Where were Finn and I today, 15th June 2019?

[whole diary]

[JayMac]

Those with access to Frequent Posters will know the general area Finn and I are in for our holiday.

More specifically, where's this?

[bradshaw]

 Dunston station
Did you visit the staithes?

[JayMac]

Dunston station
Did you visit the staithes?

Oh come on! Is there anywhere you can't identify bradshaw? 

Yes, Dunston. And no I didn't visit Dunston Staiths on The Tyne. It was a pin in the map choice of station for a bit of National Rail mileage with Northern. Just drove there and parked up.

[grahame]

Dunston station
Did you visit the staithes?

Dunston is a very interesting case of a station ... I passed through on a train that called there about a fortnight ago and was struck by how little passenger traffic there was on and off the train at the shoulder of the evening peak at a station within a city.  Looking back at historic data, I read of a station closed over 90 years ago, re-opened 35 years ago and having had a very patchy time since then. 

On our station comparator page (http://www.firstgreatwestern.info/smr/DOT.html ) we record a rise from just 82 journeys in the 2003/04 year to 12966 in 2017/18 ... fuelled by a much increased service, and surpassed (no doubt) by a frequent bus service into Newcastle and to other places along the main road off which the station is situated.  Although 12,966 journeys is 150 times up over the period of our record, it's still just 18 arrivals and 18 departures a day.

Until the 1980s, the line through Dunston was on something of a byway, but with the closure to trains of the Scotswood Bridge over the Tyne, Carisle line services now leave Newcastle over the same bridge as London train before turning off and heading west through Dunston and Metro Centre.

[bradshaw]

It was on a non-electrified line which narrows down the choice. Used Street View to trace the line from Wylam eastwards.
The Tanfield Railway is fascinating, I visited after a trip to Beamish many years ago now.
The whole of the Durham waggonway history and what you can see and walk today is another chapter. The walk up to Bolt’s Law or over the Stockton and Darlington from Shildon to Etherley incline are recommended.
Now, here is one for you, if it has attached correctly!

[paul7575]

You’ve reminded me I need to do some investigation in the Tanfield Railway’s archives, as I have recently discovered a 3rd great grandfather who was fatally injured in a shunting accident on the line in 1848.  Although they were quite blasé about such happenings back then, I certainly haven’t found an accident report, or newspaper coverage...

One of my brothers lives on the riverside near the Dunston Staithes, he’d probably say the frequent bus service into Newcastle from the area around Dunston station was generally far more relevant to people than the train.

There’s a pattern developing here, I mentioned in Grahame’s “tales from the northeast” a little while ago that my other brother doesn’t ever use his local station of Chathill...

Paul

[grahame]

One of my brothers lives on the riverside near the Dunston Staithes, he’d probably say the frequent bus service into Newcastle from the area around Dunston station was generally far more relevant to people than the train.

There’s a pattern developing here, I mentioned in Grahame’s “tales from the northeast” a little while ago that my other brother doesn’t ever use his local station of Chathill...

Paul

Does your sister live near Teeside Airport by any chance ...

[paul7575]

One of my brothers lives on the riverside near the Dunston Staithes, he’d probably say the frequent bus service into Newcastle from the area around Dunston station was generally far more relevant to people than the train.

There’s a pattern developing here, I mentioned in Grahame’s “tales from the northeast” a little while ago that my other brother doesn’t ever use his local station of Chathill...

Paul

Does your sister live near Teeside Airport by any chance ...

No sister, but that would be quite a notable set of useless stations. 

Seriously though, the bus into Newcastle from just outside Dunston Station is only a minute slower than the train running time as far as Central Station, but may well take you all the way to a further destination than the train anyway...

Paul