Tanfield Railway
| Tanfield Railway | |
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 Tanfield Railway
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| Route length: | 4.8 km |
| Gauge : | 1435 mm ( standard gauge ) |
The Tanfield Railway is a museum railway at Gateshead in Tyne and Wear and County Durham , England.
location
The standard gauge line is 4.8 km long and runs from the southern terminus at East Tanfield via Causey Arch, Andrews House and Marley Hill Sheds to the northern terminus at Sunniside (Gateshead) . It runs on the route of an earlier wooden railroad and later steam train of a coal mine . It claims to be the oldest still in operation railway in the world.
The railway offers passenger and goods traffic on Sundays all year round with historic steam and diesel locomotives.
Coal railway
The line was originally built to carry coal from the County Durham mines to the boat docks on the River Tyne. The oldest part to the northeast of the line at Lobley Hill dates back to 1647, and was in continuous use until it was finally closed in 1964.
The route and the structures of the oldest part of the section between Sunniside and Causey that is still preserved today dates from 1725 and is therefore the world's oldest railway still in operation, according to the Heritage Railway Association. The Middleton Railway also claims to be the oldest railway still in operation, because it was the first to receive an operating permit under a parliamentary act of 1758.
The section from Causey to East Tanfield was built in 1839. The winch shed at Marley Hill was built in 1854 and was in use until 1970. Until the introduction of locomotives there was a winder with which the coal wagons were pulled up the hill.
Originally the wagons were pulled by horses on wooden rails. The conversion to a conventional railway began in 1837 and was completed in 1840. In 1881 the first steam locomotives were used and passenger traffic began. The Tanfield colliery was closed in 1964 and the railway, which had been operated by the National Coal Board until then , was closed and its tracks dismantled and scrapped.
Museum railway
The museum railway goes back to a project in Marley Hill, in which the locomotives No. 21 and No. 5 ( Malleable , English for malleable cast iron) were completely overhauled before the first public run under steam in 1973. The first passenger train ran with locomotives No. 21, No. 32 and Sir Cecil A. Cochrane in August 1975.
The museum railway operation with passenger trains was celebrated on July 2, 1981 between Marley Hill and Sunniside Station and with an official opening on July 14, 1982. Andrews House Station south of Marley Hill was built between 1987 and 1989 and equipped with platforms, a water tower, a station building and a footbridge. The first train south to Causey drove on July 27, 1991 with the official opening ceremony on August 15, 1991. The train service was started on October 18, 1992 further south to the current terminus and the East Tanfield station opened in 1997.
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b Tanfield Railway . In: Wear> Places> Places features> Tanfield Railway . BBC . May 21, 2008. Retrieved July 4, 2009.
- ↑ Best of Britain's Steam Railways . AA Publishing, 2006, ISBN 0-7495-4212-8 .
Coordinates: 54 ° 54 ′ 28.8 " N , 1 ° 40 ′ 30" W.