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4 unusual facts about Derwenthaugh Coke Works


Derwenthaugh Coke Works

In the 18th and 19th centuries, the site near Swalwell and Winlaton Mill had been that of Crowley's Ironworks, which for a time was the largest ironworks in Europe.

It was of the Stephenson Long Boiler design, and unlike the ubiquitous 0-4-0 and 0-6-0 side tanks and saddle tanks which served most of the industrial railways of the north-east, it was a pannier tank, (a layout common on the Great Western Railway, but rarely seen elsewhere).

The embankment on which the part of the line west of the works ran can be glimpsed from the road towards Rowlands Gill.

One of them, No. 41, was the oldest working NCB locomotive in the country, having been built for the Consett Iron Co. in 1883, by Kitson and Co. in Leeds, works No. 2509.



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