Name: Bowes Railway
Rating: 5.0

Bowes Railway

Springwell Village, Gateshead, Tyne and Wear, NE9 7QJ, England

1-90 Years

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Description

Bowes Railway is a historic colliery railway in the United Kingdom, originally built to transport coal from north west Durham to the Tyne at Jarrow. Designed in part by George Stephenson, its earliest section opened on 17 January 1826, making it one of the world’s first modern railways. Today, it is preserved as a heritage site and museum celebrating its remarkable industrial past.

Visitors can enjoy a guided tour of the site, exploring the historic Colliery Yard and learning about the railway’s preservation journey since 1976. The impressive Wagon Shop, originally built in 1854 and restored in 2014, showcases the large workshop used to maintain the railway’s wagon fleet. The site also includes Blackham’s Hill, home to the preserved rope haulage system and winding engine, recognised as the only preserved standard gauge rope hauled railway in the world.

Guided tours operate on Tuesdays and Thursdays at 10am or 1pm, and are pre-booked only. Admission costs £5.00 for Adults (16+) and £3.00 for Children (5+).

Overall, Bowes Railway offers a rare opportunity to experience early railway engineering and coal transport history. Its preserved rope haulage system and historic buildings make it a unique industrial heritage attraction. This site is ideal for railway enthusiasts, history lovers, and anyone interested in Britain’s pioneering railway story.

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Colliery Yard: Bowes has had a long journey as a Charity since 1976 but by 2013 had fallen on difficult times and saw its relationships with the Councils of Gateshead and Sunderland deteriorate, grant support withdrawn, staff redundancies and the volunteer base dwindle to a handful of supporters. In 2014, Bowes Trustees linked with a local community heritage partner Sunderland North Community Business Centre (SNCBC) to explore strategies to avoid site closure.
Wagon shop: The Wagon shop is the large building on the other side of the site, this cathedral like building was restored in 2014 thanks to an English Heritage grant. Originally it was a coal bunker for the adjoining Springwell Colliery (storing 2,000 tonnes of coal) but upon the mine closure, it was converted into a large workshop to maintain the railways wagon fleet. It was originally built in 1854 and was converted in 1932, approximately 25 men were employed at this time repairing 5 wagons per fortnight.
Blackham's Hill: When coal transportation came to an end at Bowes railway, it was granted museum status in 1976. Some time later short passenger rides were set up and carried people up the line to Blackham's Hill, the former hauler house for the railway system. In the past people could take a ride up to Blackham's Hill in one of the brake vans, hauled by a steam or diesel engine. They could alight from the train and internally view the rope haulage equipment and the winding engine.