Hedleyhope - John Anderson
1883 Challenge Entry
A search made for a suitable location in which to create a credible
fictitious subject showed that the Dearness Valley Railway, or the
Waterhouses Branch as it was sometimes known, appeared to be in an
area sufficiently populated to justify upgrading the mineral-only
upper section of the line serving East Hedleyhope Colliery by giving
it a passenger service. This was achieved by extending the existing
line a few hundred yards westwards to open ground beyond the adjacent
village of East Hedleyhope. The site selected for the extension
station and goods yard is a small field and a piece of woodland
adjacent to the river behind the Dearness Valley Hotel, which
conveniently limits the size of the station and goods yard.
Hedleyhope station has facilities for handling general merchandise
via a covered goods shed and a fixed 5-ton crane. There is an
end-loading facility for agricultural machinery and similar
deliveries, and a siding for the bulk loading of potatoes and sugar
beet. The end of this siding accommodates a camping coach during the
summer season. The usual NER coal drops and depot are provided
together with NER hurdle type pens for a moderate amount of
cattle. Locomotive servicing facilities are provided and consist of a
single road engine shed which boasts a 52' 0" long turntable, a
water column and a coaling stage. The shed houses the branch
locomotive which is required to reside there overnight to run the
early morning passenger train.
There are six passenger train return trips to Durham on weekdays
including Saturdays, but none on Sundays. However there are frequent
Sunday excursions to a variety of places, and Saturday trains are
supplemented by football specials run to suit the fixture lists. The
service passenger trains are timed such that one set of coaches
dedicated to the branch suffices. There are two pick-up goods trains
each weekday which shunt the yard as the day-to-day traffic
requires. The cramped site of the station and yard means some unusual
operating procedures are required. The unusual track layout leads to
much manoeuvering to service the coal drops and the cattle dock. As
the station run-round loop can accommodate only four standard coaches
it means that trains longer than this have to be split to carry out
the run-round procedure. which makes for interesting
viewing. Similarly the maximum goods train length that can be handled
is limited to twelve short-wheel base wagons and a brake-van.
