The LNER Encyclopedia

Has anyone any information about, or pictures, of the track that linked Tynemouth pier with the old Oxford Street (Newcastle and North Shields Railway) goods station?

I can remember as a child seeing derelict looking wagons in the block yard at the end of the pier.

Percy Main wrote:Has anyone any information about, or pictures, of the track that linked Tynemouth pier with the old Oxford Street (Newcastle and North Shields Railway) goods station?

I can remember as a child seeing derelict looking wagons in the block yard at the end of the pier.

It was a private line owned and operated by the Tyne Improvement Commissioners. For track details try the excellent Alan Godfrey series of maps. Alternatively, the Tyne & Wear Archives or Newcastle City Library will have the 25-inch OS maps of the area. Note that this scale is necessary for sufficient detail of tracks.

If you have a reasonable broadband connection viz. >2MB, you might try http://www.oldmaps.co.uk- however be warned it is very slow in the evenings and is extremely tedious to use.

Bill Donald
Dublin, Ireland

billdonald wrote:

Percy Main wrote:Has anyone any information about, or pictures, of the track that linked Tynemouth pier with the old Oxford Street (Newcastle and North Shields Railway) goods station?

I can remember as a child seeing derelict looking wagons in the block yard at the end of the pier.

It was a private line owned and operated by the Tyne Improvement Commissioners.

Bill Donald
Dublin, Ireland

Thanks.

Would a TIC engine have been housed there?

I have never seen this line discussed.

A set of points still exists in the undergrowth under the road bridge.

Percy Main wrote:

billdonald wrote:

Percy Main wrote:Has anyone any information about, or pictures, of the track that linked Tynemouth pier with the old Oxford Street (Newcastle and North Shields Railway) goods station?

I can remember as a child seeing derelict looking wagons in the block yard at the end of the pier.

It was a private line owned and operated by the Tyne Improvement Commissioners.

Bill Donald
Dublin, Ireland

Thanks.

Would a TIC engine have been housed there?

I have never seen this line discussed.

I think there's little published about this line and I can recall seeing a photo of a contractor's locomotive and some motley wagons on the pier during construction or repairs. The huge crane was used during construction to heave into position the large pre-cut stone blocks makinfg up the pier. It remained in place to assist in repairs and the railway was there to facilitate a supply of materials associated with this. I rather suspect that if locomotive was required, then the TIC would have hired a J79 or J72 from the LNER. If it was a small number of wagons involved, then probably a horse would have been used. There certainly would have been a Limit of Shunt board where wagons were exchanged.

Anyone recall which year the crane and the rail connection were removed - I think it was sometime in the 1950's.

Bill Donald
Dublin, Ireland

I've a photo of the track in the yard leading to the pier in my Tynemouth set of photos HERE

http://www.flickr.com/photos/pinzac55/s ... 387439295/

Anyone recall which year the crane and the rail connection were removed - I think it was sometime in the 1950's.

It was still there around 1965 (the crane that is) because I can remember asking my father what it was for.

Malcolm

These are the best I can do.

Malcolm

When was that last picture taken? Isn't that the small modern crane that replaced the huge old one in the mid 1960s?

The picture of Tynemouth pier yard showing the disconected lines is under the road bridge as those are the lines still in situ. I think the crane disapeared in the eighties.

the north pier was opened in 1895 having been partialy washed away while under construction however it lost about 250 feet out of the middle again in 1897,it then took a further 14 years to rebuild but this time straight instead of curved. i suspect that the date of the first picture is about right and that the second picture is about 1897

Any idea of the crane manufacturer?

In the old picture it looks like what was known as a "Goliath" crane.I seem to remember there were the rotting remains of one on Sunderland South Dock pier in about 1970.

i wonder how many people have noticed the small china doll set between two of the large blocks on the side wall of the footpath about a third of the way along the pier

Percy Main wrote:When was that last picture taken? Isn't that the small modern crane that replaced the huge old one in the mid 1960s?

Yes, it is. I just can't remember when the old crane was removed. As I said earlier, it was still in situ in about 1965, but after that I cannot say.

Malcolm