Railway Memories No.28 features a whole range of memorable scenes from the famous expresses of the East Coast main line to the humble, dirty coal trains that ground their way unceasingly around the local network, from the world’s oldest railway only a few years from its 300th birthday to Tyneside’s pioneering electric commuter services,from the great bridges and magnificent stations to engine sheds and wayside halts. Besides the main line railways, the area’s second rail network, just as extensive but less well known is also featured - that of the National Coal Board, descended from the earliest wagonways, which bound the pits to each other and to riverside staiths and the main line system until becoming extinct in the late 1980s. Railway Memories No.28 opens with informative text which tells the story of Tyneside’s rail systems from the world’s earliest forms of rail transport in the 1600s to the Metro and electrification of the East Coast main line in the 1980s. Locations featured include: Newcastle-upon-Tyne, Whitley Bay, Tynemouth, Ponteland, Gateshead, Jarrow, South Shields, Dunston-on-Tyne, the Tanfield branch, Blaydon, Wylam, Hexham, Allendale, Haltwhistle, Alston.