Station clocks broken months after being fixed

Jason Arunn Murugesu
BBC News, North East and Cumbria
Network Rail Shot looking up of large station clock which reads 03:07 BST. It is backlit and is surrounded by a grey column. It is attached to a brick facade.Network Rail
Repairs to the Victorian timepieces cost £21,000

Three Victorian rail station clocks have broken five months after being repaired.

The timepieces, above Newcastle Central Station's main entrance, had been showing the wrong time for more than two years before they were fixed in October.

At the time, Network Rail said repairing them cost £21,000, but that they would be accurate for "years to come".

Now the rail authority has confirmed they are broken again and a specialist team was investigating.

Last year it said the clocks' position high above the station made it more difficult to reach and repairs took months to plan.

During three nights' of repairs, each clock's hands were replaced as well as the mechanisms behind them, which had been water damaged.

LED backlighting was also installed so the clocks are more visible at night, the rail authority said.

The authority said in October that "time had stood still for too long" at the station.

A timescale of the repairs has not yet been confirmed.

Network Rail Man in high vis orange jacket and helmet cleaning a large lit clock faceNetwork Rail
It took three nights to repair the clocks in October

Follow BBC Newcastle on X, Facebook, Nextdoor and Instagram.

Related internet links