When the original deviation was built, a station was provided at Beamish as well as Annfield Plain, Shield Row (later West Stanley) and Pelton with the passenger service, run by the North Eastern Railway (NER), beginning on 1 February 1894 running to Newcastle via Ouston Junction and Birtley. In 1923, as part of the Grouping, it became part of the London North Eastern Railway (LNER) then, in 1948, after the nationalisation of the railways, passed to the ownership of British Railways (BR). At the time, Beamish was not the quiet village it is today and it was surrounded by collieries and other associated industries and, as well as the Consett line, a colliery railway ran directly alongside the main road (A693) through the village.
All the buildings at the station, including the goods shed and the signal box followed the standard North Eastern Railway practice for the line and were constructed of timber.
The station itself, with the exception of the signal box, was demolished in the 1960s but other parts, such as the two stone walls that can be seen in the picture of the 9F below remained albeit for some reason they were later demolished as well as they are not there now although there is a large pile of stones where the left hand wall once stood which may be the remains of the wall.
The signal box at Beamish survived until 1982 and an effort was made to save it at Beamish Museum although this came to nothing and the box was demolished shortly thereafter. The signal box from Carr House in Consett was subsequently dismantled and installed at Beamish along with the station building from Rowley.
A short video of trains passing through Beamish can be seen here.
Passenger Services
By 1917 the service consisted of ten trains each way with three on a Sunday. From the 1930s buses provided stiff competition and by the time of the British Railways era, there were only four trains to Consett and two trains from Consett each day with an extra train each way on a Saturday and none on a Sunday.
Like all stations on the line, Beamish the passenger numbers at Beamish increased dramatically in the early years from 32,149 in 1898 to 49,536 in 1903 and 66.524 in 1913. Passenger numbers stayed buoyant until the introduction of local bus services from the early 1920s which had a massive impact of passenger numbers which rapidly dwindled thereafter. The station itself was closed to passengers on 21 September 1953 and the passenger trains were finally withdrawn completely from the rest of the line on 23 May 1955.
Goods Services
The goods facilities at Beamish consisted of four sidings, a goods shed and a loading dock.
The goods service from Beamish ended on 2 August 1960.
A deadly accident…
The cutting just beyond Beamish station was the site of a spectacular accident on 9 December 1964 unfortunately resulting in one fatality. Twenty three loaded coal wagons broke loose from a train that was being shunted at Annfield Plain Junction and ran all the way down the line to Beamish reaching speeds of up to eighty miles per hour before they hit the back of another goods train. The collision resulted in a huge pile of debris which took sixty men a number of days to clear. For the period of the recovery, all trains had to be diverted through Lanchester. The scars left behind by the accident can be seen, to this day, on the cutting sides and bridge abutments.
Beamish in the 1950s and 1960s…
Beamish in the 1970s…
Beamish in the 1980s…
Photos from a Beamish Local…
The following set of photographs were all taken by David Milburn who used to live in one of the cottages overlooking the station. All the captions are from David as well.
I have really enjoyed looking through your wonderful photographs. They came up in a search i was doing for a place called Thorntons field where my great uncle John Bowen used to live. I am doing some family history research and was trying to visualise the area. I know from what i have been told that he was a beekeeper and his hives overlooked the train line. I love the photo of the iron bridge with the miners cottages in the background. Would it be alright for me to use this for my family history files. Would you know of any other photos of Thorntons field at all.
I came across this site by chance, and funnily enough I too was looking for photos of Thorntons Fold. A great aunt of mine lived there and I often used to visit in the 1950s and probably early 60s too. She was Jane (Ginny) Wardman, nee Robson, husband Peter. He worked on the railway.
I remember often running across the road and through the garden when a train was coming, then hanging over the fence to watch it puff up the track.
I’ve been round the site of Thorntons Fold and there are odd patches of bricks and such marking where houses were but it is severely overgrown now. However there is a large dog kennel there proudly bearing the name “Thorntons Fold” over its entrance.
FROM CANADA GREETINGS
In the 1950’s as a child ,the passenger train from Beamish station, would take me and my mother to Newcastle Central station .And as a kid i used to stand on the bridge near the Beamish signal box waiting for the oncoming steam trains to cover me and my pals in smoke.Some used to chicken out at the last minute.
I lived a mile away in West Pelton and enjoyed many days playing in that area.If anyone reading this has similar memories i’d like tohear from them.Thanks for the memories.
John,
I noticed a couple of photos of what have been termed “Pitfall posts”. I have seen a few on the former Consett route myself. In 33 years of working on the footplate this is the first time I have heard of the term. I thought they were simple snow posts, marked off in feet, to help the Permanent Way department to accurately gauge the depth of the snow. They can be found on other other still operational routes in the NE.
However , if they are indeed “Pitfall Posts” I am more than willing to stand to be corrected! I’m just not convinced that’s what they are.
Regards,
Robert.
My grandparents lived at Lime Villa ( next to Lime Villa farm). It’s late at night but I have many memories I would like to put on record.
My email address is barriecraven@hotmail.com.
Sincerely,
Barrie Craven.
Regarding relaying of the line with concrete sleepers I remember seeing extensive relaying work going on near the remains of East Castles signalbox and Lime Kilns. I think this would have been 1976 or 77, more likely the latter.
I also seem to remember new drainage pipes laid out beside the track at Beamish in 1979, a pretty shortlived investment.
Shortly before reaching the site of the station, in the rock cutting on the south-side (so looking west) there is a large rusted pipe that comes out of the wall. Some days you can hear water gushing through this pipe, other days not. I know there is drainage high above (i.e. on the footpath near the grass, just along from the bus stop walking towards the bridge) and you can hear water going through that. As it is specifically jutting out of the cutting, I’ve always wondered if it had any actual connection with the railway – i.e. water to fill the boilers. Beamish would seem a reasonable place to stop and take on water for the challenge ahead. Or am I thinking about this way too much and it’s just field/gutter water run-off heading down the valley to pollute the Team even more?!
Good Day all I am researching and Building a 00 gauge model of Beamish Station
And i am looking for photos of the road bridge on the A 693 which also appears to carry a single track line to the mineral workings North of The Station.
Any assistance would be exstreamly gratefull
My two shots of the lifting train at Beamish in this set were taken on 12-04-84, I have only recently noticed that in the shot that includes the tunnel mouth you can see the loco is pushing a tree branch along in front of it.
I have really enjoyed looking through your wonderful photographs. They came up in a search i was doing for a place called Thorntons field where my great uncle John Bowen used to live. I am doing some family history research and was trying to visualise the area. I know from what i have been told that he was a beekeeper and his hives overlooked the train line. I love the photo of the iron bridge with the miners cottages in the background. Would it be alright for me to use this for my family history files. Would you know of any other photos of Thorntons field at all.
Regards Audrey Winter Kings Lynn Norfolk
No problem – I’m not aware of any other photos but, if I come across any, I will post them.
I came across this site by chance, and funnily enough I too was looking for photos of Thorntons Fold. A great aunt of mine lived there and I often used to visit in the 1950s and probably early 60s too. She was Jane (Ginny) Wardman, nee Robson, husband Peter. He worked on the railway.
I remember often running across the road and through the garden when a train was coming, then hanging over the fence to watch it puff up the track.
I’ve been round the site of Thorntons Fold and there are odd patches of bricks and such marking where houses were but it is severely overgrown now. However there is a large dog kennel there proudly bearing the name “Thorntons Fold” over its entrance.
FROM CANADA GREETINGS
In the 1950’s as a child ,the passenger train from Beamish station, would take me and my mother to Newcastle Central station .And as a kid i used to stand on the bridge near the Beamish signal box waiting for the oncoming steam trains to cover me and my pals in smoke.Some used to chicken out at the last minute.
I lived a mile away in West Pelton and enjoyed many days playing in that area.If anyone reading this has similar memories i’d like tohear from them.Thanks for the memories.
Did you pick those signal pulley posts up John?
David,
I picked one of them up but at least one of the others had gone within a couple of days of me taking the pics…
John
John,
I noticed a couple of photos of what have been termed “Pitfall posts”. I have seen a few on the former Consett route myself. In 33 years of working on the footplate this is the first time I have heard of the term. I thought they were simple snow posts, marked off in feet, to help the Permanent Way department to accurately gauge the depth of the snow. They can be found on other other still operational routes in the NE.
However , if they are indeed “Pitfall Posts” I am more than willing to stand to be corrected! I’m just not convinced that’s what they are.
Regards,
Robert.
Robert,
Thanks for the comments. To be honest, I had no idea what they were but then I found this post on the lner.info forum:
http://www.lner.info/forums/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=8276
John
My grandparents lived at Lime Villa ( next to Lime Villa farm). It’s late at night but I have many memories I would like to put on record.
My email address is barriecraven@hotmail.com.
Sincerely,
Barrie Craven.
Regarding relaying of the line with concrete sleepers I remember seeing extensive relaying work going on near the remains of East Castles signalbox and Lime Kilns. I think this would have been 1976 or 77, more likely the latter.
I also seem to remember new drainage pipes laid out beside the track at Beamish in 1979, a pretty shortlived investment.
Shortly before reaching the site of the station, in the rock cutting on the south-side (so looking west) there is a large rusted pipe that comes out of the wall. Some days you can hear water gushing through this pipe, other days not. I know there is drainage high above (i.e. on the footpath near the grass, just along from the bus stop walking towards the bridge) and you can hear water going through that. As it is specifically jutting out of the cutting, I’ve always wondered if it had any actual connection with the railway – i.e. water to fill the boilers. Beamish would seem a reasonable place to stop and take on water for the challenge ahead. Or am I thinking about this way too much and it’s just field/gutter water run-off heading down the valley to pollute the Team even more?!
I’m not aware of locos taking on water at Beamish.
The Class 37 on the Durham Crusader tour was 37085 not 37062
Thanks for the correction although, a week earlier when it also ran, it was 37062.
Good Day all I am researching and Building a 00 gauge model of Beamish Station
And i am looking for photos of the road bridge on the A 693 which also appears to carry a single track line to the mineral workings North of The Station.
Any assistance would be exstreamly gratefull
regards
Anthony
My two shots of the lifting train at Beamish in this set were taken on 12-04-84, I have only recently noticed that in the shot that includes the tunnel mouth you can see the loco is pushing a tree branch along in front of it.