Heaton Traction Maintenance Depot Carriage Sidings, Newcastle, May 15
Introduction:
Another place on our list of leads up north was this place, Heaton Carriage Sidings, both myself and Borolad where pretty excited about what we might find here, if the place could be accessed that is. We'd found a few old pics of the place from 1990 on flickr, showing the train shed still rammed with old dilapidated coaching stock and a few multiple units. We knew the chances of any actual rail vehicles remaining on site where slim, at the end of the day 25 years have passed since 1990, still we had high hopes that the building itself would be good enough if we could get in. We wasn't wrong! After arriving on site we got access almost immediately and found ourselves in a complete train shed, with plenty of artefacts and the rails still in situ.The place immediately gave off that awesome feel that most railway related derps give do, it's hard to explain the atmosphere, if you've not been on a railway related explore yet. Those who've done the likes of Mayfield, Crewe DMD, Euston Downside etc, will know exactly where I'm coming from. The sound of dripping water and high speed trains on the ECML just across the road make it a really awesome place to be, a feeling that can't really be captured on a camera, you have to go to experience it!
History:
Heaton Shed was originally constructed by the North Eastern Railway (NER) to provide a home for locomotives operating out of the Newcastle area, both passenger and freight locomotives where allocated. In 1954 the shed was taken over by British Railways as part of rail nationalisation in the UK, the shed was coded 52B North Eastern Region and had 95 locomotives allocated to it. The carriage sidings which is featured in this report (Heaton TMD Engine Shed is still in use with Northern Rail to the day) is believed to have closed in the mid/late 80's, probably due to a decline in loco hauled services, the Deltic's having been replaced by HST and loco hauled services now been operated mainly by pacer and sprinter units. The shed remained standing as a place to store defunct and condemned coaching stock through the 90's and into the 00's when the shed was finally severed from the mainline to become a sort of time capsule cut off from the rest of the working depot.
Pictures:
I have a fair few pics from this place so please bare with me, it's going to be a pic heavy one! As always more info will be added alongside photo's where relevant.
It's quite hard to get a photo of the exterior of the shed these days, so I've added one of the archive photo's from 1990 below. (Not my pic)
Lets take a look inside! The train shed is pretty impressive, the whole place feels like an urban green house, it's certainly an oasis for local wildlife here!
Euston Downside of the North?
Nature Taking over, this little fella was practically posing for me! Minolta X-700, Agfa ASA 200 Colour Film.
Minolta X-700, ASA 200 Agfa Colour Film.
Olympus OM-2, Ilford XP2 ASA 400 B&W Film.
X-700...
There's a fair few reminders of the place's history, BR marked Fire Extinguisher again taken on the X-700.
British Rail Blue Mk1 Carriage Door... Minolta X-700.
Mk2 Coaching Stock Dividing Doors.
I could go on all day with pics of the train shed, it's so photogenic, but for the sake of exploration, here's a few of the side rooms and boiler house too.
There's a fair few rooms like this one, mainly stripped but with a few bits of interest, and peely paint...
This room was stuffed with old toilet doors out of MK2 Stock...
Finally, the boiler room.
And that's all from me, get yourselves here, especially if you have any interest in your railways , place is brilliant for photo's too. I'll be re-visiting at some point that's for sure!
Cheers for reading,
TAW
Introduction:
Another place on our list of leads up north was this place, Heaton Carriage Sidings, both myself and Borolad where pretty excited about what we might find here, if the place could be accessed that is. We'd found a few old pics of the place from 1990 on flickr, showing the train shed still rammed with old dilapidated coaching stock and a few multiple units. We knew the chances of any actual rail vehicles remaining on site where slim, at the end of the day 25 years have passed since 1990, still we had high hopes that the building itself would be good enough if we could get in. We wasn't wrong! After arriving on site we got access almost immediately and found ourselves in a complete train shed, with plenty of artefacts and the rails still in situ.The place immediately gave off that awesome feel that most railway related derps give do, it's hard to explain the atmosphere, if you've not been on a railway related explore yet. Those who've done the likes of Mayfield, Crewe DMD, Euston Downside etc, will know exactly where I'm coming from. The sound of dripping water and high speed trains on the ECML just across the road make it a really awesome place to be, a feeling that can't really be captured on a camera, you have to go to experience it!
History:
Heaton Shed was originally constructed by the North Eastern Railway (NER) to provide a home for locomotives operating out of the Newcastle area, both passenger and freight locomotives where allocated. In 1954 the shed was taken over by British Railways as part of rail nationalisation in the UK, the shed was coded 52B North Eastern Region and had 95 locomotives allocated to it. The carriage sidings which is featured in this report (Heaton TMD Engine Shed is still in use with Northern Rail to the day) is believed to have closed in the mid/late 80's, probably due to a decline in loco hauled services, the Deltic's having been replaced by HST and loco hauled services now been operated mainly by pacer and sprinter units. The shed remained standing as a place to store defunct and condemned coaching stock through the 90's and into the 00's when the shed was finally severed from the mainline to become a sort of time capsule cut off from the rest of the working depot.
Pictures:
I have a fair few pics from this place so please bare with me, it's going to be a pic heavy one! As always more info will be added alongside photo's where relevant.
It's quite hard to get a photo of the exterior of the shed these days, so I've added one of the archive photo's from 1990 below. (Not my pic)
Lets take a look inside! The train shed is pretty impressive, the whole place feels like an urban green house, it's certainly an oasis for local wildlife here!
Euston Downside of the North?
Nature Taking over, this little fella was practically posing for me! Minolta X-700, Agfa ASA 200 Colour Film.
Minolta X-700, ASA 200 Agfa Colour Film.
Olympus OM-2, Ilford XP2 ASA 400 B&W Film.
X-700...
There's a fair few reminders of the place's history, BR marked Fire Extinguisher again taken on the X-700.
British Rail Blue Mk1 Carriage Door... Minolta X-700.
Mk2 Coaching Stock Dividing Doors.
I could go on all day with pics of the train shed, it's so photogenic, but for the sake of exploration, here's a few of the side rooms and boiler house too.
There's a fair few rooms like this one, mainly stripped but with a few bits of interest, and peely paint...
This room was stuffed with old toilet doors out of MK2 Stock...
Finally, the boiler room.
And that's all from me, get yourselves here, especially if you have any interest in your railways , place is brilliant for photo's too. I'll be re-visiting at some point that's for sure!
Cheers for reading,
TAW
Last edited:
as you say very photogenic
