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Route
Leaving Middlesbrough, the line heads west, sharing the route of the Tees Valley Line, under the A19 Tees Flyover, around what remains of Tees Marshalling Yard and into the Borough of Stockton-on-Tees to reach Thornaby. Beyond Thornaby, the line traverses the Tees Bridge and branches sharply at Bowesfield Junction to join the route of the northbound Leeds Northern Railway (LNR) at Hartburn Junction, where Grand Central services from London join the line. After passing through Stockton, the line curves slightly to the west at the site of North Shore Junction (once the junction between the Clarence Railway (CR), LNR and later NER Billingham Beck Branch) before turning sharply to the east at Norton-on-Tees Junction where the freight-only Stillington line to Ferryhill and the East Coast Main Line diverges westwards. Having largely skirted around the village of Norton, the line passes through the site of Norton-on-Tees station (closed 1960) and then the original site of Billingham station (replaced 1966), after which the line, once-more, curves northwards (onto the route of the Stockton & Hartlepool Railway (S&HR)) at Billingham Junction where the now freight-only ex-CR line to Port Clarence and Seal Sands diverges and continues eastwards. Shortly beyond the junction, the current Billingham station is reached before the line leaves Billingham and crosses into the Borough of Hartlepool.

Once out of the Teesside Conurbation, the line runs through fairly flat, heavily industrialised land, much of which has been reclaimed from the Tees Estuary. The line passes through the site of Greatham station (closed 1991) and two short freight branches diverge. The longer of these joins the northbound DCL at Seaton Snook Junction and was opened by the NER on 1 June 1907 for goods traffic from Graythorp and a riverside basin at Seaton-on-Tees but today mainly provides a rail link to Hartlepool Nuclear Power Station.


 * Middlesbrough
 * Thornaby
 * Stockton
 * Billingham
 * Seaton Carew
 * Hartlepool
 * Seaham
 * Sunderland
 * Heworth
 * Newcastle