It was March 14, 1938, and it was all change on one of Tyneside's busiest suburban rail routes.
The Evening Chronicle was reporting 85 years ago on the inaugural run of electric trains between Newcastle Central and South Shields stations. Replacing steam, the two-year, £500,000 electrification scheme saw the renovated line hailed as the 'most modern in the country'. Civic leaders from Newcastle and South Shields sat alongside drivers on the first trains, and the comings and goings were watched by large, interested crowds at both stations.
But, so much for the romance of steam, another local newspaper noted: "Not a great deal will be saved in running time over the distance, actually five minutes - but passengers will at least enjoy the especial cleanliness of this up-to-date form of travel. The stations will take on a freshness impossible now, while the carriages, better lit, and free from the grime inseparable from coal-burning locomotives, will possess new comfort and general attractiveness."
READ MORE: Tyneside 20 years ago: 10 photographs from around our region in 2003
Our main photograph from the Chronicle archive shows the very first electric train on the Newcastle to South Shields line pulling into South Shields station right on time at 11.56am. While the south of the Tyne line had waited until 1938 to be modernised, the north of the Tyne rail loop was electrified as early as 1904.
The move to suburban electric trains in the early 20th century came as a result of North Eastern Railways losing nearly four million passengers to the rapidly expanding tram system between 1901 and 1903. For many years, at Newcastle Central, electric trains ran from the old platforms 1, 2 and 3 at the eastern end of the station.
The electric workhorses ran on the south of the river until 1963, and north of the river until 1967 - a time when falling passenger numbers and outdated rolling stock and infrastructure finally led to their withdrawal and replacement by diesel trains. Years later, in 1980, when the Tyne and Wear Metro began operating, the new system incorporated much of the former electric network, and many of the old suburban railway stations were converted.
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