Geograph - photograph every grid square

Looking like an old waggonway, the very straight track has been closely paved with narrow, rough, wooden 'sleepers'.

It is actually the former route of the over-land conveyor which brought coal down from the Plenmeller opencast coal mine between 1991 and 2000 NY7460 : Plaques on Plenmeller Common. It ran for over a mile from a site near The Beacon NY7260 : The Beacon, north-east down the hillside of Plenmeller Common and Howden Rigg, then adjacent to the west side of Heron Wood, passing under the Plenmeller-Unthank Road via a tunnel. It surfaced to cross the River South Tyne to the railway line on the north side where there was a rapid loading bunker with associated railway sidings NY7363 : Railway lines. Around 1.8 million tonnes of coal left Plenmeller via this route.

There photo in the opposite direction here NY7362 : Track on Plenmeller Common