Bell Engine

HER Number

1110

District

N Tyneside

Site Name

Bell Engine

Place

Backworth

Map Sheet

NZ37SW

Class

Industrial

Site Type: Broad

Machinery

Site Type: Specific

Engine

General Period

POST MEDIEVAL

Specific Period

Victorian 1837 to 1901

Form of Evidence

Documentary Evidence

Description

Bell Engine, at the junction of the Backworth Wagonway (HER 1113) with the West Cramlington Wagonway (HER 1058). First stationary engine to be built on the Backworth Wagonway. Probably named after the man who was in charge of it. This engine hauled the wagons up from the "A" Pit (HER 1105). Even after conversion to locomotive haulage a banking engine was required to push trains out of the pit yard up to the crossing. The engine also later worked the branches to West Holywell and Earsdon. Letters of 1856 survive in Morpeth Records Office, relating to this engine.

Easting

430660

Northing

571450

Grid Reference

NZ430660571450

Sources

<< HER 1110 >> 1st edition Ordnance Survey map, 1865, 6 inch scale, Northumberland 89; John Elliott & Derek Charlton, 1994, Backworth - An Illustrated History of the Mines and Railways