A bit of prehistory: The NER Todhills and Newfield branch

As promised, here are a few pictures of the long closed Clarence Railway/NER Todhills branch:



Burnhouse Junction, where the newer Spennymoor-Bishop Auckland line (left) diverged away from the Todhills branch (right) to Newfield and Willington. The trackbed here is now part of the Auckland Way.



The branch was notable for its extreme inclines - the worst of which was a 1 in 16 (!!) from just outside Todhills station down to the River Wear. The section between Burnhouse Junction and Todhills (shown here) had far less extreme gradients.




Todhills station closed in 1867, but the engine shed remained open until 1922, and goods traffic continued into the 1930s. The station buildings themselves were still intact in the early 1950s at least.



A spur leading to the colliery and brickworks at Newfield diverged from the branch before it reached the Wear. By 1900 the inclines and colliery were gone and the track from the brickworks to the incline - shown here - had been cut back to a spur at the bottom of the hill.



Newfield brickworks. There's an industry enabled coal drop-off and goods pick-up amongst the sidings.



If you walk along the line from the brickworks this is where you'll end up after crossing the river.



The Newfield branch rejoins the Bishop Auckland-Durham line at Hunwick. Incidentally, the blue 31 is a hint as to the era I'll be showing in the next set of screenshots. ;)

Hunwick/Rough Lea Update

It's been a little while since I posted anything (been planting trees and cultivating the shrubbery...) but telegraph poles aside I'm getting to the end of the landscaping at the north end of the Durham line now.

Here's a few from that area:


An English Electric type 4 heads south past Rough Lea Colliery.



A Black 5 heads south past the farmer's crossing between Rough Lea and Hunwick. The line to Rough Lea Brickworks can just be seen on the left near the signals.



Looking the other way from the crossing in the picture above. Hunwick goods yard is just visible in the distance.



An English Electric Type 3 on a Carlisle-Eastgate cement waits for the road at Hunwick while a DMU heads north with a Durham service.



Looking the other way from the signal box, a Deltic passes through with a diverted ECML express (a reasonably regular Sunday occurance on the line until it finally closed to freight in 1968) while a Brush Type 2 waits in the sidings.



Another Eastgate bound cement, this time seen south of Hunwick.



Beware of the flowers!

The line on the left of the picture is the branch from Hunwick goods yard to Newfield brickworks, which originally went on to link with the NER Todhills branch (notable for its 1-in-16 rope worked incline from the banks of the river Weir to the summit at Toddhills itself).

Next up: Burnhouse Junction and the Toddhills branch. :)