TANFIELD THE WORLD’S OLDEST RAILWAY
THE origins of the Tanfield Railway (TR) run as deep into the North East’s industrial history as the seams of coal through the area in which it was built.
It was preceded by the Tanfield Waggonway, which provided a direct route between the mines and the River Tyne, and in the 18th century was one of Britain’s major coal-carrying arteries. The need to link the collieries at Tanfield to the route down to the Tyne (from where coal was loaded onto ships, many of which were bound for London) required a bridge to be built over Causey Burn. The resulting structure, Causey Arch, is the world’s oldest surviving single-arch railway bridge. Completed in 1726 and with a span of more than 100ft across a wooded gorge it carried waggons 80ft above the burn.
By 1727, the Tanfield Waggonway comprised two routes, one which ran east from Burnopfield (later extended to Dipton) and the ‘main way’ from Causey via Sunniside to the staiths on the Tyne at Dunston.
Modernisation under the management of the Brandling Junction Railway (BJR) saw the latter route become a railway and it was ultimately extended south-west to Tanfield Lea. It was incorporated into the main railway network and owned in turn by the various companies which superseded the BJR.
The branch passed from the North Eastern Railway to the London & North Eastern Railway in 1923 and in 1948 to British Railways. Most of the route closed between
