Rainton and Seaham Railway, A Pit Branch

With the development of more effective pumping engines to drain previously unworkable deep coal seams and the development of nucleated collieries, the Rainton Waggonway, especially its southern routes, was extensively upgraded and re-organised by the Tempests, to whom it had passed by marriage from the Whartons in 1730. A number of new branch lines to collieries were constructed between 1816 (the Resolution Pit) and 1826 (Pittington Colliery). The line to the Alexandrina (or Letch) Pit (HER 3219) was opened in 1824. Hair says that the colliery was sunk to 80 fathoms, to the Hutton Seam which was in this area just over 4 feet thick. This was part of the Londonderry Railway, which closed in 1896.