Steam Haulage Engines
The first coal waggons had been pulled by horses, as time progressed these were taken over by steam powered rope haulage engines.
The Backworth Colliery had a primitive railway, but the section between Backworth and Allotment was converted to rope haulage by stationary steam engine in 1821. Two years later the incline between Allotment and Percy Main was altered and eased, and the whole line was rope worked by 1827. About 1838 the line was extended north-westwards to West Cramlington, and when the Newcastle and Berwick Railway was constructed, a junction was made with it there.
The Allotment Engine
On the Backworth Colliery line, this engine was needed to get the coal trucks over the incline north of the Allotment at Prospect Hill. Map © NLS
The Shiremoor Engine
On the Seaton Burn Waggonway Map © NLS
Shiremoor and Allotment Engines
This 1920’s map gives the position of the two engines in relation to the old Allotment and the Terraces © NLS
The “Allotment” Engine House was sited at what ids today the entrance to the Village Hotel Car Park, the small group of trees on the right as you drive in was the water reservoir for the steam engine.
Allotment Engine location in 2025. in the trees straight ahead behind the sign © WALHG
Allotment Engine location in 2025. now just a slight depression in the trees © WALHG
Local Waggonways
On a modern map Yellow = Seaton Burn Waggonway. Red = Backworth Colliery Waggonway. Blue = Blyth & Tyne Line © Google Earth.
Shiremoor Engine 2024
I’m not brave enough to look in there, it seems there was a depression in the ground, which might have been the water reservoir for the stationary steam engine. © CC BY-NC
Shiremoor Engine
A detailed map late 1800’s ©NLS
https://maps.app.goo.gl/xc5JHkqeASmaejAAA
For readers who wonder what steam haulage engines and rope hauled coal waggons is about, a Youtube video on the Bowes Incline. Filmed in 1985 with some real characters. The guy lighting the fire at the start with a “breezer” is a classic, how many of you remember doing that. Electric motors had replaced static steam engines, the general principles are the same. Posh mining families might have had an iron “breezer”, made by the pit blacksmith as a sideline? Newspaper over a shovel works, as long as your quick to pull it away before it goes up in flames. Something you only did once.
Coal Staithes on the North Bank of the Tyne
From this map of approx. 1900 you can appreciate the number of coals staithes from the numerous pits in the local area. Caols came from as far as Cox Lodge pit in the west, and as far north as Blyth. Hence the many waggonways we now enjoy as footpaths. The red text showing what is now Royal Quays Marina, gives an awareness of the scale of the coal loading operation.
Royal Quays (Albert Edward Dock), and Northumberland Dock, were built to allow colliers to load whatever the state of the tide in the river. The river has a tidal range of approx. 4.3 meters, about 14 foot, the original staithes consisted of a coal chute into which the waggons dropped the coal directly into the collier, later versions had an adjustable chute mechanism, which did away with the added complexity of the non tidal docks.
© NLS
Adjustable coal chute, Wallsend Colliery © Co-Curate