The cutting just beyond Beamish station was the site of an 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 as shown in the photo below taken by me on 9th October 2023:
There are a number of photographs of this incident (including the bridge in your photograph) in the excellent book Steam Memories 1950’s-1960’s Tyne Dock – Consett.
Indeed – the Armstrong Trust has some colour photos of the incident as well.