The day started early as one of the photos I’m hoping for from this trip is a sunrise picture. Having checked with the Met Office signs were good, a clear day and 06:40 being the critical time. I won’t know until I’m home and put them on the laptop but I’m hoping one of the pics works - I took a few. Aside from the photography though all I can say is wow! It’s easy to see why the ancients attribute mystical and religious significance to the sun. It’s probably nearly impossible to capture on camera but there was literally an aura appearing, rising out of the water, to herald the appearance of the sun itself. Of course, if you look at it scientifically, it’s just planetary motion and refraction artefacts!
Not one of the planned photos, just a snapshot from the phone as I walked back to the hotel.
The main aim of the day was a simple one - travel the entire length of the Tyne and Wear Metro system. I’d done most of it before, either as Metro or BR services but I hadn’t covered the whole system as it is now in one go. I decided to leave the car at the hotel and walk up to Seaburn Station - not the first time ever I’ve caught a train there but it’s probably over 55 years since I last did so! It’s changed a bit as well since being “Metrofied”, the picture I have at home is much nearer to what I remember. From there I traveled through Sunderland to South Hylton, one end of the Green line (there are only two!)
Seaburn Metro - The canopies and tower are relatively new.
The line runs back through Sunderland, and along the old BR route to Newcastle then out to the airport. The stretch from Sunderland to Felling was used for my regular visits as a student to my Nan’s and Great Aunt’s in Sunderland, and Felling to Haymarket was my daily commute to the university, so I know those stretches of line very well - one oddity is that Boldon Colliery is now known as Brockley Whins - apparently it’s original name dating back to 1839 although it was Boldon Colliery from 1925 to 1991.
I wasn’t aware they’re building a new footbridge across the Wear. It looks a lot more conventional than the Northern Spire Bridge of a few years ago.
After the Airport station the next part of the journey was simply to swap lines so back to Monument then one station along the Yellow line to its terminus at St James. I could then stay on the same train for the long run round the North Tyneside Loop, back across the river and out along the riverside to South Shields. Unfortunately, and not for the first time, the on train indicators and announcements managed to “lose” Byker station (some might say losing Byker would be no bad thing), announcing it as the next stop, Chillingham Road, but by the time we reached the latter they were back in synch with reality.
As we reached the coast I decided it was probably time for a wee break, I did hop off the train at Tynemouth just to get a pic of the magnificent canopy but then carried on a couple of stops to Whitley Bay where I visited The Old Fire Station, a Wetherspoon's pub, donned my mountaineering gear to visit the toilets then had an excellent pint of Black Sheep Bitter for the huge sun of £1.99! One thing with visiting Spoonies, you can generally tell where you are in the country by the clientele! No insult to the people there but you’d know you could only be in the North East.
Part of the train shed roof at Tynemouth.
South Shields provided lunch, a Cheese and Onion Stottie from Greggs, not up to the standards of the ones served in the Student Union but not too bad. The next stage of the journey was the Boats part of the title, the Shields Ferry. It’s included on the all zones travel card and I’d never done it so I couldn’t resist.
In hindsight I should probably have crossed back but I had a tentative plan to get the Metro from North Shields to Howdon, cross under the river through the foot and cycle tunnel and then back to the Metro at Jarrow. The walk up the hill to the Metro convinced me that I’d struggle with the walking involved as I was starting to get tired and my back was complaining so it was straight back to Monument in the centre of Newcastle to pick up the train back south to Seaburn. It had reached the time of day when the trains were getting busy but I managed to get a seat so the way, albeit in the “Priority” seats at one point, my need was genuine!
I’ve had quite a few reminiscences while travelling, strangely many of them involving beer! There were several stations we’d used to visit outlying pubs, often on the hunt for a half decent pint. You do go through bandit country in places as well, the Stephenson Steam Railway runs to Percy Main (pronounced Porcy May-yen) but they have to take the signs up on the first train and return them on the last train otherwise they’re stolen or used for target practice!
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