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R.o.B Lost Railways

The Aln Valley Railway and its society

Introduction: The Aln valley has always had a long history. When the Romans pushed northwards to Scotland they built their main supply road, The great North Road, through Alnwick with it becoming a fortified settlement and important staging post. The town was not only popular for its proximity to the sea and the area that became Alnmouth but for its natural beauty and ease of passage through the area. When proposals were put forward in the mid 19^th century to run what became the East coast mainline through the town objections arose. These resulted in the town for many years being separated from the railway network until a branch was built in 1850. The line remained in use until 1968 formed of a spur from nearby Alnmouth that the ECML had been allowed to pass through. Today the site of the station in Alnwick is still there with the original station building and station masters house still standing. Trying to protect the site and return the railway to its former glory is the Aln valley railway society.

History: As the York, Newcastle and Berwick railway pushed northwards from Newcastle in 1846 having received permission for its line on 31^st July 1845 the line bypassed the town of Alnwick due to the Duke of Northumberland not wanting the railway through the town. Instead the company built it through nearby Bilton. With the opening of the main line it was soon realised that a rail connection to Alnwick was necessary so on 5^th August 1850 the 3 mile branch built by the York, Newcastle and Berwick railway was opened running in a north westerly direction following the route of the valley. The 1845 act had been written to allow for a branch from Bilton to Alnwick to be constructed, this taking place from 1848. No intermediate stations were built on the line with the station at Alnwick being a very modest design built next to the terminus of the Shilbottle coal company that operated a wagonway from nearby mines at Shilbottle colliery. The station was of one storey with a single platform with offices and waiting rooms were also provided. It is believed that a short section of platform behind the station masters house is part of the original station.  Goods shed, warehousing and stables were also provided with a small goods yard with a signal box at the southern end of the station.

A K1 awaits departure from Alnmouth

Courtesy of WH BLAKEY

In 1854 the North eastern railway was formed of the York and North Midland, The Malton and Driffield junction, the Leeds Northern and the York, Newcastle and Berwick railway companies, the Alnwick branch coming under the control of the NER. The company was one of the largest in the country at that time with 720 miles of running line, 26 miles of waterway and 44 acres of dockland. On 5th September 1887 the NER opened its Alnwick to Coldstream, 35 1/2 mile Cornhill branch to serve a rural district creating bringing agricultural traffic to the main line at Tweedmouth, from the local farming communities as well as forming a connection to the Waverley route. The line had been authorised for construction in 1882 opening to goods traffic on the 2^nd May and to passengers on 5^th September 1887. One of the problems with this line was that the location of the stations were often a long way from the communities they had been built to cater for.

The opening of the Cornhill branch also saw much needed improvements to the station site at Alnwick with a much larger stone built station being constructed to a design by William Bell, the station having an overall double roof. A new signal box was also provided to control train movements from both branches. With the opening of the new station the original train shed became a warehouse with an extension added for stables. With two pre fabricated animal feed stores also built at the same time.

A K1 awaits departure from Alnwick

Courtesy of WH BLAKEY

The beginning of the 20^th century saw the station at Alnwick carrying out a busy trade in services though the line to Coldstream only saw a limited passenger service due to its lack of habitants on route with 3 passenger trains a day though it did do well with freight services such as stone and aggregate, grain and cattle as well as the ever present coal. Alnwick station did much better passenger wise with 45 trains a day on passenger services from Bilton, which became Alnmouth in 1892, on the double track branch. By the 1920's freight and passenger traffic especially on the Cornhill branch, as with the rest of the Railways of Britain, were facing tough road competition. By the September of 1930 this had seriously affected passenger services with the Cornhill branch losing its passenger service and the Alnwick shuttle to Alnmouth being reduced to 14 trains a day one of which was a through train to Kelso via Berwick.

By the 1950's most of the services to the station were too and from Newcastle and Berwick as the companies involved in that time, the London and North Eastern railway and then British Railways did not see it as worthwhile to run a shuttle service when it would be much more reliable and less expensive to run these services. With the forthcoming rationalisation of Britain's railways looming efforts were made to minimise expenditure on the line further by making it single line and removing all of the signalling a system of one engine in steam being in force controlled from the Alnmouth signal box. Whether this was in preparation for total closure or an actual effort to keep the line open is not known.

Closure: The station was well sited in the town with the small goods yard keeping up traffic levels as did the commuters to Newcastle. These bonuses for the line saw it kept out of Dr Beeching's report to the Ministry of transport and the station saw electric lighting installed at the station suggesting the intention to keep the line open. In the march of 1966 British Railways announced its intention of withdrawing all passenger and freight services as of the 6^th June that year. There was huge opposition made to the Ministry of Transport and a brief reprieve was made. Which saw the line remain temporarily open but with the loss of steam traction.

When steam traction was replaced on the line by DMU's on 16^th June 1966 along with the closure of the shed a special run was made by BR 2-10-0 class 9F no.92099 from Tyne dock shed. Such a late date for steam operation on the line made it one of the last secondary routes to lose its steam hauled services. Further service withdrawals took place despite the introduction of the much cleaner quieter DMU's though passenger numbers may have not been much lower than they had been previously. Then on 28^th September 1967, the Ministry gave permission for the closure of the line. This resulted in buses taking over the service to Alnmouth as of 29^th January 1968 though the goods services remained until the 7^th October of that year.   

The closure saw the knocking down of the remaining signal boxes, coal depot and weigh cabins though the original buildings from the opening of the line in 1850 remained until 1975. The goods shed was actually purchased and removed to be sited at the then new Beamish open air museum that was setting up a goods yard and station to demonstrate a typical North eastern railway environment and the shed is still sited at the museum today. Remaining at the former station site at Alnwick is the station master's house that was mentioned previously along with the 1887 train shed.

Since closure of the route a small industrial estate has grown on the site of the former goods yard though fortunately no moves have been made on the station site though there appears to have been a scare in 1993 when a supermarket chain applied to open a branch on the station site. This scare led to the formation of the Aln valley Railway society.

The society: The aim of the society as mentioned above is to restore the route to operational standards under the Transport and works act. They have already made a great start on some areas of work such as preparing Longhoughton goods yard by clearing vegitation and having a rail crane and a Ruston and Hornsby shunter delivered to the site. They are renovating the former station cottsges to act as accomadation for visitors to the area, a move that will draw in funding for the project and as always volunteers are needed so please get in touch with them via their web site a link is provided above and below. The society also produces a magazine named 'The Link' which is published quarterly giving news on the project and other railway articles.

HELP: But most of all the society needs your help to preserve the trackbed of the line which has had an application by Northumberland County council to Alnwick District Council for a footpath along its whole length. The society pleads for EVERYONE to help by writing with an objection to:

 The Director of Personnel and Administration,

 County Hall,

 Morpeth,

Northumberland

 NE61 2EF

NO LATER THAN 9^th MARCH 2006

So please get writing to help preserve the line. It is possible to have a footpath and cycleway NEXT to the proposed railway! But surely it is not necessary for the path it to take up the whole of the trackbed, don't forget it was double track at one time.

For further information and to contact the society:

'ALN VALLEY RAILWAY SOCIETY'

Alnwick Railway Station,

Alnwick,

Northumberland

NE66 25NP.

Their web site can also be viewed at: The Aln Valley railway society

Further: In response to the above petition the Northumberland county council sent the following letter to Mr John Grant the Railways of Britain assistant Manager:

Needless to say that only 9 petitions will likely see the loss of this trackbed once it becomes a footpath!