a glimpse...
Tanfield
17 July 2025
One evening more than forty years ago, a friend took
me to look at lines of ex-industrial locomotives
awaiting restoration at Marley Hill loco shed. Since
then a splendid heritage railway has developed on
what ended its days as a BR freight branch - a line
which, in this year of 200th anniversary celebrations,
has a 300 year-long history.
I was on my way to Dunbar, a drive of over 300 miles:
I should have left home earlier. By the time I arrived
at Andrew’s House station, beside the aforementioned loco shed in the
hills to the south-west of Newcastle, the day’s last round trip was about
to depart - and I’ve still got 100 miles to go. Taking
the train ride would have meant a later arrival at my
destination than was wise. I resolved to return when
I could enjoy the railway at leisure.
That last round trip arrived in the hands of Twizell,
an attractive and sturdy-looking little 0-6-0T built by
Robert Stephenson in 1891. I could record its arrivals
and departures and, in between, visit the loco shed -
and be back on the road at a sensible time.
Geoff’s Rail Diaries
There must have been one or two non-steam
locomotives here in 1983, but I don’t remember
seeing any. Today, in the yard, a 1958-built Ruston
diesel was engaged in a spot of shunting. In the loco
shed was a significant older diesel - No. 2, Armstrong
Whitworth’s D22 of 1933, an 0-4-0 diesel-electric, of
the type that once saw passenger service on the
North Sunderland Railway. And there in the lines of
stock awaiting restoration was an even older
machine, none other than the AEG Bo-Bo overhead electric locomotive,
formerly no. 9 on the Harton Railway which once served Westoe
colliery. I had visited Westoe the day after my
earlier visit to Marley Hill. I’d had the merest
glimpse of it before it saw me - and scuttled away to
hide.
There was much more of interest here - I could have
happily spent a full day enjoying the delights of the
Tanfield Railway. I will return!
Link: Tanfield Railway
