The Blyth and Tyne
by Blaydon52C
Photos taken on the freight only Blyth and Tyne network in South East Northumberland.
The Blyth and Tyne Railway operated a small network in south-east Northumberland until it was absorbed, in 1874, by its neighbour, the North Eastern Railway. The B&T had it's origins in 1840 as a waggonway linking a coal mine at Seghill with staiths on the River Tyne at Percy Main. It introduced passenger trains a year later and expanded its network in stages over the next 30 years.
By 1860 it served the coal mining towns around Bedlington and Ashington and the port of Blyth, as well as mining villages and the market town of Morpeth. In 1864 the company added a branch to Newcastle, and another to Tynemouth. The Newcastle and Tynemouth routes are now part of the Metro system whilst the lines through South East Northumberland are a freight only network. Much of the line is still semaphore signalled with a number of signal boxes many dating back to the NER era.
There are campaigns to re-open parts of the route to passenger traffic providing a much needed travel link between the towns of South East Northumberland and Newcastle.
