Last Updated: 13 December 2008

The Tanfield Railway
Including:
The Tanfield Waggonway

The Brandling Junction Railway
By:
Mr John Grant
Mr Nathan Darroch

The Tanfield Railway is a volunteer operated heritage railway located in north-west Durham. This is one of those rare heritage railways in that, though it was owned for many years by the North Eastern Railway, its last years of commercial use were as an industrial railway for the National Coal Board. Keeping this mix of heritage in mind the volunteers provide passenger services using preserved industrial steam and diesel locomotives, the line did see some passenger services in its main line railway ownership days but its latter years were spent solely as a freight railway. This railway is perhaps also the oldest working rail-system in the world having started life as a waggonway before conversion to a standard gauge railway.

The North east of England has always been known for its coal. Along with areas such as Nottingham, Derbyshire and Wales it was one of the key sources for fuel in the country.  Even during the 1960's coal from the north east was taken by collier to London for use in the city. Indeed, the eastern coastal traffic accounted for more coal traffic to London than the railways. With the growth of urbanization from the 18th century onwards, growing towns and cities required more and more basic utilities to be brought to them from the production areas. However, this meant those areas producing the materials and produce had to have efficient means of transporting their goods to points of distribution. This was partly resolved in the north east by use of Waggonways. These were first introduced to the region by Huntingdon Beaumont about 1605, a system of transport known as waggonways which were soon to become synonymous with the movement of Northumbrian and Durham coal in the years before the development of the 'modern' Railway. 

By the early 18^th Century this system of transport had a strong foothold in the area. As such when mines were opened at Tanfield in north Durham near the town of Stanley it is not surprising that a waggonway was constructed from the mines, 8.1 miles to the river Tyne at Dunston west of Gateshead, via Tanfield Lea, Marley hill and Lobley Hill, the number of hills on the tramway were to play an important part of its operation as shall be seen. The waggonway opened in 1725. From 1726 the mines and waggonways becoming part of the mining empire owned by a group of land owners and businessmen, known as the 'Grand Allies' who had a monopoly on coal production for north Durham and Northumberland. With the monopoly held by the Grand Allies and the number of waggonways they operated including the Pontop, Bowes and Jarrow waggonways, it is likely that they had a standard size of waggon for use on their system. Reffered to as Newcastle Caldrons these vehicles could carry about 53 cwt of coal in one journey. A great saving and improvement over the alternative means of transport, over such hilly geography, where it was not possible to build a canal and where horses carrying panniers, or bags strapped to their backs would have been able to carry much less in one movement. Before the introduction of waggonways in the north-east, trains of horses with panniers were a common site. The use of wagons on rails was so beneficial that 'practically all the coal from the Tanfield and the South Moor District at one time passed over the waggonways' and by 1732 it is reported that 'an average of about 400 Newcastle Caldrons...a day was conveyed ' (1).

The double track waggonway was constructed to a gauge of approximately four feet and employed wagons with flanged wheels to keep the vehicles on the track. An advantage of the height at which the mines were located, was that the loaded waggons could be allowed to descend a steady gradient with a horse towed behind, a brakesman on the waggon applying a wooden chock to a rear wheel to slow the waggon down. For the return journey of the empty waggon the horse would haul it back up the hill. However, as the line had an average gradient of 1:40, beneficial for the downward journey, it also had sections of steep incline. Traditional gravity counter acting inclines were employed on these sections. Horses were detached at the foot or the head of the incline and cables attached to the waggons. The loaded waggons would then be propelled over the crown of the gradient with the returning empties hauled up the opposite track acting as a counter balance.

A problem with using wooden rails was that they wore out quickly with the heavy loads passing over them. To remedy this, the track carrying the loaded wagons was laid with double layers of wooden baulks minimizing delay when replacement of rails became necessary. Construction of the waggonways required a level ground surface with a breadth of 6 feet per track the top soil excavated to such a depth to maintain an equal depth along the route for a level running surface. Wooden baulks were laid across the leveled ground, to form what we now call sleepers, the wooden rails then laid longtitudinally over the top the sleeper acting as a means of support and keeping the rails to a satisfactory width for the passage of the vehicle, the whole pegged together.

Though the waggonways was essentially a temporary affair, to last between a few months and even many years, great expense was paid to create an efficient and economic means of transport. As such it holds two world records. It used the worlds first embankment and had the world's first railway bridge, both of which are still in situ today. To get from the river to the mines the waggonways had to cross the deep valley of the Causey Burn. To do this, a culvert was dug to allow the passage of the stream, thousands of tons of spoil and earth then moved by hand, horse and cart to the site and poured over it to create a level surface for the wagonway. Today the earthwork is still used by a main road built in the 1930's along part of the route and also by the Tanfield railway. By 1727 expansion of mining operations was taking place, a new colliery opening higher up on the moor away from the main line. To gain access to this new site known as Dawson's Drift the 103ft span, 80ft high single span Causey Arch or Dawson's Bridge was constructed to take the branch over Beckley Burn. The arch, built of stone, was the first of its size to be constructed since Roman times, understanding of their practices having been lost over the years. The bridge was built by Ralph Wood, a local stone mason who made a study of roman built bridges before attempting to build the Causey Arch. What made it possible for this compression arch to be built, were the sheer cliff faces of the gorge it was crossing, requiring huge buttresses pushing against them to hold the stones in place. When the bridge was complete it had cost in the region of 2000 Pounds and was, for 30 years, the largest span bridge in Britain. Once opened the new branch actually became as busy as the main route!

By 1740 several of the neighbouring pits served by the waggonways were abandoned, most having been small concerns with little manpower or tooling to allow for deep excavation. It must be remembered that it was only the larger concerns that would have gone in for deep level excavation. The smaller works involving following a shallow vein until it became too unsafe to excavate or the seam disappeared. By this time, coal production was becoming a mass industry. The ever growing towns and cities requiring more and more fuel for cooking, and heating while industrial centres were requiring more for the operation of their steam engines. This led to the far more effective deep cast mining that was to become the norm in the 19th and 20th centuries. The route over Causey Arch was in regular use for the next 30-40 years, however, Dawson's mine and various off shoots. But, due to problems with subsidence a diversionary route was laid seeing, abandonment of the route.

In 1837 the Tanfield Waggonway was purchased by the Brandling Junction Railway Company. This company was authorized by act of parliament in 1836 to construct a railway from Redheugh, near Dunston to South Shields and Monkwearmouth, the purpose of the railway to provide an extension of the Redheugth and Carlisle Railway to the east coast. An added bonus for this railway was that it was connected to the Newcastle and Darlington Railway in 1844, the latter company intending to extend south from Darlington to York. This connection would have been hugely beneficial for coal traffic from the coal mines around Tanfield and as such the BJR took very little time to start the conversion of the Tanfield waggonway to a standard railway, work commencing from 1837.

The new railway was complete to Tanfield Moor Colliery by 1840, allowing the direct carriage of coals not only to the river staithes but to Carlisle and the staithes at South Shields. Extensions to South Moor and Pontop with a short branch to Marley Hill colliery were also carried out, despite the decline of some of works originally served by the Tanfield Waggonway. 

TO BE CONTINUED!