Thanks, apart from a short stretch of track approaching Pelaw Jct all the track has now been removed.

Lots of talk for years now regarding reopening but......

@@ALANSVIDS1 Yes I seriously doubt we’ll ever see it reopened as a heavy rail through route. The investment in upgrading the Durham Coast Route put paid to that. Freight can be kept off the ECML more easily now and for a greater stretch between Northallerton and Gateshead. There may be a future for some of the route as part of the much talked of Metro extension? But as has already been said lots of talking and no action. There seems to be a lack of willingness to invest in infrastructure in the North East and with the current pandemic and political climate I can’t imagine that will change any time soon. However should the Metro be extended there is the possibility of a loop via South Hylton, Penshaw and Washington to Pelaw as well as extending South to Fencehouses or Even Belmont to link with the Durham P+R scheme.

Most of the track in the video has now been pulled up including Follingsby LC, just the bit from Wardley to Pelaw remains now.

Thanks, I think its time for a follow up trip.

Most of the track in the video has now been removed, a short stretch through Wardley approaching the Newcastle to Sunderland line at Pelaw is all thats left.

That's a real shame, but a sign of the times I guess.

Thanks, I did not realise it was 5 years since my walk along the line, I think its time for another visit.

It would make a lot of sense but this is North East England, bottom of the table for investment in the railways. Reopening has been mooted for years, including extending the metro from Pelaw to Washington. I think the trackbed is protected from being built on.

I walked up the track a year or so ago, between Barmston and the viaduct, they've cut across the track with a cycle path and blocked access with spiked fences. I had to do a 10 minute detour to get by. The viaducts been fenced off too, but someone had kicked the fences down so i was able to cross to Penshaw.

Ian Helps it would be simpler and cheaper to use the coastal route via Sunderland.

Thanks, lets hope it becomes a bit less ghostly and reopens as a modern railway sometime in the future.

Thanks, i think another visit is due.

They have been talking about reopening the Leamside Line for years now and it seems very unlikely in the near future. Appears to be more chance of the Blyth and Ashington lines being reopened.

Very True!

The Metro is a retrograde step. The extension to Sunderland negates any possibility of 25Kv electrification and the slowness of the trains hampers heavy rail trains.

At least the trackbed has been protected from building on, so their is still a small amount of hope for the future.

Most of the track has been pulled up apart from a stretch from Wardley to the main line at Pelaw Junction. I believe that the actual trackbed is protected so that no development is allowed that would block it.

I might be wrong but I suspect that assuming Network Rail have no other use for the signals themselves, then the cost of modifying the signalling circuitry would be much more expensive than leaving the unwanted signals in place and still lit, until the time comes when the track/signals in the area are due to be renewed.

Dead right there, they'll quite happily spend countless MILLIONS on putting up overhead lines and turning big city stations into dirty great greenhouses which heat up inside to insane temperatures in the summer sun making them ultra-EXclusive but they won't replace old long outdated footbridges which are total barriers to anyone with wheelchairs or mobility scooters etc. or sort out any of the countless stations which still have stepped access only.

I think this was after Thatcher or at the latter end of her thrall. Most of the coastal collieries such as Dawdon had MGR facilities built in the late eighties and they only saw a few years use before being demolished.

Thanks, it needs another visit.

The same thing happened on another line near me, which was waiting to be reopened by a preservation group, some of the rails got nicked, but I can never understand how anyone can steal the rails when they're 60 foot long weigh about a TON each! They must have some means of cutting them but how without getting caught when it makes so much noise, unless they stick to remote areas out in the sticks away from prying eyes.

I can imagine

Quite agree, there are probably dozens of similar disused routes all over the country which could be reopened but for the lack of funding, yet we can still find money for HS2 !

ALANSVIDS1 HS2 serves places were the jobs and money are. Lines like this don't always do that, or like the Bramley Line to Wisbech would require significant structures, a bridge to replace the originsl level crossing on the A47.