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TheDeerness Valley Railway was an eight-mile-long single-track branch railway line that ran along the valley of theRiver Deerness inCounty Durham, England. Built by theNorth Eastern Railway, it ran from Deerness Valley Junction, on the Durham to Bishop Auckland line, to the coal mines along the valley via two intermediate stations,Waterhouses, andUshaw Moor.[1]
The line was primarily built to serve the collieries at Ushaw Moor, Waterhouses, Hamsteels, Esh, Cornsay, New Brancepeth and East Hedley Hope, and was opened to passengers only as an afterthought.
Authorised in 1855, the line opened to goods on New Year's Day 1858, but it was not until 1 November 1877 that the first passenger station,Waterhouses nearEsh Winning, was opened. A second station was opened on 1 September 1884 atUshaw Moor.
Beyond the East Hedley Hope junction, the line was known asStockton and Darlington Railway Deerness Valley Branch, with the rope worked Stanley Inclines giving access to Stanley Drifts and Wooley Colliery. It then accessed Bank Foot Coke Works and Chemical Plant atCrook, where it junctioned with both theWeardale Extension Railway and theStanhope and Tyne Railway. This section was built forJoseph Pease and Partners, the owners of Waterhouses Colliery who also owned the industrial complex at Bank Foot.[2]
The entire line closed to passengers on 29 October 1951, and to freight on 28 December 1964.
The trackbed became part of the Durham Railway Paths network[3] in 1975.
