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Thursday 24 Oct 2024

Making up for lost time as Newcastle station’s roofline clocks restored

Region & Route:

Eastern

| Eastern: East Coast

All three roofline clocks at the front of the North East’s busiest and biggest railway station are now in sync for the first time in years.

Specialist teams have spent the last three nights getting the historic timepieces running like ‘clockwork’ again at Newcastle station on behalf of Network Rail and station operator LNER.

Heritage clock makers Smiths of Derby installed three new mechanisms due to the old workings, which were between 30 and 50 years old, all suffering water damage.

Using a high-level platform, the teams worked overnight to take off each pair of clock hands 16 metres above ground and remove the broken movements behind them.

Like repairing massive carriage-clocks, the new mechanisms were bolted into position, then slotted through each glazed dial so the new hands could be secured over the clock faces.

Modern LED back lighting has also been installed so times can be read clearly during hours of darkness.

The £21,000 restoration was funded by both Network Rail and a grant from the Railway Heritage Trust in a 60:40 split.

Work finished shortly after 4.30am this morning (Thursday 24 October) and from 4.45am all three movements went into commission and started telling the right time for early risers across the city.

The investment into the station clocks means the three of them will be accurate for years to come.

Rob Preston, Network Rail Works Delivery manager, said: “We’re very conscious time has stood still for too long above Newcastle station and understand how frustrating it’s been for both passengers and passersby.

“While we’ve known they needed attention for some time, securing the funding and planning the complex repairs took longer than expected. We thank people for their patience, and I can reassure people that our newly refurbished clocks can now be trusted to the minute.”

Carl Howarth, LNER’s head of property, said: “Our customers take immense pride and care for the rich heritage of the station in Newcastle, and we know how popular these clocks are. Time is incredibly important for the railway and for our customers, and it’s great to know that such key parts of our station’s appearance are now running, again, like clockwork.”

B-ROLL Download of clock repairs

The trio of clocks weren’t original features when the then Newcastle Central station opened in 1850.

They in fact came later in 1893 when the entrance portico or ‘porte-cochère’ was built.

Then in the 1970s, during construction of the Tyne and Wear Metro, the clock on the Eastern façade was taken down when part of the portico had to be dismantled during construction of the Central underground metro station.

That clock however ‘went missing’ and was never seen again, with an exact replica going up in its place when the portico was reconstructed.

Clocks and the railway are intrinsically linked – it was the invention and spread of the railways from the mid-1800s which brought in the standardisation of ‘national time’ for train timetables.

For more stories on Network Rail’s heritage work, you can visit https://www.networkrail.co.uk/who-we-are/our-history/working-with-railway-heritage/railway-heritage-designation/