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Davidsons Cottages, NEWCASTLE UPON TYNE, NE2 3PD

A cul-de-sac of bungalows built as North Eastern Railway Cottage Homes in 1929.

North Eastern Railway cottages dating from 1928, originally for retired railwaymen. Now run by the Railway Housing Trust who have relaxed their eligibility rules, but applicants need to be 50+ see; http://www.railwayha.co.uk/

A row of cottages built as North Eastern Railway Cottage Homes. A date stone in the wall of the terrace dates it to 1928.

This picture is taken from the overbridge on Moorfield and shows the embankment on both sides of the line. It should be compared with this picture I took in 1964: https://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/5663710 Spot the difference.

View from outside Ilford Road Metro Station. The terraced streets here date from the early 20th century when this northern part of Jesmond was developed.

This picture is taken from the overbridge on Moorfield and shows the embankment on both sides of the line had been set alight by sparks from a steam hauled freight train that had passed earlier that spring evening. This is now the position of the Ilford Road Metro station, see modern picture; https://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/5663720 A 4 coach Tyneside commuter multiple unit electric has just passed and is roughly where Metro platforms now stand. These trains used to run in 2, 4, 6 or 8 coach sets. At busy summer weekends a special pram coach was often added to 6 coach trains to help get young families to the coast. The pram coaches were older coaches retained from the previous style stock, similar to those used on the South Tyne line to South Shields. Not too long after this photo was taken it was decided not to replace these old LNER electric units and to replace them with DMUs. They were not to operate as frequent a service, and were noisier. Usage dropped sharply. Amazingly, the finance was assembled to build the Metro system. This part of the track retained the old wooden sleepers, still showing traces of where the third rail had been supported, until the track was relaid with concrete sleepers in August 2013. This part of Newcastle is called High West Jesmond. Due to its proximity to Gosforth fire engines were despatched from both the Northumberland fire station at Gosforth and Newcastle Central fire station. Usually the Gosforth brigade would have the fire out before the Newcastle engine arrived. On this day there was enough work for both! The Northumberland crew are working in heavy helmets. The Newcastle crew are bare headed. More about the Tyneside electrics at; www.lner.info/locos/Electric/ner_tyneside.shtml

Opened in 1980 by the Tyne & Wear Metro on the North Tyneside loop line from Newcastle to Tynemouth. View north towards South Gosforth and Tynemouth, also the branch to Newcastle Airport.

Train standing at the Metro station. New trains are promised to begin introductions later this year (2024) but this is one of the 40 year old original stock. The station here was purpose built for the metro in 1980. Many of the stations are repurposed British Rail ones but this was a new one.

Part of the grid of terraced streets in this part of Jesmond. These streets were built in the early 20th century as superior houses for the expanding middle classes of Newcastle upon Tyne. Jesmond remains a predominately middle class area.