Blaydon Burn Waggonway

Image: © Andrew Curtis Taken: 19 Feb 2012

In January 1840, Peregrine Edward Towneley and Joseph Cowen entered into an agreement giving the latter wayleave to build a waggonway down the side of Blaydon Burn. This was the first continuous rail link between the hamlet of Blaydon Burn and the Tyne, and was prompted by the Cowen & Co’s need to transport High Yard fireclay products to the shipment point at the quay. It had to be built ‘so as not to injure the supply of water to the waterwheels on Blaydon Burn’. For much of the C19th the waggonway was a single track with sidings, but after Priestman Collieries acquired Blaydon Burn Colliery, c.1900, addition lines were laid. Over the course of the following fifty years the line continued to expand with the addition of more tracks on the central line and numerous rail spurs for transporting goods around the growing industrial complex. There is no record of locomotives used before 1896, but after that date twelve 0-4-0 engines, all 4’8½" gauge were used on the system and spur lines extended to the south-west and north-east.

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