Railways and tramways

Railways and tramways Colliery railways: Colliery railways started as horse-drawn wooden waggonways, later supplemented by fixed steam engines, and carried coal to the closest navigable water to be transported onwards by keel. These railroads were widespread across the north-east coalfield before 1800, although they had not yet approached Sunderland. 1 With serious congestion in the Wear, and collieries developing away from the old centre of coal-shipping near Biddick, promoters looked at the possibility of running railways straight to the port. 2 As early as 1792, John Nesham planned a six-mile rail line from his Newbottle colliery to Galley s Gill, to load directly into ocean-going vessels. The scheme stalled for a time, but in 1812 his railroad finally opened, the first into Sunderland. It crossed the gill on an inclining wooden viaduct, passing down a tunnel through a projecting crag, to feed three spouts on the waterside. 3 Trials of a steam locomotive on the Newbottle waggonway stopped after a fatal explosion in 1815. That same year, violent opposition from keelmen and casters led to the destruction of the wooden bridge and depot, and in 1816 the river was blockaded by keels amidst rumours of a planned second line. Nesham rebuilt his spouts and line in more durable form, and replaced the spouts with drops in 1820. After his insolvency in 1822, Nesham s collieries and the Newbottle waggonway passed to John George Lambton. By 1844 there were in all 11 drops at Galley s Gill, and another railway branch, delivering the equivalent of 150 keels a day of Lambton and Lumley coals. 4 The Lambton drops and neighbouring Hetton staiths increasingly took over the work of keelmen on the river, as colliery viewers assessed the new economies of coal transport on coal-owners behalf. 5 Lord Londonderry bypassed the port of Sunderland altogether by developing his own harbour at Seaham from 1828, linked to his collieries by the Rainton and Seaham Railway which ran from 1831 until 1896. 6 A new power had meanwhile emerged on Wearside, the Hetton Coal Co., a joint stock company formed in 1820 to mine deep under the limestone near Hetton-le-Hole. The company was the first local coal-owner to bypass keels altogether, sending its coal direct to Sunderland on the Hetton railway, built by Robert Stephenson under the supervision of his father George. Opening in 1822, it was the first colliery railway designed for steam locomotives, its eight-mile track rising to 636 feet at Warden Law and negotiating steep cliffs in Sunderland, managed with a combination of stationary engines, locomotives and gravity-worked inclines. The Hetton line crossed the Newbottle a little to the west of Galley s Gill, at the junction of Hylton Road and Silksworth Row, where a stationary engine was still at work in the 1850s. 7 These railroads served long into the 20 th century, working alongside public railways. 8 Public Railways: Public railways provided passenger services from the 1830s, but their main purpose was to serve the needs of the coal trade. Robert Brandling, chairing a meeting of Tyne and Wear coal-owners in 1833, welcomed public routes as a means of avoiding the heavy rents and other charges of private railroads, thus creating a

sudden competition, and was himself instrumental in developing such a line to Sunderland. 9 The town s first public railway was the Durham and Sunderland, which opened to coal traffic as far as Hetton and Haswell in 1836, and soon afterwards ran passenger coaches between Town Moor and Ryhope. 10 The route was surveyed in 1833 by Thomas E. Forster and John Grace, with Forster appointed engineer when the bill received royal assent in 1834, once a shortfall of 18,000 had been raised after public appeals. 11 Diversions and new branches approved in 1837 and later were designed to attract more coal traffic, which remained very much the focus of operations, though printed passenger timetables were available by 1839, when the line reached Durham, after which through fares to Newcastle and elsewhere were widely advertised. Only in 1855 was rope haulage finally abandoned on this line. 12 Lines between South Shields and Monkwearmouth, and from Sunderland harbour to Low Barnes, were surveyed in 1831, but it was three years later that a South Shields scheme was taken up by John and Robert William Brandling, promoted by the brothers in 1835 as part of a wider north-east network. 13 It opened in 1839 between Monkwearmouth (branching to the North Dock and to a station near the Wheatsheaf) and South Shields, and shortly afterwards extended to Gateshead. 14 Schemes in the 1840s to boost the North Dock by improving rail links to the south and west seem to have foundered. 15 In 1844, the rail link between York and Newcastle was completed when the Newcastle and Darlington Junction Railway connected the Great North of England Railway with the Durham Junction Railway at Rainton. That same year, the Newcastle and Darlington, chaired by George Hudson, took over the Durham Junction, and in 1845 the Brandling Junction Railway. In 1846 it acquired both the Durham and Sunderland Railway and the Wearmouth Dock Co. before adopting a new name, the York and Newcastle Railway, changed again in 1847 to the York, Newcastle and Berwick Railway. This company helped finance the South Dock, without parliamentary sanction, one of the charges later brought against Hudson. 16 From 1852, the new South Dock was served by rail from collieries to the south via Hendon Junction. 17 Soon after that, Lord Londonderry built a public railway to the new dock, for Seaham harbour had become inadequate for the growing output from his collieries. Work commenced in 1853 on the Londonderry Seaham and Sunderland Railway, which ran from Dalton-le-Dale via Ryhope, to Londonderry drops at the South Dock. 18 The York and Newcastle Railway amalgamated with other companies to form the North Eastern Railway in 1854, after which no further major development occurred for 20 years, until the Hylton, Southwick and Monkwearmouth Railway in 1876 linked the NER at Monkwearmouth with the former Pontop and South Shields line near Washington. This, purely a freight line, was acquired by the NER in 1883. 19 Much more significant to the town itself was the Monkwearmouth Junction line, which led to Ryhope Grange via a new bridge across the Wear, and through two tunnels, and included the construction of a central station. Coal trains could then reach the

South Dock from the north, and long-distance express passenger trains from Newcastle passed through on their way to Leeds, Manchester and London. 20 The Seaham and Sunderland section of Londonderry railways was sold to the NER in 1900, after which the railway company opened a coastal line south from Seaham to Hart junction, in 1905. 21 The final local extension of the North Eastern Railway was spectacular but short-lived, a freight line above the Queen Alexandra Bridge roadway, with approach lines from Diamond Hall and Castletown. It opened in 1909, but was used by only one coal train a day, and closed in the early 1920s. 22 The NER was incorporated in 1923 into the London and North Eastern Railway, which became part of British Rail in 1948. Diesels came in from 1955, and the last steam trains ran in Sunderland in 1967. 23 LNER s first act in 1923 had been to close the Hylton, Southwick and Monkwearmouth line west of Hylton colliery. Many more closures of colliery lines Ryhope, Silksworth, Hylton and Houghton followed in the 1960s and 1970s, as the pits themselves were lost. 24 Some lengths of private railroad briefly survived the cessation of most of the Hetton Railway in 1959, so that the Hetton staithes shipped coal until 1962, and Lambton staithes until 1967. The final section of the Hetton railway closed in June 1972, and the track was lifted the following year. 25 Railway stations: The Durham and Sunderland Railway developed a passenger terminus at the southern end of Fawcett Street, in Burdon Road. When the line extended east to the Hudson dock, through what is now Mowbray Park, a station opened at Town Moor. Its replacement by Hendon station in 1858 was followed by a campaign to reinstate the original site. 26 The original Brandling Junction station was superseded in 1848 by the splendid Monkwearmouth station, commissioned by George Hudson to enhance his local reputation. It is considered one of the most handsome early stations in existence. 27 Goods facilities were built nearby in 1889, and further alterations made to the station in 1927. 28 A transformation followed the construction of a through route, the Monkwearmouth Junction Railway linking lines north and south of the river. Between 1874 and 1879, Thomas Eliot Harrison, Sunderland-born chief engineer to the NER, took the line from Monkwearmouth across the river into Union Street, using a cut and cover process to place passenger platforms underground. His hog-back iron girder bridge, then the largest in the world, was labelled a dull design but remains an enduring image of Wearside. A 1,000-yard long tunnel approached the new central station, which was designed by the NER s architect William Bell. Bell s design was called contemptible, and the subterranean platforms remain inconvenient. The station s High Street entrance was soon replaced with an unsightly portico and clock tower, while the engine shed frontage to Athenaeum Street was functional and unattractive. On the scheme s completion in 1879, the Burdon Road and Hendon termini closed, and Monkwearmouth became a through station for local trains. 29 The NER built stations at Millfield, Pallion and Ryhope at this time; Seaburn opened later, in 1937, serving the growing suburb and day-trippers to the seaside. 30

The unloved central station suffered severe damage in an air raid in 1943. The following year, a temporary umbrella roof protected part of its platform. 31 A full reconstruction took place in 1953, with more alterations in 1966 when a store replaced the old entrance, yet the station remained gloomy and short of facilities. 32 By this time, suburban stations were closing, and only Seaburn and the central station remained in 1967. All goods yards closed during the 1960s, except for Monkwearmouth goods station, shut down in 1981. 33 Only in 2002 did the Tyne and Wear metro follow the Brandling Junction line from Pelaw into Sunderland, and then to South Hylton, with seven new stations across the city. The metro stop at Park Lane was incorporated into a transport interchange on the threshold of the civic centre, alongside the recently constructed bus station. 34 Tramways: The Sunderland Tramways Co. was constituted in 1878, to run horse trams between the town centre and Roker, Christ Church, Tatham Street and the docks. The first service to open was between the Royal Hotel, Monkwearmouth, and Roker, with lines south of the river completed in 1879. A head office and tram depot was established at the Wheatsheaf. 35 Already in 1879, a further four and a half miles was proposed, approved by an order in 1879, and opened by the end of 1880, and other extensions followed in 1880 and 1882. Steam trials began in 1880, though steam trams were not permitted in the narrow central streets. 36 By 1894, East End and docks trams had been withdrawn, but a further long extension was proposed, taking the Holmeside line along Chester Road. This raised the prospect of municipalising, and electrifying, the trams. After much debate, the corporation purchased the tramway company in 1899, and electric trams were introduced in 1901. Longer distance routes developed from this time, in the name of Sunderland District Electric Tramways Ltd. A new depot was built at Hylton Road, with the Wheatsheaf depot continuing to garage tramcars. 37 Buses proved more suitable outside the central areas, and Sunderland District Omnibus Co. Ltd. services replaced many tram routes. That company was taken over in 1931 by the Northern General Transport Co. Ltd. 38 The corporation trams were more successful, until 1947 when it was decided to discontinue all trams. The first route to be withdrawn was that to Villette Road, in 1950, and the final service ran in 1954. The Wheatsheaf depot was turned over to buses in 1959. 39 1 Hydrographic Office, D834 2 For instance, NEIMME, 3410/Wat/3/45/5 3 BAC, 104-10 4 T&WAS, 202/611/7; NEIMME, 3410/Bell/3, p. 49; 3410/Wat/1/25/2; Garbutt 1819, 397-9; Hair and Ross, Views of the Collieries; C. E. Mountford, The Private Railways of Co. Durham (2004), 148-9; R. Hyslop, Sidelights from an old Sunderland diary, Antiq. Sund., xx (1951 for 1932-43), 41; Wood 1826; Flinn, British Coal Industry, 171; N.T. Sinclair, Railways of Sunderland (1986), 9, 30-4 5 Durham Co. Advertiser, 2 Jan. 1830; for an example of coal transport cost estimates, see NEIMME, 3410/Bud/28, pp. 47, 54

6 Mountford, Private Railways, 117-18; Sinclair, Railways, 9, 14; Durham Chapter Lib., Sharp 117, p. 29; McCutcheon, Wearside Mining Story, 46-7, quoting Ill. London News, 19 Feb. 1853. 7 Flinn, British Coal Industry, 263; Sinclair, Railways, 34-8; Mountford, Private Railways, 114, 117-18, 122-3; Wood 1826; View of the Railway from Hetton Colliery to the Depot on the banks of the river Wear near Sunderland in the County of Durham, with the Loco-Motive and other engines used on the same (c. 1820) 8 Sund. Antiq. Soc., Mining Box 1, plan of Lambton & Hetton Railways 1913; Sund. Echo, 11 Sept. 1959; Sinclair, Railways, 25 9 NEIMME 3410/Wat/1/5/105 10 Sund. Lib., annotated Garbutt, pasted in back; TNA, RAIL 164 11 DRO, Q/D/P/54; NRO, ZFO 1/12/7; ZFO.2/1; T&WA, DT.NER4; Local and Personal Act, 4 & 5 Will. IV, c. xcvi; DULASC, CCB B/184/183 (34466); J. Day, Observations on the Railway, now in Progress between Durham and Sunderland; shewing the Utility of making it a Public Locomotive Railway (Sunderland: Marwood and Co., 1836) 12 Sinclair, Railways, 9, 13, 54-63; NEIMME, 3410/Bud/57; Local and Personal Act, 7 Will. IV & 1 Vict., c. lxvii; 4 & 5 Vict., c. vi; NRO, ZFO.2/2. /5-9; TNA, RAIL 164/9; 1021/43/3-4; 1037/687; 1075/388; 1111/10; 1157/1/20; DRO, Q/D/P/135 13 DRO, Q/D/P/41; NEIMME, 3410/For/3/40/1; Newcastle City Lib, Gateshead, South Shields & Monkwearmouth Railway Co. prospectus, 1835; NRO, SANT/BEQ/26/1/02/368B ; /369; Local and Personal Acts, 5 & 6 Will. IV, c. lxxxiii; 6 & 7 William IV, c. lvii 14 Sinclair, Railways, 42-7; Sund. Lib., annotated Garbutt, pasted in back 15 NRO, 309/B/10, correspondence with Robert Nicholson, 1841-5; DRO, Q/D/P/152 16 Sinclair, Railways, 10; TNA, RAIL 772/76; Local and Personal Act, 9 & 10 Vict., c. ccxxxv; DRO, Q/D/P/157 17 Sinclair, Railways, 10; DRO, Q/D/P/195; /230; /285; NRO, 309/C/28 18 DRO, Pamphlets Vol B 10/3, G. Guy, The Londonderry, Seaham and Sunderland Railway, from the cutting of the turf on Shrove Tuesday February the 8th 1853, to the sale of the said Railway on the 7th October 1900 (Taken from the diaries kept by the late George Hardy, Londonderry Engineer) (1920); Ill. London News, 19 Feb. 1853; DRO, Q/D/P/266; D/Lo/X 10; Local Act, 26 & 27 Vict., c. lxvi; G. Hardy, 'An historical account of the Londonderry Railway', Antiq. Sund., xvii (1916-17), 22-50; The Londonderry Railway (1973); Sinclair, Railways, 10 19 Sinclair, Railways, 10, 13, 70-1; DRO, Q/D/P/304; Local Act, 44 & 45 Vict., c. viii; TNA, RAIL 322; RAIL 1111/13 20 Sinclair, Railways, 13, 48-53; DRO, Q/D/P/305; T&WA, D.NCP/11/10 21 Sinclair, Railways, 14; Local Act, 63 & 64 Vict., c. clxiii; TNA, RAIL 527/513 22 Sinclair, Railways, 19; Local Act, 63 & 64 Vict., c. cclviii 23 Sinclair, Railways, 21 24 Sinclair, Railways, 21, 25 25 Mountford, Private Railways, 133, 137 26 Sinclair, Railways, 10, 13; TNA, RAIL 527/1662 27 Sinclair, Railways, 10; River, Town and People, 26-7; Pevsner, 468; Fordyce, History and Antiquities, ii, 522; T&WHER, 2751 28 TNA, RAIL 527/533-4; 390/1648; 1134/407

29 Sinclair, Railways, 48-53; B. Fawcett, History of NER Architecture,iii: Bell and Beyond (2005), 9-14 and pl.; 366-9; Pevsner, 468; T&WHER, 4979; TNA, RAIL 527/523; /608; /2361 30 Sinclair, Railways, 13, 21 31 BAC, 148-9; TNA, RAIL 390/1868/2 32 BAC, 168; T&WA, 209/256 33 Sinclair, Railways, 21, 25 34 BAC, 168; Sinclair, City and People, 45-8, 79-80, 93-5; Pevsner, 457-8. 35 S.A. Staddon, The Tramways of Sunderland (Sund. Echo, 1991), 4; Local Act, 41 & 42 Vict., c. ccxxxi 36 Staddon, Tramways of Sunderland, 5-7; Local Acts, 42 & 43 Vict., c. cxciii; 43 & 44 Vict., c. clxxii; 45 & 46 Vict., c. lxx 37 Staddon, Tramways of Sunderland, 9-16, 19; Local Acts, 62 & 63 Vict., c. cxc; 2 Edw. VII, c. ccii; DRO, Q/D/P/473; /560; /567; /577 ; T&WA, DU.EB/112 38 TNA, RAIL 390/857; /1144 39 Staddon, Tramways of Sunderland, 62, 65, 69; Sund. Lib., LP388.46, Trams in Sunderland leaflet, 1954.