Seaham Harbour photos

[Tin Turtle]

Thought these may be of interest - evidence of the railways at Seaham Harbour, which I first visited a few weeks ago. A wonderful place that I look forward to returning to and exploring more... what I would have given to visit back in the day of paddle tugs, vertical boiler locomotives, No 18 and chaldron wagons aplenty

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

In the old Lifeboat House is the 'George Elmy', a Liverpool Class RNLI Lifeboat. In 1962, it left Seaham on a rescue to local fishermen in distress. Tragically, after saving the crew, before it entered the harbour it capsized. The Liverpool Class was not one of the self-righting types of Lifeboat, and all the crew drowned, and all but one of those rescued drowned also. The 'George Elmy' was found washed up, upside down, on a local beach the next day. It was refurbished, put back into service, and eventually retired and became a fishing boat, like many old Lifeboats. It was restored and returned to Seaham last year, re-entering Seaham Harbour under its own power, returning home since leaving that night in 1962. It is now in the Lifeboat House, home to the East Durham Heritage Centre, as a very fitting memorial to the brave men of Seaham Lifeboat. The centre also has displays and photographs relating to the railways in the area

 

[Dava]

Thanks for your photos, also of the Consett long boiler tank loco.

I visited Seaham in the 1980s when it looked similar except not so clean and coal was still being rail hauled.

 

The big change from previous times was the demolition of the coal staithes though these were still extant at Blyth at the time. See 'Get Carter'!. All gone now. The destruction of the paddle tug Reliant from Seaham by the 'National Maritime Museum' was a major crime against maritime heritage which achieved....nothing.

 

Dava

[Tin Turtle]

Yes, I was horrified to read about 'Reliant', a massive act of vandalism, struggling to think of anything that comes close in heritage. At least 'Eppleton Hall' survives, although on the other side of the Atlantic