| Newcastle & North Shields Railway | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
Legend
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
The Newcastle & North Shields Railway was opened in June 1839 from a station in Carliol Square in Newcastle upon Tyne to North Shields. It was later extended to Newcastle Central to the west and to Tynemouth in the East, initially at its own station but later to a through station linking with the Blyth & Tyne Railway. It was later absorbed by the North Eastern Railway and the route was electrified in 1904 as part of the Tyneside Electrics programme.
A 10 km (6 mi) loop via Walker known as the Riverside Branch was added in 1879. Services were withdrawn from the branch on 23 July 1973. The Riverside Branch has now been converted into a footpath and cycle-path known as Hadrian's Way - it forms part of both the C2C cycle route (National Cycle Network route 72) and the Hadrian's Wall National Trail.
Almost all of the main route (from a point just east of Heaton to Tynemouth and beyond) was converted to form part of the Tyne and Wear Metro Yellow line from 1982.