Deerness Valley Railway

     Deerness Valley Railway

Locale County Durham
Track gauge 4 ft 8 1⁄2 in (1,435 mm)
Length 8 miles (13 km)
Legend
East Coast Main Line to Chester-Le-Street
Durham
Lanchester Valley Railway to Consett
Durham to Bishop Auckland Line to Bishop Auckland
East Coast Main Line to Darlington
Ushaw Moor
New Brancepeth Colliery
Ushaw Moor Colliery
Hamsteels, Esh, and Cornsay collieries
Waterhouses
Waterhouses Colliery
East Hedley Hope Colliery
Stanley Inclines
Stanley Drift Mines
Wooley Colliery
Bank Foot Coke Works/Chemical Plant
Stanhope and Tyne Railway to Consett
Crook
West Durham Railway to Byers Green
Weardale Extension Railway to Bishop Auckland

The Deerness Valley Railway was an 8-mile long single track branch railway line that ran along the valley of the River Deerness in County Durham, England. Built by the North Eastern Railway, it ran from Deerness Valley Junction, on the Durham to Bishop Auckland line, to the coal mines along the valley via two intermediate stations, Waterhouses, and Ushaw Moor.[1]

History

The line was primarily built to serve the collieries at Ushaw Moor, Waterhouses, Hamsteels, Esh, Cornsay, New Brancepeth and East Hedley Hope, and was opened to passengers only as an afterthought.

Opening

Authorised in 1855, the line opened to goods on New Year's Day 1858, but it was not until 1 November 1877 that the first passenger station, Waterhouses near Esh Winning, was opened. A second station was opened on 1 September 1884 at Ushaw Moor.

Industries served

Beyond the East Hedley Hope junction, the line was known as Stockton and Darlington Railway Deerness Valley Branch, with the rope worked Stanley Inclines giving access to Stanley Drifts and Wooley Colliery. It then accessed Bank Foot Coke Works and Chemical Plant at Crook, where it junctioned with both the Weardale Extension Railway and the Stanhope and Tyne Railway. This section was built for Joseph Pease and Partners, the owners of Waterhouses Colliery who also owned the industrial complex at Bank Foot.[2]

Closure

The entire line closed to passengers on 29 October 1951, and to freight on 28 December 1964.

The site today

The trackbed became part of the Durham Railway Paths network[3] in 1975.

References

  1. ↑ http://www.subbrit.org.uk/sb-sites/stations/w/waterhouses/index.shtml
  2. ↑ "Waterhouses railway station". Disused Stations. Retrieved 24 March 2013.
  3. ↑ http://www.ldwa.org.uk/ldp/members/show_path.php?path_name=Deerness+Valley+Railway+Path

External links

This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the Monday, September 07, 2015. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.