Deerness Valley Railway

[v · d · e]       Deerness Valley Railway
Locale County Durham Track gauge 1,435 mm (4 ft 8 1⁄2 in)
Legend
Durham to Bishop Auckland Line    Durham to Bishop Auckland Line Ushaw Moor   New Brancepeth Colliery   Ushaw Moor Colliery    Hamsteels, Esh, and Cornsay collieries Waterhouses   Waterhouses Colliery East Hedley Hope Colliery

The Deerness Valley Railway was an 8-mile long single track branch railway line that ran along the valley of the River Deerness in County Durham, England. Built by the North Eastern Railway, it ran from Deerness Valley Junction, on the Durham to Bishop Auckland line, to the coal mines along the valley via two intermediate stations, Waterhouses, and Ushaw Moor^[1].

History

The line was primarily built to serve the collieries at Ushaw Moor, Waterhouses, Hamsteels, Esh, Cornsay, New Brancepeth and East Hedley Hope, and was opened to passengers only as an afterthought. Authorised in 1855, the line opened to goods on New Year's Day 1858, but it was not until 1 November 1877 that the first passenger station, Waterhouses near Esh Winning, was opened. A second station was opened on 1 September 1884 at Ushaw Moor.

The line closed to passengers on 29 October 1951, and to freight on 28 December 1964. The trackbed became part of the Durham Railway Paths network^[2] in 1975.

References

1. ^ http://www.subbrit.org.uk/sb-sites/stations/w/waterhouses/index.shtml
2. ^ http://www.ldwa.org.uk/ldp/members/show_path.php?path_name=Deerness+Valley+Railway+Path

External links

• Waterhouses station on Disused Stations with line history
• Photos of the line in operation on Ushaw Moor Historical Website
• Deerness Valley Railway Path
• Line on an 1948 OS Map