Blyth Cambois TMD

Coal had been exported from the south side of the River Blyth since before the arrival of the railways in 1845, and had reached over 6,000,000 tonne per year by 1963. The pattern of trains feeding the coal staithes at Blyth from around the North East required many steam locomotives to enable this operation to happen. A diesel depot was built and opened in Blyth in 1968; it replaced earlier facilities at Percy Main, North Blyth and South Blyth, which were all traditional steam sheds. Although diesel locomotives had been around since the late 1950s/early 1960s, with the run-down of steam power on British Railways the steam sheds were closed in favour of a new shed, Cambois (pronounced…