This post brings back a lot of memories. There was a brother and sister attended St. Josephs School at Ushaw Moor named Margeret and Michael Dickinson. There Dad was employed by the LNER and they lived in the Station House pictured.
As well as coal being carried on this line there were also iron ore trains which carried the ore up to the Consett Steel Works. The weight of this ore must have been very heavy as the train was double headed and despite this the number of wagons that made up the train was very small in comparison to a single engine pulling a coal train. The ore came in to the country by ship to the Jarrow Iron Ore Terminal at Tyne Dock (South Shields) where the trains were made up. As young lads we would go train spotting at Relly Bridge and you could tell when an iron ore train bound for Consett was pulling up the gradient from Durham Station as the smoke and steam from the two engines hauling the train was shot straight up into the air from the chimneys on the engines. There was a curve on the rails at the top of the gradient to the right and the train was hauled round the curve and onward to Bearpark and Consett.
Brian Mc.
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Not sure where Aldin Grange is and seeing no picture of a station house. But as for the ore, i also did a lot of train spotting from relly bridge and often also walked the lines picking up bits of ore and another white rock which we would put in a tin with water and it would start bubbling and then we put a match to it and it burst into flames and we would sit around the tin and keep our hands warm. I believe it was called Carbide but havent a clue as to where it was going to or coming from but often found bits of it along the Durham to Ushaw line.
ReplyDeleteI recall some of those train drivers would wait until they were under the bridge and let go a good burst of steam and it would hit the underside of the bridge and ooze out of both sides up into your face and you couldnt see a thing for about 10 seconds. I remember a couple of kids were often at the bridge train spotting who were a couple of years older than me and one was from Ushaw moor and the other came from the other direction towards durham. After speaking to Roy Lamberth i think it was Roy and his friend Allan Dent (think it was Allan). I never had a watch so i was always yelling to others for the time and others asking what the number was or what line it was on etc. I am guessing that Roy must have been that kid that knew quite a lot about the trains and could even often say what type or class it was. They were all just steam trains to me.
I am guessing that the era i am talking here would be 1957-to 1963.