{"id":102,"date":"2026-08-02T16:42:33","date_gmt":"2026-08-02T16:42:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/burnhopeheritagetrail.co.uk\/?page_id=102"},"modified":"2026-08-19T15:33:57","modified_gmt":"2026-08-19T15:33:57","slug":"23-bank-top-engine-house-1848","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/burnhopeheritagetrail.co.uk\/?page_id=102","title":{"rendered":"23. Bank Top Engine House 1848"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"Bank<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Because it was isolated on a hilltop, transporting coal from Burnhope Colliery presented a challenge to the Hedley brothers. An inclined railway already carried coal from Craghead to the Stanhope and Tyne Railway for onward shipment to the shipping staiths on the Tyne at South Shields. Between Burnhope and Craghead was a ridge 250 metres high, the incline too steep for a locomotive. A stationary engine was installed at the top of the incline, steel cables used to drag full wagons up from Burnhope Colliery, the engine then restraining the wagons as they rolled down the slope to Craghead. The Boiler house and chimney were completely rebuilt in 1897.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The engineman could not see either of the rope drums. He could see the set arriving from Burnhope through the window, but had to stand in the doorway to watch the set of empties arrive from Craghead, rushing back to shut off steam and apply the brake. The health and safety of working people was not considered carefully last century. Not being able to see the winding drums caused a terrible accident. The rope from Burnhope was fed onto the drum by a pulley that slid from side to side on a greased shaft. On the 4th November 1922 the engineman, Joseph Talbot observed the pulley jamming. Rather than rush back into the control room to shut off the steam, he placed a prop in the ground to lever the pulley over, the prop slipped and he was killed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The set of coal wagons had to be stopped before and after crossing Holmside Lane and again for the set rider to place the roll back safety chock. The engineman only knew where the set was by \u2018marks on his drum\u2019, which he could not see from the control room. Communication between the engineman and set rider was by \u2018rapping a bell code\u2019 on a signal cable. For the first twenty years before a shunting engine was purchased, and the last ten years after Burnhope 0-4-0 Engine was sold, Bank Top Engine was used to marshal wagons at the colliery. Pulling sets of empties from the siding and rolling them down the loading line, pulling filled wagons and rolling them down the main line. All achieved by the engineman operating a stationary steam engine a kilometre away with no camera or phone.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Because it was isolated on a hilltop, transporting coal from Burnhope Colliery presented a challenge to the Hedley brothers. An […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-102","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/burnhopeheritagetrail.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/102","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/burnhopeheritagetrail.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/burnhopeheritagetrail.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/burnhopeheritagetrail.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/burnhopeheritagetrail.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=102"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/burnhopeheritagetrail.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/102\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":336,"href":"https:\/\/burnhopeheritagetrail.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/102\/revisions\/336"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/burnhopeheritagetrail.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=102"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}