The LNER Encyclopedia

I can remember seeing a ticket, on a website, from Newcastle to Gosforth Park Race Course (the train was a special). I seem to remember reading that the train went up to Killingworth on the mainline, through Burradon Colliery and onto a line that went into the race course across Sandy Lane. I am begininning to think i was imagining it because i can now find no evidence of it. Does anyone know of this?

Don't know about that but there was a light railway that used trams that served Gosforth Park. I hhave seen a couple of videos of it. Try a you tube search.

Thanks 52D. I'm sure I've seen the line on a map as well, but I can't find that either.

Hi all
I remember there were sidings on the down side approach to killing worth, I presume these were for staging racecourse traffic.
52H

Those sidings I think you are refering to are at camperdown and were colliery exchange for burradon?, weetslade , brunswick, and possibly seaton burn I think there was drift mine also.
come to think burradon the wrong side of the main line

Hi all
The sidings I mean we're South of Killingworth crossing and were referred to as the racecourse sidings, we used to pick traffic from weetslade when travelling South on the return Morpeth pick up for tyne yard. I believe the racecourse sidings were disconnected by then.

52H

Here is a video of 'trams' going through the park:-

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_cRi_DQWTgE

also:-

http://maps.nls.uk/view/102341446

http://www.twsitelines.info/smr/4626

with a full explanation on pages 10-15 here on

http://www.ntsra.org.uk/resources/50all.pdf

Sorry to tell you but that is the map with the old newcastle race course when it was situated on the town moor, gosforth park is 3 to 4 mile further north to the right of the great north road.

This link has Killingworth Station, with sidings, and the beginning of the Gosforth Park course, most of which is on the next map to the west.

http://maps.nls.uk/view/101028849

John

plugcoupler wrote:I can remember seeing a ticket, on a website, from Newcastle to Gosforth Park Race Course (the train was a special). I seem to remember reading that the train went up to Killingworth on the mainline, through Burradon Colliery and onto a line that went into the race course across Sandy Lane. I am begininning to think i was imagining it because i can now find no evidence of it. Does anyone know of this?

You're completely imagining this. Gosforth Park never had any rail connection.

The Tyneside Tramways & Tramroads Company (TTT) reached Gosforth Park west gates in 1904, Newcastle Corporation Tramways (NCT) reached West Moor in 1913 which gave pedestrian access to the east gate. In 1924, the Gosforth Park Light Railway was opened by NCT to interconnect the two tramway termini and provide a circular route back to the city. TTT also had running powers over the line.

Together with my colleague Tony Fox, we've catalogued to date some 1,500 documents etc., relating to the various tramway systems on Tyneside held by the Tyne & Wear Archives and Beamish Museum at their request. This project is still in hand, thus I have some knowledge on the subject.

Bill Donald
Dublin, Ireland.

52H wrote:Hi all
The sidings I mean we're South of Killingworth crossing and were referred to as the racecourse sidings, we used to pick traffic from weetslade when travelling South on the return Morpeth pick up for tyne yard. I believe the racecourse sidings were disconnected by then.

52H

I think you need to be careful with your names here. Killingworth was on the ECML, Killingworth Crossing was a completely different location on the Blyth & Tyne, 1 mile east of Benton East Junction where the Benton SE Curve joined the B&T.

Bill Donald
Dublin, Ireland.

Google Earth goes back to about 1947 for Killingworth Station. Go there and you'll see the large sidings they had for the race traffic

Plans of Killingworth race sidings here http://www.disused-stations.org.uk/k/ki ... ndex.shtml

Sorry to revive an old thread but I was trying to find out whether there was ever a rail link to Gosforth Park, and an internet search revealed this thread. I was interested because I had been reading C.R Warn's Railways of the Northumberland Coalfield and on page 4 there is a map of the public railways in south Northumberland. This shows a branch from Killingworth to Gosforth Park, but with a broken line rather than a continuous line, and against it is written 'NER 1895'. There is no explanation in the text, but on the map generally a broken line indicates a line which was proposed but never built. On page 46 of his Rural Branch Lines of Northumberland Warn does give an explanation. He says 'The NER also wished to build a light railway from Killingworth to Gosforth Park and plans were deposited with Parliament on 30th November, 1895, but no Act followed.'.