The LNER Encyclopedia

Before going to Beamish I went to the Tanfield Railway for the first time - only a few miles from the Beamish site and the engine shed area is open during the week. Can't believe i've never been, an absolutely fantastic site even on a static day, VERY atmospheric and cannot wait to return when back in the area and on a running day.



Kearsley 3, 1944 built BO-BO electric



E Borrows 0-4-0WT No 3 - the other two surviving Borrows Well Tanks are at the Ribble Steam Railway





M2 class 4-6-2 in 3 ft 6 inch gauge, built by Robert Stephenson's for the Tasmanian Government Railways



1913 BO-BO electric E9 from the Harton electric system, built by AEG of Germany. A very interesting design and early survivor, as can be seen it's body is low slung and has a very distinctive look to it





Robert Stephenson and Hawthorns 'Beryl', formerly of the Battlefield Line (which is why it looked so familiar to me)



R&W Hawthorn 'Enterprise' 0-4-0ST



North Eastern Railway 818 7 compartment Composite carriage from 1903







Unusual wagon... anyone know what it's for?



Lambton & Hetton Collieries number 14 of 1914



'Twizell' of 1891, an attractive looking side tank design



Lambton & Hetton Colliers number 2 of 1911. Later on they shunted the locomotives on this road as No 2 is due to get it's boiler back soon



Hudswell Clarke 'Renishaw Ironworks No 6' of 1919



'Twizell' shunted outside



Armstrong Whitworth Diesel Electric 0-4-0DE of 1933



North Eastern Railway 172 eight compartment semi-elliptical roof Third class carriage from 1909

Re your unusual wagon, I wonder if it worked underground as a conventional wagon then transported to a remote site ie a washery or landsale point via an aerial ropeway.
Only an educated guess mind you.

Is the wagon for conveying the ironwork on it?
It looks like some sort of lifting appliance possibly for stonework.
When it is lifted it looks like it would clamp onto a very large block of stone.

I assume the Kearsley electric is from the Bolton area as I remember seeing similar locos when passing on the train from Southport to Manchester.

The history matches up (sorry, actually built 1936)

"to the Lancashire Electric Power Co Ltd, Kearsley Power Station, Manchester, where she joined a similar loco built by Hawthorn Leslie and later two more built by Robert Stephenson & Hawthorns, Newcastle. When the power industry was nationalised, her owners became the British Electricity Authority in 4/1948, Central Electricity Authority in 4/1955 and the Central Electricity Generating Board in 1/1958 and during this period she acquired the number 2 and was rebuilt as a 4w-4wWE/BE, overhead wire and battery electric powered loco at Kearsley.

After the Power Station closed in 1980, she and her sister loco 4 RSH Newcastle 7284, were sold about 1983, to Heysham Power Station, Lancashire, which was subsequently taken over by British Energy, Nuclear Electric Division. "