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150 Years of Alston's Railway |
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It was the lure of lead that
originally brought the Newcastle and Carlisle Railway to Alston Moor before
which the entrepreneurs were promoting a canal from Newcastle to the Solway
in the hope that a spur to the North Pennine ore‑field to be a substantial
source of revenue.
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The only immediate result of
the canal plans was the start of Lord Carlisle's Railway which although
never authorised developed into the Newcastle & Carlisle Railway for which
an Act of Parliament was obtained in 1829.
At the end of 1834 the 17 miles
from Blaydon to Hexham was open for freight traffic with passenger trains
starting on 9 March 1835, the line was extended in 1836 by 7 miles to Haydon
Bridge where extensive sidings were provided for the lead traffic coming down
the turnpike roads from Alston Moor and Allendale immediately followed by the 20
miles from stretch Blenkinsop to Carlisle, connecting with the western extension
of Lord Carlisle's Railway, and providing the North Pennines with a second
railhead. |
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The Directors of the Newcastle
& Carlisle Railway had always seen Alston Moor as part of their natural
empire, but their immediate concerns were to make their railway more
suitable for operation by steam locomotives and convert the single line
sections to double track and pay off their huge debts.
This allowed the Stockton &
Darlington Group to make the first move to connect the North Pennine ore‑field
with the developing rail network who during 1845 had engineers of the Wear
Valley Railway survey a route of up the Wear valley to a tunnel under Killhope
then continuing through Nenthead and Alston to Lambley, where it turned west to
join the Newcastle & Carlisle Railway near Brampton. Plans were deposited for a
Bill to authorise the construction of the Wear Valley Extension Railway, but the
promoters failed to proceed, mainly due to financial reasons.
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This activity appears to have
spurred the Directors of the Newcastle & Carlisle Railway into taking action to
protect their interests and they deposited plans and presented a Bill to
Parliament for a railway from Haltwhistle to Nenthead. The Bill was rather
complex, including branches north from Hexham to Bellingham as well as extending
the main line to a new Central Station in Newcastle.
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Before
parliament at the same time was a bill for the line from
Newcastle‑upon‑Tyne through Edinburgh to Glasgow which included a branch through
West Woodburn and Bellingham to Hexham and was supported by many influential
people from the North Tyne valley.
Parliament refused to allow
either of the lines through Bellingham to proceed, but the extension to a
Central Station in Newcastle and the Nenthead branch were allowed to continue,
although the section from Alston to Nenthead could only be worked by locomotive
engines with the permission of the Board of Trade.
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In the House of Commons one MP
Mr John Abel Smith, on behalf of the supporters of the Newcastle‑upon-Tyne,
Edinburgh to Glasgow Railway Bill attempted to discredit financially the
Newcastle & Carlisle Railway and prevent their Bill from becoming law. This
failed and a contemporary account states that on the news of the Royal Assent
having been given the whole district (Alston Moor) was illuminated, "with a
general rejoicing; and, to wind up the climax, figures in effigy, intended to
represent certain oppositionists, were publicly burned by the people".
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In the House of Commons one MP
Mr John Abel Smith, on behalf of the supporters of the Newcastle‑upon-Tyne,
Edinburgh to Glasgow Railway Bill attempted to discredit financially the
Newcastle & Carlisle Railway and prevent their Bill from becoming law. This
failed and a contemporary account states that on the news of the Royal Assent
having been given the whole district (Alston Moor) was illuminated, "with a
general rejoicing; and, to wind up the climax, figures in effigy, intended to
represent certain oppositionists, were publicly burned by the people".
The branch authorised by the Act
of 1846 was to leave the main line at the west end of Haltwhistle station, would
have been 17 miles long with a maximum gradient of 1 in 33 and crossed three
rivers, the Tipalt once, South Tyne three times and Nent once.
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The plans
cannot have been properly scrutinised possibly because the Committee was too
involved in examining the Company's financial affairs. There were several flaws
in the plans which had they been noticed, would almost certainly have caused the
Nenthead branch to be removed from the Bill.
The Newcastle & Carlisle
Railway's branch was much inferior to the Wear Valley Extension Railway which
had it proceeded would have been the shortest route from London to Glasgow.
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When the Act authorising the
branch to Nenthead was passed the Railway Mania was at its height and no action
was taken by the Directors until after the next Annual Meeting of the Newcastle
& Carlisle Railway in March 1847, when it was announced that not only had
contracts been signed for Haltwhistle viaduct and part of the earthworks, but
that work had commenced.
The first proposed alteration
which was believed could be carried out without a further Act of Parliament,
kept the line on the east bank of the South Tyne at Lambley was met with major
opposition from Lord Carlisle.
So the Company gave notice in
November 1847 that they intended to apply for an Act to alter the branch line
which included a connection to Lord Carlisle's Railway and deviation in the
Alston was passed on 13 July 1849.
The new route was to cross the
River South Tyne to Lambley with a curved viaduct haing 24 arches of 20 feet
span and a maximum height above the River South Tyne of 100 feet immediately
across the river 400 yards of very severe left‑hand curve on which Lambley
station built was to be located. The original route was rejoined a little south
of Burnstones and was followed for just over 4 miles until it entered
Cumberland. In reality the deviation in Cumberland was a completely new section
of railway as the remaining part of the 1846 route to Nenthead was abandoned.
The first part of the branch
was opened from Haltwhistle to Shafthill for goods and passengers in 1851 and in
August a coach service started from Aston to connect with the trains at
Shafthill, the following year Lambley Colliery to Aston travelling over Lord
Carlisle's Railway between Lambley Colliery and Brampton.
The line from Lambley to Alston
was opened for passenger tragic on Friday 2 l May 1852 as Lambley viaduct was
still not complete, so passengers were required to walk over the scaffolding to
join the connecting trains at Shafthill until completion of Lambley viaduct in
November 1852.
Lambley viaduct a very graceful
structure with 17 arches and is today a Grade 2 listed building owned by the
North Pennines Heritage Trust,was not built in the manner indicated on the plans
unlike the remainder of the branch which was double track, Lambley viaduct only
accommodated a single line.
Even before Lambley viaduct was
completed with passengers required to walk over the building scaffolding, the
Newcastle & Carlisle Railway ran excursions from Newcastle which by the 1890s
were run from Newcastle to Alston thus building Alston as a tourist destination.
In addition to lead and other ores, the South Tyne Valley produced large
quantities of coal and the arrival of the railway assisted this industry to grow
and was the catalyst for developing the limestone industry at Alston, with the
first major works starting 1875.
Several proposals were made to
extend the line, but only two serious attempts were made, the first in 1872 was
for a line from Alston over the Tyne/Tees watershed to join the
Middletonin‑Teesdale branch, but was withdrawn after it had passed both Houses
of Parliament. The second was a request by the Vielle Montagne Mining Company to
extend the branch to Nenthead, but this never even went to Parliament.
Although collieries started to
close from the early part of the twentieth century, freight traffic remained
heavy until the 1950s, but the closure of Lambley Colliery was the beginning of
the end. Diesel railcars failed to increase traffic, partly due to an
inappropriate timetable and the closure of the railway was announced in 1973,
attempts by the South Tynedale Railway Company and the South Tynedale Railway
Preservation Society, formed in 1973, to keep the line open failed, but the
Society was reconstituted in 1977 to build a narrow gauge tourist railway
northwards from Alston operated volunteers.
The first mile was opened on 30
July 1983 and the line was extended to Gilderdale Halt in December 1986 and
extended to Kirkhaugh in Northumberland in September 1999.
Now more
than 20,000 visitors travel each year on the line maintaining the tradition
started by the original Newcastle & Carlisle Railway Company in July of 1852.
Edited from 150
Years of Alston's Railway by Dr Tom Bell
© Copyright
South Tynedale Railway Preservation Society
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