Kirkby Stephen (East)
Closure of the line to passengers was in 1962, it was finally closed to freight in 1974. The Line was used to bring coal from Darlington and Tesside and then to take products such as Iron ore back to the North East.
The Stainmore Line ran from this station and ran for over 100 years, It was the main route out of town and was the main transport before the major roads where built.
The Line opened in 1861, by the 1900’s there were a minimum of four daily return passenger trains and Nineteen goods trains. Due to the Climbs of the area two Locomotives where needed.
in 1900, 908,000 Tonnes of coke alone were carried from the ovens of South Durham over Stainmore and on to the great iron and steel works on the west coast.
In the other direction, Limestone quarried at Hellbeck and Hartley and lime from Hartley was hauled to Consett and Middlesbrough’s furnaces. This totaled to over One Million tonnes a year.
As of 1938 the passengere service had increased, meaning that Eighteen passenger trains departed Kirkby Stephen each day.
Further along on what would have been the line that went to Darlington and Teeside, there are at least two Viaducts which form part of the Northern Viaduct Trusts Walks. These viaducts are also known as the Eden Viaducts.
After setting off from the Northern Viaducts trust car park about 1/4 of a mile along I setup my first video and audio shot, Nothing much goes on in the video but the sound has some notable nature sounds.
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