The Bowes Railway was built to transport coal from pits in Durham to boats on the River Tyne. (A standard-gauge railway is a railway with a track gauge of 1,435 mm. It is the most widely used track gauge around the world, with about 55% of the lines in the world using it.)

The site is a scheduled monument. The railway is open every week on Thursday, Friday and Saturday (Easter til October) as well as on a number of event days throughout the year.

The Grand Allies, a partnership of businessmen including John Bowes, opened a colliery at Springwell in Durham. A railway was needed to transport the coal to the River Tyne. The plan was to build inclined planes and use a combination of steam power and gravity to move the coal wagons. The railway was designed by George Stephenson, who built the Hetton colliery railway completed in 1822.

The railway was closed in 1974 and was preserved in 1975. Today, the preserved railway is still a standard-gauge railway and has 2 stations with a length of 2.4 km.

According to the Internet