(16 Aug 2015, 9:14 pm)aureolin wrote Aye there were a few lines. If either of you know Brady Square at all, there used to be street running with steam locos, which ran from in between where the off licence and Salon are at the bottom of the square. 

The site I'm thinking of is just behind the Swan Industrial Estate at Barmston. We used to play football on the fields here, prior to it becoming a fenced off field. The houses between that field and the industrial estate was just waste ground, and there was a small dirt mound that used to border it off. You could get up and over there and straight on to the lines, as the fences and such were non-existent. By that time like, the freight traffic had long gone. All the track was still there, but the area was littered with trenches and smashed open trackside cabinets, where I presume the copper thieves had been at work.

I can't remember any track on the C2C route that passes alongside that field, and also past St Roberts school. It's just been the tarmac cycle track for as long as I've known now. We used to ride as far along as the 'King Coal' statue at Pelton, and then cycle back.

Aye, the line in front of the school, is the same one you mention.
Ran up to Glebe Pit (where the boxing club is/was). The gap where it ran between the houses coming up from Brady Sq/Columbia is still visible, just up from the VG/Thirlaways.

The track beyond St Roberts, was lifted up in the early 80's (83?). I can remember heavy machinery being parked up on the bridge above The Wheatsheaf at Barley Mow), for what seemed like ages.

edit:
http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.p...ead/page-5
The track was taken up in two stages. The Washington - Ouston jct in 83/84. The remainder in 85.
The last train to Consett went via the ECML and Ouston Jct in 84.
The link has photos of the second stage being removed at Pelton in 85.

Like varnishing a floor, the last section to be sorted, would be via 'the exit', in this case - Ouston Jct.

I can't remember about the runaway mind.
Could have been carnage if it hit something on the ECML, rather than at Lamesley.