TANFIELD THE WORLD’S OLDEST RAILWAY
Graeme Pickering puts the spotlight on the historic Tanfield Railway, a former colliery line in the North East that stands proudly by its claim to be ‘the world’s oldest’.
THE origins of the Tanfield Railway (TR) run as deep into the North East’s industrial history as the seams of coal through the area in which it was built. It was preceded by the Tanfield Waggonway, which provided a direct route between the mines and the River Tyne, and in the 18th century was one of Britain’s major coal-carrying arteries. The need to link the collieries at Tanfield to the route down to the Tyne (from where coal was loaded onto ships, many of which were bound for London) required a bridge to be built over Causey Burn. The resulting structure, Causey Arch, is the world’s oldest surviving single-arch railway bridge. Completed in 1726 and with a span of more than 100ft across a wooded gorge it carried waggons 80ft above the burn.
By 1727, the Tanfield Waggonway comprised two routes, one which ran east from Burnopfield (later extended to Dipton) and the ‘main way’ from Causey via Sunniside to the staiths on the Tyne at Dunston.
Modernisation under the management of the Brandling Junction Railway (BJR) saw the latter route become a railway and it was ultimately extended south-west to Tanfield Lea. It was incorporated into the main railway network and owned in turn by the various companies which superseded the BJR.
The branch passed from the North
Eastern Railway to the London & North Eastern Railway in 1923 and in 1948 to British Railways. Most of the route closed between 1962 and 1964, although the section alongside the Tyne at Redheugh clung on until 1981.
The Burnopfield line became part of the Pontop & Jarrow Railway (renamed the Bowes Railway in 1932, with the National
Coal Board taking over ownership in 1947) and would ultimately be linked via the building and acquisition of other routes to the Tyne at Jarrow. The eastern end (part of which is now preserved as the Bowes Railway) closed in sections between 1974 and 1986. Similarly, the remaining operational sections of the western end of the line closed in stages between 1968 and 1970.
Today, the Tanfield operates over three miles of the main branch between East Tanfield and Sunniside. It grew through the efforts of a small group of volunteers, who from December 1971 based themselves at Marley Hill Locomotive Shed.
Situated a short distance west of where the Burnopfield and main branches met, it had been used to maintain NCB locomotives until the previous year when the final part of the NCB line closed to traffic.
“We’ve grown it into what you see today from nothing,” explains the TR’s commercial director and vice chairman David Watchman. “The engine shed was basically all there was.”
Despite the closure of the NCB system, the land on which the lines stood and their surroundings were still in coal board use (just north of the engine shed, Marley Hill Colliery dominated the landscape until its closure in 1983 and subsequent demolition) and so it was decided to concentrate on the revival of a section of the main branch.
An impressive and intensive series of projects followed over the next 40 years to transform the railway into what can be seen today. As well as the reinstatement of bridges, crossings and relaying of track (recovered from a variety of locations across the north of England, where infrastructure had become redundant), major undertakings have included
“One of the most outstanding examples of restoration was
only necessary because of demolition work, which took place almost under the noses
of the preservationists.”
the building from scratch of stations and buildings at Andrews House (opened 1991), East Tanfield (opened 1996), and later the addition of a five-road shed and a carriage shed at Marley Hill. Marley Hill signalbox (which stands alongside the former flat crossing of the NCB and BR lines) also had to be re-created from scratch.
One of the most outstanding examples of restoration was only necessary because of demolition work, which took place almost under the noses of the preservationists. In an astonishing move, Gibraltar Bridge, built in 1766 to accommodate a multi-track wooden waggonway, was demolished by British Rail in 1972. It was rebuilt by volunteers in 1991 and now provides the main access from the car park to Andrews House station and Marley Hill Locomotive Shed.
“The five-road shed was probably the biggest one we’ve done so far,” continues Mr Watchman. “That was based on the engine shed, but used stone acquired from various second hand sources by volunteers.
‘Real thing’
“To try to comprehend that, there was just the engine shed when it started here and a little bit of track and that was just in front of the shed. There were no stations. There was no infrastructure. There was no signalbox. There was no Gibraltar Bridge. Everything that you see has been created.
“To get to this stage now where you look and would think that the station actually has been here all the time. The signalbox looks like the real thing, although it is actually a replica.”
Attention is now turning to the building where that preservation movement began. Described as the oldest engine shed in the world still used for its original purpose, Marley Hill shed has been in existence since at least 1854. There is evidence however to suggest the building dates back to the 1840s, the era in which the railway took over from the waggonway.
A project is underway to return it to how it would have looked a century later, and in keeping with their proud tradition the volunteers have made and installed new roof trusses.
Mr Watchman adds: “It’s a fascinating building. The roof trusses probably date from the 1920s or 30s. When we looked at them as part of our inspection programme we realised they were beyond repair and needed replacement.
“We needed to do something urgently about it so the volunteers constructed new roof trusses to original designs, and we just wanted to get the building watertight for the winter. That was the main aim.
“Now, upon doing that, we’ve made the decision to look at restoring the shed back to what it was in the early NCB era. We would love to restore it back to its original condition, but the information there would be a best guess, whereas for the late-1940s condition, we’ve got a lot of information on it, and fits perfectly within that 1920s-1950s era that we are basing ourselves on.
“It would probably do more damage to the building to change it to something that you think it was, rather than something you definitely know it was.”
A fundraising appeal was launched in 2019, with a page going live on the gofundme website last June.
Mr Watchman says they already have a schedule in mind: “There are the walls and various other bits and pieces which need attention. The building is structurally sound. It’s not going to fall down, but we do want to put it back to how it was.
Extending
“We aim to have the roof completed by November 2020. That’s a new roof on and the lantern roof, which was on top of that. They’re busy extending the walls up to where they originally were.
“The aim is to really showcase what an industrial engine shed was like and also having the ability to walk around it which is one thing on a lot of railways you can’t do. We actually pride ourselves in being able to do that.”
The plan is for the engine shed to play a part in telling the story of the locomotives and rolling stock which visitors can see and its
relevance to the area. And when completed it might surprise some who look around. Transporting coal may not have been the cleanest job, but standards of appearance were high. Walls were regularly whitewashed and floors and locomotives kept clean.
The TR made a decision in its very early days to concentrate on building a collection of industrial locomotives, carriages and wagons, which were an integral part of 19th and 20th century history in the North East. The railway estimates around 2,000 industrial locomotives operated in Northumberland and County Durham alone.
Mr Watchman believes their part in everyday working life still retains a strong resonance for visitors: “Certainly where we are in the North East everybody had a link to coal mining, the collieries and shipbuilding in some respect.
‘Experience base’
“They have this relationship with the National Coal Board, and I think even today with a lot of that gone, people still know of the importance of what the collieries and coal did for the area.
“I think what we really want to push for the future is to make it more of an experience base so people come away with learning the history, not only of the Tanfield branch and the Pontop & Jarrow Railway, but also the whole package really. How it started. How it developed. How it got to where it is today.
“We want to move away from just being classed as a train ride. It’s about telling the story of the carriages, the locomotives, the engine shed and everywhere around, like collieries, and what we were influenced by.”
He says historical links are also carefully considered when staging the railway’s special running days: “We try to influence all of our events with the history side of things. Even for our galas we’ll try to bring in a locomotive with quite an industrial pedigree behind it, and it’s important we do that so we can remain different to other railway attractions.”
That sense of history and its connection with the area has become a hallmark of the
Tanfield. Mr Watchman says it owes a lot to the policies set out during its first years as a preserved railway. “What we showcase here is different from anywhere else that you can go and visit: preserving that National Coal Board era.
“The various locomotives and rolling stock, which have all got their own individual stories as well as this is where the railways really began.
“I think it probably was the best decision we’ve ever made, to look at the light railway and colliery passenger stock that was available and the locomotives that went with that so it fits into one theme. What can happen at a lot of preserved railways is a mismatch of various themes, whereas we’ve got this very strong collection and theme policy really here.”
However, there are some reasons for exceptions to complete uniformity. Coach
No. 256, built for the North Eastern Railway in 1878, was returned to service in NER livery to showcase how rolling stock was sometimes put straight back into operation by new industrial owners without a livery change, even still including coats of arms.
Meanwhile, NER bogie carriage No. 2853, which returned to service in 2018 after a two years of restoration, was painted in NCB colours to reflect the use of that livery on similar carriages that were in operation at Ashington in Northumberland.
Complete story
Built in York in 1901 and initially put to work on commuter services on North Tyneside, it found a new home at Tanfield after almost 70 years of use as a bungalow near King’s Lynn. It was given the number A15, which would have been next in the sequence had another carriage been acquired for the NCB’s Ashington system. Mr Watchman says this kind of interpretation is something the railway intends to take forward in the future so it can tell a more complete story of how stock was bought and utilised.
The industrial railway tradition of selfsufficiency is also prevalent at the TR. In many cases, the restoration of locomotives, carriages
and wagons, some of which haven’t seen railway service since their use on industrial networks, takes place using the railway’s own well-equipped workshops.
Even where carriages have stood minus their underframes in fields or locos unused and rusting, squaring-up to the challenge of returning viable and useful vehicles to service is part of its culture.
Although No. A15 was returned to its former glory offsite at Stanegate Restorations in Haltwhistle, the Tanfield team sourced, modified and overhauled a replacement chassis for it, which they fitted along with footboards and lettering following the return of the carriage in 2017.
Integral to this is the training of volunteers and equipping them with the necessary skills. Mr Watchman says some younger members have even gone on to full-time railway careers as a result of the experience gained there.
Looking ahead, there are hopes more of its vast collection can eventually be stored undercover.
One of the big advantages of the large area of land available to the railway at Marley Hill is it offers potential to add further buildings for this purpose without having an impact on other aspects of the operation.
Big strides were made with the completion of the carriage shed in 2003 and the five-road shed (which accommodates carriages and locomotives awaiting work) in 2007, but in common with many other heritage railways, there are still rare vehicles for which there is no shelter from the elements.
300th anniversary
“Now we’re looking at what other accommodation we can put up at Marley
Hill to get the vast majority of the collection undercover because that’s what we really need to protect,” adds Mr Watchman, who says preparations are underway for the tercentenary of the waggonway at Tanfield in 2025.
“We’re probably the first working railway to celebrate its 300th anniversary.
I think everybody knows of the Stockton & Darlington Railway in 1825, but we’re the predecessors by a hundred years, so we’ve started on the Causey Waggonway.
“The ultimate aim is to have a waggonway in place ready for 2025, near to Causey Arch, at least on the original trackbed.
“We did some clearance in 2019 and we’ve got permission from Durham County Council to look at pursuing that further, so hopefully in the next couple of years we’ll see a wooden waggonway appear down there.
“It would kind of tell that early story as well or at least have something in place physically which you can see.”
The ultimate aim for the anniversary is to have a section of working waggonway, which could on occasions feature demonstrations using a waggon worked by a horse, and provide an added attraction to visitors travelling by train to Causey Arch.
There are no current plans to extend the operational length of the railway itself, although Mr Watchman concludes that the Pontop & Jarrow Railway (P&JR) route westwards from Marley Hill would probably offer the most viable option because of its clear trackbed.
As both lines run almost parallel, reopening the P&JR as far as Byermoor would potentially offer passengers the chance to look across to the Tanfield branch and see locomotives at work on the climb up Causey Bank.
However, in the immediate future, there’s already plenty for the railway to focus on as it finds ways to develop the telling of the story regarding how railways evolved and became the proud backbone of North East industry. ■