Lambton Railway

[1] To enable the coal extracted from the collieries to be transported to the River Wear, from 1737 the company had constructed a horse-drawn tramway from Fatfield to Cox Green.

This now meant that the company had a direct route from its collieries to the River Wear, where it constructed Lambton Staithes within the Port of Sunderland.

[1] By 1860, the Lambton was the largest of all the colliery railways in the northeast, totalling across its mainline and branches alone some 70 miles (110 km) of track.

[2] In 1854 the North Eastern Railway was formed, which gave it control of the mainline from Darlington to Newcastle via the Leamside Line.

[1] In 1924 after the merger with Joicey Collieries, the company gained control of the Beamish Railway, although this remained a separate operation.

[1] All locomotives on the Lambton Railway were built or modified to a unique loading gauge, which resulted in a rounded-cab profile.

This was to enable them to work down the narrow bored tunnel to Lambton Drops (coal staiths) at the Port of Sunderland.