Railway
Click to download this resource as a Word Document
The Chopwell and Garesfield Railway 1896 – 1961
The Chopwell & Garesfield Railway connected Chopwell and High Spen along a curving line through Chopwell Wood. The track bed of this line is now called the Old Colliery Railway Footpath. The Railway was built by the Consett Iron Company to carry coal from their colliery at Chopwell. The shaft for the first pit at Chopwell Colliery, known as No1 Pit, was sunk in 1896. Two more shafts were sunk; No 2 Pit in 1906 and No.3 Pit in 1909.
Work began on the railway in 1893. It was first used to transport bricks, made by the Bute Brickworks at High Spen, to Chopwell to build the colliery buildings. Soon after coal production began, the railway was carrying about 3000 tons a day through Chopwell Wood. The railway was what was called a standard gauge, which meant the gap between the tracks was 4 feet 8½ inches. The railway joined an existing railway at High Spen, which carried the coal to the coal staithes at Derwenthaugh on the River Tyne. There had been a colliery at High Spen, known as Garesfield Bute Colliery, from about 1800 and the line which carried the coal to the Tyne, was built around then. At the staithes, the coal was loaded onto ships called colliers, to be taken to wherever it was needed.
The railway was operated by the Consett Iron Company until 1947. After the Second World War all coal mining was nationalised and the mines were taken over by the National Coal Board. Chopwell and High Spen came within NCB area No 6. The railway became part of the extensive system known as the London & North Eastern Railway. The same trucks and locomotives continued in use until the railway became redundant when the mines at Chopwell and High Spen closed in 1960. The trucks had an unladen weight of 9¾ tons, known as the TARE, and a capacity of 21 tons. The last locomotive to use the track was No 48. This locomotive was a six-coupled long boilered pannier tank engine, and was built by Hawthorne, Leslie &Co Ltd, of Newcastle upon Tyne in 1914. It was originally a CIC “A” Class locomotive, No.14, and was renumbered as NCB Division, No 6 Area, locomotive No. 48 on nationalisation of the mines. It continued to work for a few years at Derwenthaugh Cokeworks before being scrapped in 1964.
Questions
- When did work on building the railway start?
- Which company built the railway?
- What do the initials LNER stand for?
- For how long was the line in use by:
(i) the CIC
(ii) the NCB
- How wide was a standard gauge track
(i) in inches
(ii) in centimetres
- What was the TARE of the coal trucks:
(i) in tons
(ii) in kilogrammes
- What number did Locomotive No 48 have when it was first in use?
- Where was locomotive No. 48 used before it was scrapped?
Answer – 1893
Answer – the Consett Iron Company
Answer – London & North Eastern Railway
Answer – (i) 51 years (1896 to 1947)
(ii) 14 years (1947 to 1961)
Answer – (i) 56 ½ inches (ii) 143.5 cm (assuming 1 inch = 2.54 cm)
Answer – (i) 9 ¾ tons (ii) 9906 kg (assuming 1 ton = 1016 kg)
Answer – No. 14
Answer – Derwenthaugh Cokeworks
For Investigation
 |
 |
 |
 |
| Photograph of Locomotive No 48 coming under the Bridge at Stoney Road 1948 OS map of the area; scale 2½ inches to the mile |
|||
- What streets were closest to the railway where it came through High Spen?
- What streets were closest to the railway where it came through Chopwell?
- The Garesfield & Chopwell Railway ended at the sidings in Chopwell. What streets are close to where the sidings were?
Answer – a railway bridge crossed the High Spen to Greenside road (now the B6315) at the end of Wishart Terrace, about 160 metres (175 yards) to the north of Ashtree Lane on the east side. There was a level crossing over Glossop Street and the railway passed close to where Bute Drive and The Granaries are today and to the football ground.
Answer – the railway came into Chopwell past the northern end of the “Rivers Streets” (Wansbeck Street, Thames Street, Severn Street, Blyth Street) and crossed the top of Derwent Street close to the football ground and went into the sidings.
Answer – The sidings were in West Chopwell, between Fannybush Road and Ramsay Road.
