The Wansbeck Railway was a single track railway line in

Northumberland Northumberland () is a county in Northern England, one of two counties in England which border with Scotland. Notable landmarks in the county include Alnwick Castle, Bamburgh Castle, Hadrian's Wall and Hexham Abbey. It is bordered by land on ...

, England, that ran from Morpeth to Reedsmouth, where it made a junction with the

Border Counties Railway The Border Counties Railway was a railway line connecting in Northumberland, with on the Waverley Route in Roxburghshire. Its promoter had hopes of exploiting mineral resources in the area, and it was taken up by the North British Railway, ...

. Conceived as part of a through trunk route for the North British Railway, it never achieved its potential. It opened in stages from 1862 to 1865. The population was sparse and mineral traffic kept the line going. In 1870, the Rothbury branch opened, from a junction on the Wansbeck line at Scotsgap. The passenger train service was discontinued in 1952 and the line closed completely in 1966.

History

The first railways

The Newcastle and Berwick Railway opened in 1847. Conceived by

George Hudson George Hudson (probably 10 March 1800 – 14 December 1871) was an English railway financier and politician who, because he controlled a significant part of the railway network in the 1840s, became known as "The Railway King"—a title conferr ...

, the so-called ''Railway King'', it was to form part of a through railway connection from Edinburgh to London. It later became part of the

York, Newcastle and Berwick Railway The York, Newcastle and Berwick Railway (YN&BR) was an English railway company formed in 1847 by the amalgamation of the York and Newcastle Railway and the Newcastle and Berwick Railway. Both companies were part of the group of business interest ...

. It had a station at Morpeth, and people in towns not connected to a railway realised they were at a disadvantage against those who were: materials brought in cost more, as did the transport of local manufactures to market. The people of Rothbury felt that disadvantage particularly. The locality had long been prominent in the production of lime, used to improve acidic soil for agricultural purposes, and much in demand in the general area of Morpeth. In 1855, a railway linking Morpeth and Rothbury was proposed. It was to cost £95,000 but, although the idea was favourably received, the scheme failed to generate action and it was dropped.G W M Sewell, ''The North British Railway in Northumberland'', Merlin Books Ltd, Braunton, 1991.

The Wansbeck Valley Railway

By 1858, the

had opened the first section of its line, and having a local railway close by encouraged further thoughts of railway development in the area, but not to Rothbury. This line would run west from Morpeth to Reedsmouth on the Border Counties line, there getting access to the intended rich coalfields of Plashetts. At Morpeth, the new line would link with the

Blyth and Tyne Railway The Blyth and Tyne Railway was a railway company in Northumberland, England, incorporated by Act of Parliament on 30 June 1852. It was created to unify the various private railways and waggonways built to carry coal from the Northumberland coalf ...

, giving direct access to wharves on the

North Sea The North Sea lies between Great Britain, Norway, Denmark, Germany, the Netherlands and Belgium. An epeiric sea on the European continental shelf, it connects to the Atlantic Ocean through the English Channel in the south and the Norwegian S ...

, and over that line to Newcastle. The line would be long. Moreover, the Border Counties Railway had the clear intention of linking with the

Border Union Railway The Border Union Railway was a railway line which connected places in the south of Scotland and Cumberland in England. It was authorised on 21 July 1859 and advertised as the Waverley Route by the promoters - the North British Railway.Awdry (199 ...

. The BUR was sponsored by the North British Railway and, when it opened, its line became known as ''The Waverley Route''. The Border Counties Railway was to link with that route at a place that became known as Riccarton. Richard Hodgson, Chairman of the

North British Railway The North British Railway was a British railway company, based in Edinburgh, Scotland. It was established in 1844, with the intention of linking with English railways at Berwick. The line opened in 1846, and from the outset the company followe ...

was a member of the provisional committee, which clearly shows the intention: the NBR was a link in a chain of railways between Edinburgh and London, via Berwick, but it was dominated by the railways of George Hudson, who had shown himself to be ruthless in his dealings, and who had already tried to take over the NBR. The NBR had no running rights south of Berwick. If the NBR could get access to Newcastle over friendly railways — the Border Union, the Border Counties, the Wansbeck Valley, and the Blyth and Tyne — it would have much greater autonomy, and access to the important commercial centre at Newcastle. The Wansbeck Valley committee changed the name to ''The Wansbeck Railway'' and submitted a bill for its line to the 1859 Parliamentary session. It was relatively uncontroversial, and obtained the Royal Assent on 8 August 1859; the capital was set at £120,000.David Ross, ''The North British Railway: A History'', Stenlake Publishing Limited, Catrine, 2014, E F Carter, ''An Historical Geography of the Railways of the British Isles'', Cassell, London, 1959 Working arrangement with the established railways were authorised by the Act, and the NBR and the Blyth and Tyne were permitted to subscribe up to £100,000 between them to the Wansbeck Railway.John Thomas, ''The North British Railway, volume 1'', David & Charles, Newton Abbot, 1969, In fact the NBR subscribed £50,000; this was five-eighths of the Wansbeck's capital.From Ross, page 52; in fact he refers to the Shareholders' Meeting which authorised that subscription, but as he also described the NBR share issue to pay for it, it seems certain that it happened.

Constructing the Wansbeck Railway

The authorising Act of the Wansbeck Railway permitted two connecting lines at Morpeth: to the North Eastern Railway station, or by-passing it to join the Blyth and Tyne line south-east of the NER station. The controlling interest of the NBR and the lack of enthusiasm from the North Eastern Railway decided the Wansbeck Railway directors to make only the Blyth and Tyne connection. The Blyth and Tyne line ran eastwards from the NER station, so that the Wansbeck passenger and goods trains had to reverse to reach the Morpeth station. The line was opened as far as Scotsgap on 23 July 1862; trains were worked by the North British Railway, although the stub of route was not physically connected to the NBR. On 17 July 1862 the North British Company had obtained running powers to Newcastle over the line of the

Newcastle and Carlisle Railway The Newcastle & Carlisle Railway (N&CR) was an English railway company formed in 1825 that built a line from Newcastle upon Tyne on Britain's east coast, to Carlisle, on the west coast. The railway began operating mineral trains in 1834 between ...

from Hexham, as part of a trade-off with the North Eastern Railway. This was a better route to Newcastle than over the Wansbeck line, and now the NBR lost interest in the Wansbeck Railway company. Running entirely through sparsely populated rural areas, and with the anticipated riches of the Plashetts coal field now being shown to be disappointing, the Wansbeck Railway was suddenly of doubtful commercial value. Selling out to the North British Railway seemed to be the only option. The North British Railway (Wansbeck and Finances) Act of 21 July 1863 empowered the amalgamation.C Hamilton Ellis, ''The North British Railway'', Ian Allan Limited, Shepperton, 1955 The NBR was already a majority shareholder, so there was no urgency in carrying out the merger, but it was accomplished sometime about March or April 1864. The connection with the Border Counties Railway at Reedsmouth had been planned to allow through running from Riccarton towards Morpeth, but that was now inappropriate, and the intended junction faced south instead. It is not clear whether Parliamentary sanction for this was obtained. The line was opened as far as Knowesgate in October 1863. Reedsmouth station was opened for the Border Counties line in November 1864, but the Wansbeck line reached it on 1 May 1865: the Wansbeck Railway was now complete. The line had been built as single track, although land had been taken for double track. There were three passenger trains each way on the line, with separate goods trains. The sparse population did not encourage a more intensive train service. The line was worked by train staff and ticket; the block posts intermediately were Scotsgap and Woodburn. The system was converted to electric train token in 1890 - 1891.

Catcleugh reservoir

Catcleugh Reservoir Catcleugh Reservoir is a reservoir in Northumberland, England adjacent to the A68 road; just north of Byrness; and to the south of the border with Scotland. History The reservoir was constructed between 1884 and 1905The track arrangements at Morpeth are described above; Wansbeck trains using Morpeth station (passenger and goods) required to reverse at ''Wansbeck Junction''. There was a collision there on 15 September 1871, and the Inspecting Officer's report indicates the arrangement. A passenger train was to depart the Wansbeck line and be followed by a goods train. The goods train departed first, propelling its train, and stood on the Blyth and Tyne single line beyond the junction; the passenger train then left Morpeth, also propelling, and ran to the junction, to reverse there and run to the Wansbeck line. It would then be followed by the goods train.The actual accident took place because the passenger train was not properly coupled, and as it slowed at the junction while being propelled, the leading vehicles ran forward, colliding with the waiting goods train. The brakes on the brake van may not have been properly adjusted.Lt-Col C S Hutchinson, Report dated 21 October 1871 on Accident on Blyth and Tyne Railway, accessible a

/ref> The Inspecting Officer stated that "a junction curve is about to be formed between the Wansbeck Valley and North-Eastern lines, which will enable the trains from the former to run direct into the Morpeth station of the latter line". This was done in 1872. Hoole describes the Blyth and Tyne station at Morpeth as being separate from the North Eastern railway station, but they were immediately adjacent. When the new curve was built, the Wansbeck Railway and the North Eastern Railway each built part of it, installing the necessary signalling at their own end. "The NBR trains then deserted the B&T station for the North Eastern.K Hoole, ''A Regional History of the Railways of Great Britain: Volume 4: The North East'', David and Charles (Publishers) Ltd, Dawlish, 1965 The earlier line direct to the B&TR was removed at the same time.

The Rothbury branch

The first proposed railway from Morpeth to the area had been intended to reach Rothbury. Now that was revived, as the ''Northumberland Central Railway'', oblivious apparently to the difficult finances of the Wansbeck Railway. In fact it proposed a 50 mile line northwards from Scotsgap; the capital was to be £270,000. The over-ambition of the scheme became obvious and it was cut back to a branch from Scotsgap to Rothbury. It opened on 1 November 1870. In fact Rothbury was a more important population centre than anywhere on the Reedsmouth line, and in the mid 1870s Rothbury came to be regarded as the main line, and Reedsmouth on the branch.

The twentieth century

The line was simply a rural branch line in a thinly populated area, although cattle and some minerals were buoyant. In the first decades of the twentieth century heavy military traffic arose because of camps in the area as well as artillery ranges. Following

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

the main line railways of Great Britain were "grouped" under the

Railways Act 1921 The Railways Act 1921 (c. 55), also known as the Grouping Act, was an Act of Parliament enacted by the British government and intended to stem the losses being made by many of the country's 120 railway companies, by "grouping" them into four la ...

, and in 1923 the North British Railway was a constituent of the new

London and North Eastern Railway The London and North Eastern Railway (LNER) was the second largest (after LMS) of the " Big Four" railway companies created by the Railways Act 1921 in Britain. It operated from 1 January 1923 until nationalisation on 1 January 1948. At th ...

(LNER). The railways were nationalised by Government in 1948, and the Wansbeck line became part of the Scottish Region of British Railways.Although it was in England, the existing mid-level management structure was the successor to the North British Railway section of the LNER, and management disruption was avoided by this arrangement: Sewell, page 117. The already limited traffic had been further reduced by motor lorries and buses since the 1930s and closure to passengers became inevitable; it took place in September 1952. A very limited goods service continued, but the line was closed completely in October 1966.

Topography

The line climbed from Morpeth on a ruling gradient at 1 in 62 to a summit between Knowesgate and Woodburn, then descending at the same ruling gradient. Locations on the line after the spur direct to Morpeth station was opened were:M E Quick, ''Railway Passenger Stations in England Scotland and Wales—A Chronology'', The Railway and Canal Historical Society, 2002

References

Notes

{{reflist, group = note

External links

Line history summary on Disused Stations Website

The line on RailScot
Closed railway lines in North East England Rail transport in Northumberland Railway companies established in 1859 Railway companies disestablished in 1863 Railway lines opened in 1865 1859 establishments in England British companies established in 1859 British companies disestablished in 1863 1863 disestablishments in England