Tyne Yard

Image: © David Robinson Taken: 26 Apr 2016

Tyne Yard is one of a number of marshalling yards built by British Railways as part of its modernisation plan in the 1950s. The railway's traditional freight model was in steep decline with increasing road haulage challenging the economies of the railway handling small trainloads. During the modernisation plan many small railway yards were replaced with large automated yards such as Tyne Yard where wagons were sorted into trains going to similar destinations. A wagon may be sorted at several yards along its journey to its destination as trains were broken apart and reformed at these hubs. By as soon as 1959 it was apparent that the railway simply couldn't compete economically with road in this manner and the bulk of the new yards never operated to their potential. Most of the modernisation plan yards are now closed, with the railway no longer running less than full trainload services there is now no need to split and re-make freight trains. Tyne Yard survives mainly as a regional hub for Network Rail engineering trains.

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