Route Tyneside Electrics - North Tyneside Loop / Riverside Branch (1960)

Tyneside Electrics
The Tyneside Electrics were the suburban railways on Tyneside that the North Eastern Railway and the London and North Eastern Railway electrified using the third rail system. The North Tyneside Loop was electrified from 1904 onwards and formed one of the earliest suburban electric networks; the South Tyneside line to South Shields via Pelaw was electrified in March 1938. British Railways converted these lines to diesel operation in the 1960s: the line to South Shields in January 1963 and the North Tyneside lines in June 1967 when the electrical supply infrastructure (which dated from 1935) and the rolling stock (which dated from 1937) had become life expired. In addition, the system was losing passengers and suffering from costly vandalism. Since the late 1970s, much of the system has been converted to form the Tyne and Wear Metro.

North Tyneside Loop
The North Tyneside Loop refers to the railway lines in North Tyneside from Newcastle upon Tyne via Wallsend, North Shields, Whitley Bay, Backworth, Benton and South Gosforth back to Newcastle. Since the 1980s, it has formed part of the Tyne and Wear Metro, albeit in modified form.

The line was electrified (as the Tyneside Electrics) by the NER in 1904 to fight competition from the newly built electric tramways. In 1909 the loop was finally completed when the original Blyth & Tyne terminus at New Bridge Street was closed and a line built to connect the northern leg of the route to an extended Manors station. However the route was de-electrified in 1967, and converted to diesel multiple unit operation.

Riverside Branch
The Riverside Branch was a 6+1⁄2-mile (10.5 km) double-track branch line, which ran between Riverside Junction in Heaton and Percy Main West Junction in Percy Main.

The line opened in May 1879, later being electrified in 1904, as part of the Tyneside Electrics network. It closed to passengers in stages between April 1954 and July 1973, with freight services continuing in to the late 1980s.

It now forms part of Cycle Route 72 (Hadrian's Cycleway) on the National Cycle Network.

Route Map


Rolling Stock

1937 Tyneside Electric Units


appropriate pricing: £24.99