When the age of steam ended in 1967...
RAIL ENTHUSIAST TREVOR ERMEL RECALLS THE END OF AN ERA THIS WEEK 50 YEARS AGO
THIS year marks the 50th anniversary of the end of an era in North East England. Exactly half a century ago the last British Rail steam locomotives in our region puffed and clanked their way through Tyneside and Wearside, doing the job they were designed for - pulling heavy coal trains from pit to port, or pit to power station.
By 1967, diesels had already been in charge of mainline passenger trains in the area for several years, and Gateshead – one of the principal depots on the East Coast Main Line – had closed to steam in 1965.
So the final examples in our part of the country were not the big, shiny, green, named locomotives which many boys of the era dreamed of driving, but humble, black (mostly filthy-black!) heavy goods engines, some of them dating back to the pre-1923 days of the North Eastern Railway.
On Tyneside, Stella North (Newburn), Stella South (near Blaydon) and Dunston power stations continued to receive trainloads of coal pulled by engines working out of sheds at Blyth, Tyne Dock and Sunderland right up until the last day of steam on September 9, 1967.
Diesels took over completely from that date. Further down the coast, steam was also extinguished at West Hartlepool, bringing an end to almost 150 years of railway history.
Ironically, it was not just steam traction which ended on Tyneside that year. The last electric trains, familiar to generations of commuters and holiday-makers heading to the seaside, ran from
Newcastle to the coast in June 1967.
Life-expired, they were replaced by diesel trains which BR deemed were otherwise surplus to requirements, due to the contracting railway system of the time.
The changeover from steam to diesel and electric power was part of BR’s Modernisation Plan of 1955, although modern steam locomotives continued to be built right up until 1960, the final example being the celebrated Evening Star, a big 2-10-0 freight engine which spent most of its short working life in South Wales. Although these must have had an expected working life of 20 years or so, the writing was already on the wall for steam traction, and all had gone only eight years later. The speed-up of trains over the years has been remarkable. Whereas the fastest passenger trains in the steam era could take four hours from London to Newcastle (268 miles) and six hours from London to Edinburgh (393 miles), today’s electric trains can do the same runs in well under three and five hours respectively.
Indeed, the shortest journey time on the East Coast Main Line is achieved by the southbound Flying Scotsman which leaves Edinburgh at 5.40am and is due at Kings Cross at 9.40am, a straight four hours later, including a stop at Newcastle.
By August 1968 the last steam trains of all ran in North West England. Who, then, could have foreseen the explosion of heritage lines and the hundreds of preserved steam locomotives still active today?
Half a century ago the last British Rail steam locos puffed and clanked through Tyneside and Wearside Trevor Ermel