The Deerness Valley Railway was an 8-mile long single track branch railway line that ran along the valley of the
River Deerness
The River Deerness in County Durham, England is a tributary to the River Browney, which is itself a tributary the River Wear. It rises near Tow Law and descends through the Deerness Valley for a distance of , passing the villages of Waterhous ...
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 .
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.
Opening
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
Esh Winning is a village, and location of a former colliery, in County Durham, England. It is situated in the Deerness Valley to the west of Durham. The village was founded by the Pease family in the 1850s to service a new mine on the Esh Estate ...
, was opened. A second station was opened on 1 September 1884 at .
Industries served
Beyond the East Hedley Hope junction, the line was known as
Stockton and Darlington Railway Deerness Valley Branch, with the rope worked Stanley Inclines giving access to Stanley Drifts and Wooley Colliery. It then accessed Bank Foot Coke Works and Chemical Plant at , where it junctioned with both the
Weardale Extension Railway
The Stanhope and Tyne Railway was an early British mineral railway, that ran from Stanhope in County Durham, to South Shields at the mouth of the River Tyne. The object was to convey limestone from Stanhope and coal from West Consett and elsew ...
and the
Stanhope and Tyne Railway
The Stanhope and Tyne Railway was an early British mineral railway, that ran from Stanhope in County Durham, to South Shields at the mouth of the River Tyne. The object was to convey limestone from Stanhope and coal from West Consett and elsew ...
. This section was built for
Joseph Pease Joseph Pease may refer to:
* Joseph Pease (railway pioneer) (1799–1872), railway owner, first Quaker elected Member of Parliament
** Sir Joseph Pease, 1st Baronet (1828–1903), MP 1865–1903, full name Joseph Whitwell Pease, son of Joseph Pease ...
and Partners, the owners of Waterhouses Colliery who also owned the industrial complex at Bank Foot.
Closure
The entire line closed to passengers on 29 October 1951, and to freight on 28 December 1964.
The site today
The trackbed became part of the Durham Railway Paths network
in 1975.
References
{{reflist
External links
Waterhouses station on Disused Stations with line history
* ttp://www.ldwa.org.uk/ldp/members/show_path.php?path_name=Deerness+Valley+Railway+Path Deerness Valley Railway Pathbr>Line on a 1948 OS Map
Closed railway lines in North East England
Rail transport in County Durham
Railway lines opened in 1855
Railway lines closed in 1964
Rail trails in England