Walking Britain's Lost Railways

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Evidently it's called The Stephenson Trail and there is a pamphlet produced by the Council identifying the route.

Don't know how to upload on here.
 
Weardale railway still exists, but for how much longer? The American owners are in financial shit. They are trying to find a new buyer. Could be a fantastic steam heritage railway, given suitable investment.
The track still exists all the way up to Eastgate.
 
Big Duke Six said:
Weardale railway still exists, but for how much longer? The American owners are in financial shit. They are trying to find a new buyer. Could be a fantastic steam heritage railway, given suitable investment.
The track still exists all the way up to Eastgate.
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My cousin and her husband turned the derelict Frosterly station into their home.
 
Forty said:
The left tunnel is the one that comes up behind Hylton Road, you would never even know the tunnel entrance was there now as it has been filled in and covered with grass. The lad actually walks past it on the programme. That was the one known as the darkie, but the tunnel behind the Barnes used to get that as well..
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There's also a tunnel under the top of Silksworth Row which used to take coal trains from the Hetton Colliery Railway to the Hetton Staithes opposite Wearmouth Colliery. That bit of the line closed in about 1968 but the tunnel was there till the mid 70s. It used to have a pile of dead rats at the entrance probably due to a keen local cat. Above the tunnel there was a little engine shed for the electric loco that used to take coal wagons into the power station.
 
Didn’t realise Hetton now has a Ray Lonsdale sculpture. Must get up to see that soon. Me Da would have liked to see that one.
 
Love walking the dog along the line from Spenny, hard to believe even Byers Green had a station, the platform is still there.
 
Billy Fish said:
Was a good watch. It’s crazy that nothing is made of the fact that Hetton built the worlds first railway. There should at least be some sort of statue or replica locomotive set up.

Watched it tonight and it definitely looked like Harold Watson but he said he used to live at the bottom of The Downs ( which he may have done) and also that he worked at Elemore ( again he may have done as it closed in 74) but he never mentioned Eppleton
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It was 100% him but they weren't up the Downs, he was stood in the car park outside the Lyons Tavern looking across to no 73 which was Four Lane Ends. https://tracking code removed/maps/2DMhVBKFkrLJxfwb9

They'd have lived there when he was at Elemore. Mam will know best, but I think he was manager at Elemore till it closed then moved to Under Manager at Eppleton which is when they'll have moved by us. They moved on again, cos I'm sure they lived in the house we moved into when ours was getting done up after the subsidence. Looks like he's an MBE as well!
 
Flared Hicks said:
It was 100% him but they weren't up the Downs, he was stood in the car park outside the Lyons Tavern looking across to no 73 which was Four Lane Ends. https://tracking code removed/maps/2DMhVBKFkrLJxfwb9

They'd have lived there when he was at Elemore. Mam will know best, but I think he was manager at Elemore till it closed then moved to Under Manager at Eppleton which is when they'll have moved by us. They moved on again, cos I'm sure they lived in the house we moved into when ours was getting done up after the subsidence. Looks like he's an MBE as well!
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She was down yesterday and yes definitely him, they lived at number twelve, next to where we moved to.
He also unveiled the Ray Lonsdale Sculpture put up last year. He’ll probably be the last surviving member of the Eppleton management team.
 
Amnorrageordie said:
They sold it on years ago. The pub had been converted to a house, then back to a pub a few times i think. Didn't they do bell ringing in the bar?
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I think they do bell-ringing in the Black Bull at Frosterley. Great pub with good ales and fantastic food. It's by the Wear Bridge and faces the station.
Jasper said:
Hetton is arguably one of the most important sites in modern history. If that railway hadn’t been a success, there’d have been no Stockton-Darlington.
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My memory may be playing tricks here, but at the bottom of Lyons Avenue there is a fair-size building that used to be Lyons Boys Club when I was a kid. They said the main hall was Stephenson's original engine shed where he assembled the engine for the Hetton line. Built on-site as there was no way to deliver a 20 ton engine in those days, and you'd need an engine shed anyway.
 
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MickeyV said:
I think they do bell-ringing in the Black Bull at Frosterley. Great pub with good ales and fantastic food. It's by the Wear Bridge and faces the station.

My memory may be playing tricks here, but at the bottom of Lyons Avenue there is a fair-size building that used to be Lyons Boys Club when I was a kid. They said the main hall was Stephenson's original engine shed where he assembled the engine for the Hetton line. Built on-site as there was no way to deliver a 20 ton engine in those days, and you'd need an engine shed anyway.
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Its gone marra, just waste land now.
 
MickeyV said:
I think they do bell-ringing in the Black Bull at Frosterley. Great pub with good ales and fantastic food. It's by the Wear Bridge and faces the station.

My memory may be playing tricks here, but at the bottom of Lyons Avenue there is a fair-size building that used to be Lyons Boys Club when I was a kid. They said the main hall was Stephenson's original engine shed where he assembled the engine for the Hetton line. Built on-site as there was no way to deliver a 20 ton engine in those days, and you'd need an engine shed anyway.
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The engine shed was round the corner from the Boys Club. Was Vardy’s for a while (relatives of the car business Vardy’s). Criminal that they allowed the place to be demolished. It should have been listed. They could have kept the shell and built apartments or offices inside.
 
MickeyV said:
I think they do bell-ringing in the Black Bull at Frosterley. Great pub with good ales and fantastic food. It's by the Wear Bridge and faces the station.

My memory may be playing tricks here, but at the bottom of Lyons Avenue there is a fair-size building that used to be Lyons Boys Club when I was a kid. They said the main hall was Stephenson's original engine shed where he assembled the engine for the Hetton line. Built on-site as there was no way to deliver a 20 ton engine in those days, and you'd need an engine shed anyway.
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I think you are correct on this...
 
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