First Class Charlie

Memories in song of the last train links to Consett by Graeme Richardson

The following blog post has been taken from the History of Consett Steelworks Facebook page, where Graeme kindly shared his work and background to the piece.

On the 17th March 1984 the last ever passenger train set off from Newcastle Central to Consett Station. A few lucky people paid for the chance to be part of this final journey. Sadly, the train lines were soon dismantled after the Steel Works closure. 15 months previously Prince Charles made the same journey, albeit on a slightly more Royal train. I got the idea for a story based poem/song based on this event.

In 2016 I had a poem 1st Class Charlie published in a Northern Writes publication, which was shortlisted for a NE history poetry award. I finally put this poem to music in January 2021 and thought it would work well with photos of the day, along with a few snippets from the BBC story that was shown on Look North.

A big thank you to Stephen McGahon who kindly allowed me to use his brilliant photos in this video and also Richard Judd and Steve Shields for their history lesson. All other photos were found on the internet and Facebook sarches. If you look closely you might see yourself! Enjoy.

Graeme Richardson, 22 January 2021