam crane was one of several employed at Consett steelworks. 2-4-0CT E No.9 was built by Robert Stephenson & Co as works no.2854 of 1898. The original client was the Consett Iron Company. The similar E No.1, built by Black Hawthorn in 1887 is preserved at Beamish Museum. Interestingly, the CIC built two of its own diesel shunters, and one of these, no.10 was the last of a long line of locomotives built by a Northeast industrial railway. It is preserved alongside long-boiler 0-6-0PT A No.5 at the Stephenson Railway Museum.

Bardon Mill Colliery was a truly rural outpost of the National Coal Board, deep in the Tyne Valley 30 miles west of Newcastle and four miles south of Hadrian’s Wall. It was next to the Newcastle & Carlisle Railway, and was a short-lived concern which opened in the early 1920s and lasted until 1973. A comparatively small pit employing a maximum of 340 men, it only required one engine to shunt the sidings. In this undated shot it was this smartly turned-out 0-4-0ST, no.C19 built by Hawthorn Leslie, works no.2660 of 1906. Its crew clearly took pride in its appearance.

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Even more remote than Bardon Mill was the quarry at Barrasford, eight miles north of Hexham above the banks of the North Tyne. This slightly surreal scene, captured appropriately on 1st April 1953, is that of 2’0” gauge 4-wheeled gear-driven no.3, Sentinel works no.5990 of 1925. The locomotive is hauling a rake of heavily loaded tippler trucks, the contents of which would be transferred to standard gauge wagons at the exchange sidings on the Border Counties Railway. The quarry remains open, railless since 1958, but ironically still providing ballast for today’s rail network.

North Walbottle Colliery was on the western edge of Newcastle, west of the Jingling Gate inn on Stamfordham Road. Coal was mined here from 1894 until 1968. It was at the end of an extension of the 1820 Walbottle Wagonway, which connected at Lemington with the North Wylam loop, the route of the former Wylam Wagonway of William Hedley’s Puffing Billy fame. NCB no.30 was a Robert Stephenson Hawthorn 0-4-0ST, works no.7023 of 1940. Photographed on 14th June 1957, it is in light steam buffered up to an ancient NER clerestory brake coach. The pit heap is to the left.

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Wallsend, east of Newcastle, was renowned for the quality of its coal. At first, it was mined close to the Tyne for easy shipment, but as those seams exhausted, new pits were dug further north. One of the largest was the Rising Sun Colliery, sunk in 1908 and closed in 1969. It employed 1,700 men including two of my uncles. Shortly before closure, on 24th August 1968, NCB 0-4-0ST no.37, Robert Stephenson Hawthorn works no.7408 of 1948 was stabled between a larger 0-6-0ST and no.38, a Hudswell Clarke 0-6-0T, works no.1823 of 1949. The latter is preserved at the Tanfield Railway.

The slipways of Swan Hunter’s Wallsend yard were responsible for some of the greatest ships ever launched in the Northeast, such as RMS Mauretania, Esso Northumbria and latterly the last HMS Ark Royal. Swan Hunter was served by the NER Riverside branch, but it also had internal railways, including one which unusually for Britain was laid to metre gauge. Photographed on 21st November 1953, this low-riding 0-4-0T, no.294, was built by Andrew Barclay of Kilmarnock, works no.1044 of 1905. Note the large plate buffer beams and home-made chimney extension, presumably to lift exhaust clear of the exposed crew.

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Adjacent to Swan Hunter was Carville Power Station, built in 1903 to supply electricity for the North Eastern Railway’s suburban line to Tynemouth, as well as for the shipyards. At this time it was Britain’s largest power station, equipped with the biggest steam turbines then available from the neighbouring firm of C A Parsons. Photographed on 1st September 1959 was CEGB no.11, a very smart Hawthorn Leslie 0-4-0ST built in 1926, works no.3641. It would have been used to bring coal from the exchange sidings on the Riverside line into the power station.

The Riverside line rejoined the North Tyne loop at Percy Main, where a broad, busy iron highway ran from the Southeast Northumberland coalfield to the Tyne, for coal to be discharged into ocean-going vessels. At Whitehill Point and Northumberland Dock there were multiple staiths in use. The railways of Backworth and Seatonburn collieries had their own formation running parallel to that of British Railways. This image is of NCB 0-6-0ST no.43, Robert Stephenson Hawthorn works no.7769 of 1954 heading north with a train of empties under Wallsend Road on 29th August 1956.

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This magnificent, undated photograph of Engine Shed Junction at Percy Main was taken looking south from the bridge carrying Howdon Road across the railway. Hartley Main Collieries’ no.3 was a double-framed 0-6-0, formerly North Eastern Railway no.658. It was a Fletcher Class 93, built in 1867 by Robert Stephenson & Co as works No.1747. The NER sold it to Seaton Delaval Colliery in 1903, then in 1929 it was absorbed by Hartley Main Collieries. In 1959, at the age of 92 years it was scrapped by the NCB. It is hauling a rake of empty wooden hoppers up the gradient from Northumberland Dock.

Another Hartley Main Collieries engine seen at Percy Main, 0-6-0T no.9 came from Hawthorn Leslie, works no.3466 of 1921. As well as having a station on the Tynemouth branch, Percy Main had a Blyth & Tyne Railway station. The B&TR also had an engine shed here, which lasted into BR days. The various mineral railways running north to south fanned out here, creating an incredibly dense array of railway sidings and staiths along the Tyne and around the Albert Edward Dock. It is well worth a look at an old map to appreciate its complexity.

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The aforementioned Tyne Improvement Commission built the piers that protect the estuary, it dredged sandbanks from the river and excavated deep water docks so that the Port of Tyne could handle over 20 million tons of cargo annually. One of its improvements was the Albert Edward Dock, east of Percy Main. Here, coal was exported and timber for pit props was imported from Scandinavia.

Photographed against a background of cranes and the large grain warehouse on the southern side of the enclosed dock, was TIC locomotive no.2, an 0-6-0ST built by Black, Hawthorn & Co in Gateshead, works no.337 of 1875.

The Albert Edward Dock was tucked inside the Tyne Commission Quay, which saw regular sailings for Norway. The LNER introduced a through boat train from King’s Cross, named ‘The Norseman’, which ended in 1966. The glamour of international travel contrasts sharply with Tyne Improvement Commission 0-6-0ST no.11, built by Robert Stephenson & Co as works no.3072 of 1901 in this undated photograph. Back then, enthusiasts visiting the railways radiating southeast of Percy Main along the Tyne would have witnessed locomotives of the LNER, NCB and TIC at work in the same square mile. The Albert Edward Dock is now Royal Quays Marina.

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North of Percy Main and the various docks, the mineral lines ran parallel across the fields then gradually diverged to reach the collieries of southeast Northumberland. With High Flatworth Farm just above the locomotive, a train of empties heads north on the Cramlington Colliery Railway behind Hartley Main no.24. Originally Class F 0-6-0ST no.104 of the Barry Railway, it was sold in 1933 as GWR no.724 and scrapped in 1960. This location is now the Tyne Tunnel Trading Estate. The line that can just be discerned on the left is now used for passenger trains from the Stephenson Railway Museum.

The Backworth Colliery railway network served several pits in the vicinity, which necessitated a number of intersecting routes. The principal one was Eccles Colliery, which was worked from 1818 to 1968. The later Fenwick pit closed in 1973. The flat landscape of the surrounding area used to be punctuated by pit head gear and heaps, all connected by rail. At least two former North Eastern Railway 0-6-0ST locomotives were employed at Backworth, one of which was originally NER no.1797, here seen as NCB no.4, by which time it had received a modern cab.

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Another ex-Barry Railway Class F 0-6-0ST that came to the Northeast from Wales was NCB 0-6-0PT no.7, seen here at Backworth on 22nd June 1953. It was built by the Vulcan Foundry, Newton-le-Willows, Lancashire as works no.1346 of 1892. Originally carrying the running number 64, it was allocated to shunting duties at Barry Docks. The GWR renumbered it 714 and by the time it was sold to the Backworth Coal Company in 1934 it had been rebuilt as a pannier tank. I wonder how often the children in the old Backworth School were distracted by locomotives outside?

Staying with the Welsh theme, Hudswell Clarke’s works no.555 of 1901 was an 0-6-0ST for the Port Talbot Railway, their no.26. It became GWR no.813 and over the years it acquired a number of Swindon fittings including the usual copper chimney cap, and a rear extension to increase coal capacity. Like no.714 above, it was sold in 1934 to the Backworth Coal Company, having been replaced by the new 57xx pannier tanks on the Great Western. As NCB no.11 it was photographed at Backworth on 22nd June 1953, with the water purification towers behind. By 1966 it was a spare locomotive and a year later it entered preservation at the Severn Valley Railway.

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West Moor Colliery at Killingworth has gone down in history as the place where George Stephenson built and steamed his first locomotive, Blucher, in 1814, and where he proved the efficacy of steam traction. His home, Dial Cottage, can still be seen nearby. In June 1951, West Moor was home to another former Welsh machine. NCB 0-6-2T No. 27 was originally Cardiff Railway no.34, built in 1908

by Kitson & Co of Leeds. Withdrawn in 1934 by the GWR it was sold to the Seaton Delaval Colliery Co and became the property of Hartley Main Collieries. Eventual withdrawal came in 1960.

While most industries in Britain managed with small tank engines, as we have seen several Northeast colliery railways required larger 0-6-2T locomotives. Those built for the Lambton system and the ex-GWR examples were not the only engines of that wheel arrangement in the area. Hartley Main Collieries, who owned several pits around Seaton Delaval and Cramlington, took delivery of this 0-6-2T, no.8, new from Hawthorn Leslie of Gateshead in 1908. It was photographed at West Moor sheds, Killingworth on 12th June 1957. The pit shaft was sunk in 1802 and it was here that Stephenson developed his miners’ safety lamp.

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Dudley Colliery raised coal from 1856 until 1977, and was tucked in next to the East Coast Main Line north of Killingworth. Its coal trains ran on a branch of the Cramlington Colliery Railway, which it met at Seghill. Taking water from a typical coalfield water tank improvised from an old Lancashire boiler, is NCB 0-6-0ST no.59, Robert Stephenson Hawthorn works no.7802 of 1954. The photograph was taken in 1968, just east of the B1319 road. The train of empties is waiting to re-enter the colliery and its fireman appears to be on an errand with his shovel.

NCB 0-6-0ST no.25 is yet another example of an ex-Barry Railway Class F. Unlike no.7 seen at Backworth, no.25 has not received the Swindon treatment and retains its original saddle tank and boiler mountings. Originally no.132, it was built by North British in Glasgow as works no.16633 of 1905 and became GWR no.747. It was sold to Hartley Main Collieries in 1933. On 13th June 1957 it was photographed at East Cramlington, where we can clearly see the pit head gear and associated buildings.

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This photograph, taken on 16th June 1953 at the engine sheds at East Cramlington gives an impression of the sheer scale of the infrastructure, not unlike the main line railways. This is another locomotive that has found its way from Barry to Northumberland. NCB 0-6-2T no.28 was formerly Barry Railway no.27, built by Sharp Stewart in Glasgow in 1890. It became GWR no.227 and was sold for industrial use in 1934, when Collett’s new pannier tanks were introduced en masse. Note also the handsome timber signal box behind the locomotive’s bunker.

NCB 0-6-0ST no.42 was Robert Stephenson Hawthorn works no.7766 of 1953. It was almost new when photographed on 4th September of that year, with safety valve lifted. Another of the ubiquitous RSH outside-cylinder saddle tanks, they were designed as an alternative to the Hunslet Austerity type and were nicknamed ‘Stubby Hawthorns’, The location is the East Cramlington washer, where the buckets of the aerial ropeway can be seen above the huge pit heap. The Lancashire boiler water tank appears to be leaning somewhat, and a pair of ancient wooden semaphore signals complete the scene.

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Another former Hartley Main engine is seen here at Seaton Delaval engine shed on 12th June 1957. Obviously very well looked after, NCB 0-6-0 no.6 has an outside-framed tender, and is flanked by a wooden-bodied hopper wagon and a brake van. At least two of these locomotives were built for the Seaton Delaval Colliery Co by Robert Stephenson’s in Newcastle about 1880. This example has a modernlooking cab, and would not have looked out of place on any main line railway. The engine shed here survives as part of a carpet warehouse.

As well as the Austerity saddle tanks that bolstered the war effort, Britain’s railways benefited from an influx of American S100 Class 0-6-0T locomotives from the United States Army Transportation Corps. Some went to the Southern Railway for shunting Southampton Docks, but what is less well known is that from 1943, several reported for duty in the Northumberland coalfield, including some at Hartley Main Collieries. One of them became NCB no.35, built by Davenport in Iowa in 1943, works no.2509. It arrived here in May 1947 but by 3rd May 1953, when photographed, it had reached the end of its short life and was soon scrapped.

Another former main line engine bought by Hartley Main Collieries was no.20, seen at Seaton Delaval soon after the creation of the NCB. Originally a Glasgow & South Western Railway Class 160 0-6-0, no.171 was designed by J Manson and built at Kilmarnock in 1898. It was withdrawn as LM&SR no.17196 in 1926. By the time this photo was taken it had acquired a tender cab and a NER chimney from a Class J21. Hartley pit witnessed one of Britain’s worst ever mining disasters. 204 men and boys suffocated underground in 1862 when the beam engine broke and blocked the only shaft. A poignant memorial stands in Earsdon churchyard.

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Seen earlier at Percy Main, and captured on film at Seaton Delaval sheds on 12th June 1957 is the 1867-built Robert Stephenson ex-NER 0-6-0 no.3, now carrying NCB livery. Note the tender cab extension, which was belatedly fitted following 82 years of crews’ complaints about lack of protection in poor weather. This handsome old engine was tragically scrapped in 1959 despite attempts to save it, for it would be another decade before there was any real impetus in the railway preservation movement. The building in the background was the NCB’s chain testing facility on Double Row.

Before we leave Seaton Delaval there are two more interesting locomotives to look at, one ancient, one modern. Hartley Main Collieries 0-6-0ST no.12 started life as 2-4-0 tender locomotive no.82 of the York & North Midland Railway, built in 1847 by Kitson Thompson & Co. In 1854 the Y&NMR was absorbed by the NER who rebuilt it as an 0-6-0 and renumbered it no.313. In 1878 it was rebuilt again as an 0-6-0ST and eventually withdrawn in 1894. It was sold to the Cramlington Coal Co then in 1905 to Hartley Main where it worked for thirty years before scrapping in 1935, at the age of 88.

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This unusual experimental gyro-electric locomotive was built by Sentinel in 1957 as works no.9614, with twin “gyro units” from Maschinenfabrik Oerlikon of Switzerland. These were 3 ton horizontal flywheels which drove electric motors. When stationary, it was ‘charged’ from lineside posts via a contact arm extended pneumatically by the driver. When the gyro wheels reached the required speed, the driver retracted the arm, and it could work for about 30 minutes before recharging. It was built for the NCB at Seaton Delaval to research gyroscopic storage as a method for a fireless and fume-free underground locomotive. It was successful but in 1965 it was converted to diesel-hydraulic power.

Between the mouths of the rivers Blyth and Wansbeck is the outpost of Cambois, whose colliery was near the location of BR’s North Blyth locomotive shed, as well as some substantial coal staiths. These helped make the Port of Blyth Europe’s biggest coal exporter, shipping 5½ million tons in the 1930s. Dwarfed by Cambois Colliery’s concrete water tower and headstock buildings on 31st May 1952 was 0-6-0T no.12, previously NER Class E no.304, later LNER Class J71. We saw a former classmate at Ryhope earlier in the book. This example was built at Darlington in 1887, to be withdrawn and sold by the LNER in 1936.

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Mountainous spoil heaps form the backdrop to this study of former London Brighton & South Coast Railway Class E1 0-6-0T at Cambois in 1937. No.4 was built in 1891 as LB&SCR no.163 and named Southwick, (coincidentally the same name as the Doxford crane tank we saw earlier). It was sold by the Southern Railway to Ashington Colliery in 1932, and lasted until October 1954. It was one of a class of 79 built at Brighton to the design of William Stroudley, and one is preserved on the Isle of Wight.

On 23rd August 1968, just twelve days after the end of steam on BR, NCB 0-6-0T no.31 was at Ashington Colliery. Robert Stephenson Hawthorn works no.7609 of 1950, it was intended to haul passenger trains on the extensive Ashington system. The locomotive moved north to Whittle Colliery near Alnwick in 1969, and was sold to the North Yorkshire Moors Railway in early 1973, where it received the name Meteor. As a trainee fireman at Grosmont in the early 1980s, I fired this locomotive. When larger motive power was needed to cope with heavier trains on the NYMR’s gradients it found a new home at the East Somerset Railway.

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This fine 0-6-2T, NCB no.2 seen at Ashington on 1st June 1952, was built by North British in Glasgow in 1919 to the design of R Whitelegg for the Glasgow & South Western Railway. One of a class of ten, and originally carrying no.9, it was withdrawn by the LMSR in 1937 as no.16908 and sold to the Ashington Coal Co. Ashington was famously known as the world’s biggest mining village. It was the nucleus of a web of railways radiating to nearby pits. The mine started production in 1867 and closed in 1988. At its peak it had employed more than 5,000 men.

Ashington Colliery provided a 24-hour passenger service to carry men to and from their shifts, but it ceased operation in May 1966. Just over a year later on 10th June 1967, Woodhorn Colliery saw a visit by enthusiasts on board the Stephenson Locomotive Society’s Ashington Rail Tour. They had travelled from Yorkshire to Ashington behind BR Jubilee Class 4-6-0 45562 Alberta and were conveyed around the NCB system in old miners’ carriages, two ex-NER, and one from the Furness Railway. The locomotive is NCB 0-6-0T no.39, built 1954 by Robert Stephenson & Hawthorn, works no.7764. Woodhorn is now an excellent museum of the mining industry and its communities.

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As late as 1986, industrial steam was still in evidence in Northumberland. Occasionally visible from the East Coast Main Line at Widdrington was L2, ex-BR Class J94 no.68078, one of Riddles’ numerous wartime Austerity 0-6-0ST locomotives built for the War Department. Built by Andrew Barclay in Kilmarnock, works no.2212 of 1946 it was originally WD no.71463. The opencast site at Widdrington was operated for the NCB by Derek Crouch Ltd, who bought 68078 from BR in 1963. It last steamed there in 1978. Beside it is ex-BR Class 11 diesel shunter no.12052. Both locomotives survive in preservation, 68078 at Sellindge in Kent and 12052 at the Caledonian Railway in Brechin.

Further north again was the village of Broomhill, which had a station on the former NER branch line to Amble. The mine shaft was sunk in 1849 and it closed in 1961. In a photograph taken two years before closure, on 1st September 1959, this NCB 0-6-0T helpfully displays its heritage on the side tanks. Retaining its GWR numberplates, it was built by Andrew Barclay in Kilmarnock as works no.1111 of 1907 for the Llanelli & Mynydd Mawr Railway, and formerly named George Waddell. Like so many redundant Welsh pre-grouping locomotives, it was sold by the Great Western Railway in 1934.

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We end with another Welsh rarity. On 14th March 1953, Broomhill was the unlikely last home of this outside-framed 0-6-0ST that came from the GWR in 1931. No.2199, which also clung onto its cast numberplates, had been built by the Avonside Engine Co in Bristol in 1872 for the Neath & Brecon Railway. The old soldier is surrounded by wooden-bodied coal wagons of various types, some still carrying Broomhill livery. As well as the passenger branch to Amble, Broomhill also had a wagonway that struck east, connecting the smaller collieries of Newburgh and Radcliffe to the coal staiths at Amble.

North East Industrial

£13.50

Embark on a captivating visual journey through the industrial heartlands of Northeast England with the remarkable collection of Neville Stead. From the smoky landscapes of Northumberland, the bustling quaysides of Tyneside, County Durham, and as far as Teesside, this volume presents an evocative exploration of Britain’s railways at their zenith.

Through meticulously curated images spanning from the 1930s to the mid-1980s, witness the enduring legacy of traditional industries etched into the rugged terrain. Each photograph unveils a rich tapestry of industrial heritage, from gaunt colliery headstocks to bustling shipyards.

Compiled by Colin Alexander

ISBN 978-1-913893-47-7

North East Industrial Compiled by Colin Alexander