Castle Eden Railway

The Castle Eden Railway was a railway line built by the North Eastern Railway between Bowesfield Junction near Middlesbrough and Wingate, County Durham, Northeast England. Although its route actually never went near Castle Eden, it was also informally known as the "Cuckoo Line".

Passed under an Act of Parliament as the Stockton and Castle Eden Bridge Railway, it was built by contractor Thomas Nelson. The main civil engineering structure was the viaduct at Thorpe Thewles to cross Thorpe Beck and its valley, which consisted of 22 arches, used 8 million bricks and cost £37,000.

The first section of the line was opened on 1 May 1877 between Bowesfield Junction to Carlton South Junction (later Redmarshall), with a curve to Carlton West, to give access to the coalfields of South County Durham. The remainder of the line was opened for freight traffic on 1 August 1878, and passenger traffic between and Wellfield on 1 March 1880. A curve connecting the line with the Leeds Northern Railway between Bowesfield Junction and Hartburn West Junction was added in 1901.

The southern section from Bowesfield to Redmarshall never carried passengers, but in 1914 was overhead line electrified by the NER to allow coal to be transported from Witton Park Colliery at Shildon, along the former Clarence Railway to Redmarshall and then down the CER to Erimus Marshalling Yard, for export from Middlesbrough Dock. During the 1920s the coal traffic declined, and some of the Electric Freight 1 locomotives became surplus to requirements. After the NER was grouped in 1923 as part of the London and North Eastern Railway, by the 1935 the LNER had replaced the electric locomotives with steam. A curve connecting with the Leeds Northern Railway between Bowesfield Junction and Hartburn West Junction was added in 1901.

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