The Alston Lime Works Railway


	The Alston Lime Works Railway

The information contained on this page has been obtained from the following sources:-

The book entitled “The Alston Branch” by Stanley C. Jenkins. Second edition 2001. Published by The Oakwood Press.
Photograph taken from Industrial Railway Record No. 157, June 1999. Published by the Industrial Railway Society.

An Introduction

A light railway or tramway ran from the ‘down sidings’ at Alston, where the current locomotive and carriage sheds of the South Tynedale Railway are located to Newshield Quarry, it passed under the Alston to Hexham road (A686) in a short tunnel and branched out, at its eastern end, into a series of subsiduary tramways serving local lime quarries. Other lines served a battery of lime kilns in which lime was burned prior to despatch by rail from Alston Station.

The Alston tramway was worked in two parts, the upper portion between the quarries and the lime kilns, being worked by horse traction and later by steam traction, while the section between the kilns and the main line, (i.e. the Alston to Haltwhistle branch line) was worked by gravity. The line was single track throughout, with a passing place situated midway on the inclined section. The incline was worked by cable, the weight of the descending vehicles being used to haul empty wagons up to the kilns; the rate of descent was controlled by a band brake at the top of the incline.

The incline was still in use around 1920, though road vehicles were later used to convey lime to the kilns. Later still, the lime kilns were themselves abandoned, and the site of a once-busy quarry system has now reverted to nature, leaving the disused tramway as a monument to the days when the lime formed an important source of outgoing traffic on the Alston branch.

Photo: Andrew Barclay steam locomotive, works no. 1453, built in 1918, pictured at Walton’s Alston Lime Works, Cumberland, was one of the manufacturer’s narrow gauge Class E well tank design. The use of a well tank created a stable design that meant that the locomotive was less likely to topple over on track laid over soft ground. Photograph by F. Jones, taken from Industrial Railway Record No. 157, June 1999. Published by the Industrial Railway Society.

For more information about the South Tynedale Railway, please contact:-

THE SOUTH TYNEDALE RAILWAY PRESERVATION SOCIETY,
Registered Office Address:-
The Railway Station, Alston, Cumbria, CA9 3JB.
Telephone 01434 381696.
Talking timetable - Telephone 01434 382828.
Registered Charity No. 514939.
Limited by Guarantee: Company Registration No. 1850832 (England).

E-mail enquiries - please click on links below:
South Tynedale Railway information - Send e-mail to South Tynedale Railway
STRPS membership information only - Send e-mail to Kathy Aveyard
Tynedalesman information only - Send e-mail to Tynedalesman compilers

An Introduction

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