IMAGES TAKEN NEAR TO
Castlegate Road, NORTHALLERTON, DL7 8WE

The old rusty single line from Hawes runs along side the electrified east coast main line. The modern blue metal bridge replaces the old brick Zetland Bridge.

Looking north towards Darlington, Newcastle and Edinburgh. On the left is the Castle Hills Junction where the old mineral trains used to come down the Hawes branch line each evening, in my 1960s youth, then reverse down the main line into Northallerton station before heading out to Teeside on the Middlesbrough line. The old brick Zetland Bridge has been replaced with the blue metal version to accommodate the overhead electric wires.

The footpath crosses the almost disused Hawes branch railway line then the tracks of the east-coast main line. A favourite place for trainspotting in my youth of the early to mid 1960s where the London to Edinburgh trains were pulled by the streamlined A4 Steam locomotives (streaks) and the 3,300 bhp D90xx diesel electric (Deltics).

An Ordnance Survey triangulation station was levelled at 175.577 feet above Liverpool Datum during the 1842-1845 Selby to Newcastle-upon-Tyne 1GL Survey at this location. The surveyor's description was: 'Branch Levelling from No. 102. Castle Hill triangulation station, 32 chains west of Northallerton Church. Centre stone ; 1.50 ft. below surface'

Trains on the electrified east coast main line pass by at speeds up to 225 kph. The old rusty line beyond is the start of the Hawes branch line, but is hardly used at all these days.

The hill may have been excavated away on this side for the railway line (just to the right of the photo). Stories and old maps suggest that this bore ancient earthworks and perhaps a roman station. Coins and artefacts were found near here during the construction of the railway. In the 1960s the hillside used to bear two advertisements for travellers on the London to Edinburgh main line: "Around here we read the Northern Echo" and another, an advertisement for paint, depicting two painters carrying a ladder between them. At that time the travellers were probably more amused to see train-spotters sliding down the hillside on an upturned car bonnet.

A diesel multiple unit (left) heads towards Northallerton station whilst a diesel electric locomotive (right) races north towards Darlington. Despite seeing several trains that day, not one used the overhead electric wires.