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The Stanhope and Tyne Railway was an early British railway that ran from Stanhope, in County Durham, to South Shields at the mouth of the River Tyne. The S&TR Company itself survived barely 10 years, but the original route with its various branches and deviations was commonly known as the Stanhope and Tyne throughout its existence.

It was built to provide the limestone quarries above Weardale and coal mines in north Durham with an outlet to the Tyne down-river of any bridges. It also supported the growth of the Derwent Iron Company, later known as the Consett steelworks, which became its main freight customer.

Much of the S&T system was built through the moors of County Durham, and encountered difficulties in both construction and operation. The system was gradually expanded and improved throughout the 19th century, not reaching its final form until the 1890s.

History
The original Stanhope & Tyne alignment, opened in 1834, ran from Stanhope to South Shields, via Consett, Stanley and Washington. It had numerous short branches to quarries and collieries, many of them existing mineral waggonways that were connected to the new line. It crossed high fells and narrow gorges by means rope-hauled inclines powered by stationary engines, and much of the rest was horse-hauled. Unusually, it was not constructed under parliamentary authority (which would have enabled compulsory purchase) but by means of "way-leaves" - essentially, agreements to rent the land occupied by the track and stations.

The complications of working such a steeply-graded line, plus the added cost of the way-leaves, made it hard for the S&TR operate profitably. By 1840 it was in financial difficulties, and by 1842 the line had been sold off, in sections:
 * from South Shields to Carrhouses, on the eastern edge of Consett, it became the Pontop & South Shields Railway, later acquired by the North Eastern Railway;
 * the Carrhouses to Stanhope section was sold to the Derwent Iron Company, and renamed the The Derwent Railway. Within a year the Derwent Railway was bought by the Stockton & Darlington Railway.

The two halves of the line were somewhat different in nature. The P&SS section was a classic colliery line, threading through pit villages to reach the coastal urban centres and the sea. There it connected to the dense network of lines between the mouths of the Tyne and Wear, including both the original East Coast Main Line, and it's later Croxdale diversion.

West of Consett, while the S&T was still undoubtedly an industrial railway it had a more rural character, reaching high into the Durham fells, across the Derwent and into Weardale. Here it also gained connections to newer routes, from Durham and Bishop Auckland in the south, through to Gateshead.

Eastern Section: Stanley, Washington and South Shields
The eastern half of the line cut through the north Durham coalfield between Consett and Washington by means of a series of rope-hauled inclines. At the village of Annfield it crossed Loud Hill with a pair of inclines worked from a single engine house at the top; thereafter the area was known as Annfield Plane (from the "inclined plane"), but later became Annfield Plain, referring to the level plateau on which the village sits.

It then took a straight-line route through Stanley and Pelton, descending at least three inclines to Pelaw Grange. After crossing Pelton Level and the Great North Road there was another incline worked from an engine in Vigo Woods. From Fatfield, east of the Vigo Engine, it was then locomotive hauled through Washington to the terminus in South Shields.

East of Pelton the P&SSR became part of the complex railway network already developing around Tyneside. Even before the break-up it gained a connection with the Durham Junction Railway, which was then part of the mainline between York and Newcastle. At Pontop Crossing (named for the "Pontop railway" rather than the locality, which is several miles away) it was joined by the Brandling Junction Railway from Gateshead, which shared it's route into South Shields before diverting to the Brandling coal drops on the south bank of the Tyne.

Four years after the Pontop & South Shields Railway was created, in 1846 it amalgamated with the Newcastle & Darlington Junction Railway, which a year later became part of the York, Newcastle and Berwick Railway. The YN&BR was to be one of the founding constituents of the North Eastern Railway, incorporated in 1854.

Even after the P&SS line became part of the NER there were no improvements to the rope-hauled sections between Consett and Washington, although on the the western half of the Stanhope & Tyne the S&DR would soon bypass the most severe inclines. On the other hand, when the Tyne Dock opened in 1859, the NER built several new lines to serve it, including a branch from the S&T near South Shields. The S&DR was merged with the NER in 1863, so re-uniting the S&T under one management again, but the inclines at Annfield Plain and Stanley remained for another 20 years.

It was not until 1886 that the Loud Hill inclines were bypassed, and a new station built to the south-east of Annfield Plain. Finally in 1893 the Stanley inclines were bypassed by the Beamish deviation, with three new stations at West Stanley, Beamish and Pelton, permitting through working to Consett on the P&SSR.

Western Section: Consett to Weardale
In 1845, at the the behest of the Derwent Iron Co. the S&DR built the Weardale Extension Railway. This ran from the end of the S&D Weardale line at Crook, via Tow Law, to connect with the S&T line (which they now called the Stanhope and Carrhouse Branch) at Waskerley. Although less severe than the S&T, this route had it's share of difficult gradients, with another incline at Sunnyside, between Crook & Tow Law.

The next year the Derwent Iron Company built the Weatherhill & Rookhope Railway as a branch from the S&TR near Park Head Depot (later renamed Blanchland) to connect with the Rookhope lead mines & foundries. The final descent into Rookhope was another long rope-hauled incline. The summit of this branch, at 1670' (515m) on the side of Bolt's Law, was the highest point ever reached by standard-gauge rails in the British Isles.

In 1850 this branch was further extended to near Westgate by the Rookhope & Middlehope Railway. During the First World War there was enormous demand for lead from Rookhope. To serve the increased traffic the Middlehope line gained a mainline connection by means of yet another incline, from Heights Quarry to the Wear Valley line near Cambokeels, between Eastgate and Westgate; although this was short-lived, being dismantled early in World War II.

Also in 1846/47 the inclines between Parkhead and Waskerley were eliminated by cuttings, including the somewhat misleadingly named Frosterley Cut. The inclines between Waskerley and Consett continued in operation for a decade, but then in 1858 the S&DR replaced the two steep inclines across Hownsgill by a viaduct; and in 1859 they bypassed Nanny Mayer's Incline with a diversion via a new station at Burnhill to Whitehall Junction, west of Rowley. These upgrades allowed locomotive working between Consett and Tow Law, or (with a reversal) Parkhead.

Meanwhile, the S&D was building the Wear Valley Railway from Wear Valley Junction south of Crook. It opened to Frosterley and Bishopley in 1847, and was gradually extended along the bottom of the Wear Valley - to Stanhope by 1862 (but with no connection to the S&T), and eventually to Wearhead by 1895. This route closely followed the course of the River Wear, and although it rose to 1000' ASL at Wearhead it was a line of comparatively easy gradients, locomotive worked from the beginning. With a through service to Bishop Auckland and beyond, the Wear Valley line inevitably took traffic away from the S&T.

Over the next ten years the NER invaded S&T territory with the Derwent Valley Railway and the Lanchester Branch, which together created a through route from Newcastle to Durham via Consett (Blackhill). Then having absorbed the S&DR in 1863, it also looked to improve the old S&T and integrate it into the growing NER network. In 1869 the Sunnyside incline between Tow Law and Crook was replaced by a circuitous diversion. Although at only 1:13 this incline was thought to be viable for locomotive haulage, there were probably no through services until the diversion was built. This now completed a through route from Bishop Auckland via the Wear Valley and Crook to Consett, and beyond to Newcastle via the Derwent Valley.

In the early years of the S&TR there were passenger services to various remote halts scattered about the moors, even via the rope-hauled inclines. Locomotive services on the Wear Valley line and the upgraded Crook to Consett line eventually superceded those routes and most of the halts became goods-only, or closed. The inclines south of Parkhead (Weatherhill, Crawley and Bolt's Law) remained in place until the lines were closed. There is some evidence that a passenger service to Rookhope via the Bolt's Law incline survived into the 1920's.

Decline and Closure
The S&T could not compete with the rise of road transport. In the 1930's some of the more remote stations were closed, and after the Second World War passenger services were gradually cut back. With the closure of the Consett steelworks in the 1980's its main source of goods traffic was lost, and the remainder of the S&T system was also closed and dismantled.

Some of the trackbed around South Shields has been re-used by the Tyne and Wear Metro. Much of the inland route has been preserved as public amenities - cycle paths, walks, and country parks.