North East Steam workings from Tyne Dock to Consett 

Went to Brooms RC School 1953 to 1960. Line ran between the school and the Church. Lessons stopped for a minute or two when ore and coal trains passed (hooray from us lot!!) We saw the change from the usual two 0-8-0 engines pulling the ore trucks, to two new 0-10-0 9F's heading up the train - was exciting! Saw many of them including namer 'Evening Star'. Playground was separated from the line by a locked iron gate and a low wall. First hand view - feet away!! A tunnel a few yards further along the playground went under the line and was the access to the single track road past the church and up to the main road. Day school trip to Edinburgh 1958 0:08 0:08 from Annfield Plain station pulled by 'Mayflower' there and back. Train spotted at the Lintz line - not too far from the now famous Beamish/Causey Arch (near Tantobie where I lived), and of course Newcastle Central. Saw many A1, A2 A3 A4's, the new North British 70000's etc,etc. My Ian Allan LNER locos book is a great record of 1957 to 1960 spotting. (Spion Kop - anyone?) Mike Lynch spotting. record of 1957 to 1960. 0:08 i under the line to the acces road past the church

I used to go up to Annfield plain between 1963 to 1966 ,on a quiet day you could hear these trains fully loaded with invariably a Q6 as a banker barking from miles away ,incredible sight and sound ,more incredible was the pink snow at Consett from iron ore dust ,the volume of traffic to and from Costt steel works was incredible ,I can hear it and smell it now 👍

Amazing to think that stuff like this went by the top of the street where I live with the station being where a Tesco store is now, but it all got thatchered in the 80s when the line was shut down for good, I think Tyne & Wear Metro had eyes on the line for potential expansion, but the gov ripped it all up tout suite and made it unusable with bridge removals and digging out the trackbed, not allowed public transport on rails round here apparently... :(

Wonderful video - oh what we have lost

Every day going to and from school in pelaw ,theyd go hammering by happy days !.

So good to have the sound.

Marvellous to see the 9Fs and Q6s working hard. I can't believe it was more than half a century ago.

Live in Pelton Fell and regularly ride the length of the old lines around the county. Stunning scenery, it was a moment in time but its fate was was always sealed once everything had to be shipped in and out.

Im old enough to remember everyday steam, just. I lived south of Birmingham on the Snow Hill -Paddington route. Kings and Castles were still in service, but standards and black fives were common by then, including a few 9Fs. The sound is brilliant for ghe yime of recording too. I lived in Newton Aycliffe in the 80s, and met a few men who knew the area well, and came to learn of the Consett workings. Very impressive. Sad not to have had the rxperience. 👍👍👍

Thanks for the upload. This was a sight I was unfortunately never to see. Interesting that the 9F's allocated to this duty were fitted with steam operated air compressors in the middle of the right hand running plate. This was to supply the air operated hopper doors on the iron ore tipplers.

Excellent! I never saw these trains, for I lived in west Wales. But this film lives up to everything I read about them, especially with such good sound. Thank you! Subscribed!

Magic. I wish that I had ben able to witness these workings.

Brilliant!!!

Super Show thanks for sharing this

Ive lived very near the line most of my life (Stanley area) and have heard many times that the steepest section was the half mile stretch at Oxhill/New Kyo which is about halfway between Stanley and Annfield Plain. In later years after this video was filmed the iron ore trains were always double headed with class 24 diesel locos

9f fantastic locomotives, remember them passing Ripple Lane yard with tanks from Shell Haven on the Thames

Absolutely brilliant

Thanks for uploading this and all the rest of the footage! Really enjoying watching it all!

Excellent video. Thank you so much for bringing to us 😊 please keep up the good work 😊

Wonderful! Thank you.

Fantastic, I have 2 of the Bachmann OO Tyne Dock 9F's, great loco.

Fantastic film with great quality footage.

Totally superb

Real railways... 🙂

Thank you! Daft place to have a steel works. Especially after the ironstone mines were exhausted on the hill tops.

Difficult to say anything as it already has been expressed, it was a great film. Those were the days when the railways were interesting. I was around to see plenty of those series of locos but not there unfortunately. That class 40 was kept clean for that regular working I’m led to believe (Gateshead).

The 9Fs were replaced by Sulzer 2s [Class 24] 5102-5112 operating in pairs with boiler removed and additional compressors fitted to operate the wagon doors. The wagons were restricted to 25mph because of their condition. You were lucky if you got more than 15mph climbing past Annfield East, down to a walking pace in wet weather. No banker was provided.

Excellent video, but for these guys, we'd have less of these memories. It's a shame that they couldn't clean the engines, not even the cab numbers, a legal requirement, and that's with over 20% over manning. But when trade unions rule an industry, that's what you get... Great video, thank you...

Part of the line is now a path, I have walked the section Pelton - Beamish several times. It would be good to have a list of the locations for comparison with the present. Beamish is obvious, I think one of the others is maybe Pelton?

A lot of sheer grunt👍. Does anyone know what the settings were on the valve gear and how much regulator was needed?

The 9Fs came trundling past my school on the Lincoln Avoiding Line. Does anyone know if iron ore was transported on this line?

I know this question is silly, but what powers the lights in steam trains carriages