Matt Ditch Photography Blog

 The Lanchester Valley Railway  View SE towards Durham, on the then freight-only (since 2/5/39) Durham - Blackhill ex-NER line, which remained for freight until 5/7/65. The SLS West Durham Rail Tour is head by Thompson-design K1 2-6-0 No. 62059 (built 12/59, withdrawn 2/67 - a short life). Walter Dendy - Creative Commons Attribution Share-alike license 2.0 The Lanchester Valley Railway was once part of County Durham's extensive railway network. It was opened in 1862 by the North Eastern Railway. With construction starting a year earlier. It linked Durham with the town of Consett. One of the main purposes of the railway was to link the Ironworks at Consett with the Iron ore mines of Cleveland and Middlesbrough, when the line closed this traffic was transferred to the nearby “Stanhope & Tyne railway”. View NW, towards Blackill; Lanchester Valley line (Durham - Blackhill). Called Aldin Grange until 1/5/27, this station was closed entirely on 1/5/39 when the passenger servic...

  Pictures Hawthorn Leslie "No.2" storms up East Tanfield bank. Click here for the full gallery YouTube video

The Owd Ratty - History & the line to Boot History of the “Owd Ratty” I’ve long been fascinated with the history of the orignal Ravenglass & Eskdale railway, or “Owd Ratty” as it is now known. Originally the line was built to 3 foot gauge and opened in May 1875 to transport Iron Ore from mines around Boot to the Furness Railway at Ravenglass, a distance of around 7 miles. During the winter of 1876 a passenger service was added after the locals campaigned for it. This made the railway the first public narrow gauge railway in England. Unfortunately the cost of upgrading the line for passenger use left the railway in serious debt, which resulted the railway declaring itself bankrupt a year later in 1877. This, however wasn’t the end of the “Owd Ratty”. The railway continued on under the control of the the receivers. The railway was dealt another setback when the Iron Ore mines it was built to serve closed. Thankfully local traffic (passengers and local goods) managed to keep th...

  The North Sunderland Railway 1898-1951 This picture of Seahouses station in 1923 is displayed on the side of the tourist information centre which sits on the site of the railways goods yard. Introduction & History The North Sunderland Railway was opened in 1898 and linked the coastal village of Seahouses with North Sunderland and Chathill, a station on the East coast mainline between Newcastle and Berwick. The first railway in Seahouses was built to aid the construction of the new north Pier. This short contractors railway was worked by a small Andrew Barclay 0-4-0 saddle tank No.185 of 1877. This short tramway lead to discussions locally about the possibility of a railway being built to link Seahouses with the mainline. The North Eastern Railway were approached but they were not interested in constructing a railway. The orignal plan was for the pier tramway to link with the NSR, but this never happened. Seahouses station would also have been closer to the pier being located...