A brief history of the Newcastle and Carlisle Railway.


	A Brief History of the Newcastle and Carlisle Railway

The following information was taken from an information sheet published by the South Tynedale Railway Preservation Society on the occasion of the 150th anniversary of the Newcastle and Carlisle Railway in 1988.

The Planning of the Railway

The Newcastle & Carlisle Railway was opened as a through route on 18th June 1838, marking the culmination of over 40 years effort to connect the River Tyne with the Solway Firth.

The first suggestion, made by Ralph Dodd at a meeting in Newcastle on 1st November 1794, was for a broad canal to Hexham on the south bank of the Tyne, as the first section of “An Inland Navigation from the East to the West Sea”. In the following year, William Chapman surveyed an alternative route high above the north side of the river, and there then followed two years of controversy between the different routes. Nevertheless, in 1797 a Bill based on Chapman’s plans reached the Committee stage in the House of Commons before being withdrawn due to the strength of the opposition.

The Napoleonic Wars delayed further progress from Newcastle, and the people of Carlisle decided to build a short canal connecting their city with the Solway Firth, which opened on 12th March 1823. In the following year, Chapman was asked to Report on the cost and separate advantages of a Ship Canal and of a Railway from “Newcastle to Carlisle”, and he estimated that even a minimal ship canal would cost at least three times as much as a railway which could carry the same traffic. Josias Jessop confirmed the overall advantages of a railway in a report dated 4th March 1825, and a prospectus for the Newcastle & Carlisle Railway was issued only 24 days later, followed by a meeting of shareholders in Newcastle on 9th April. After various delays, notice of application for the Newcastle & Carlisle Railway Bill was made on 4th November 1828 and, after a stormy passage through the House of Commons, it received the Royal Assent on 22nd May 1829. The pioneering nature of the N.&.C.R. can be realised when it is remembered that the Rainhill Trials had not yet taken place, and its 63 miles made it the longest railway authorised at that date.

The Building and Opening the Railway

Work progressed steadily, if rather slowly at times, and the railway was opened, in sections as follows:-

Blaydon to Hexham, 17 miles, on 9th March 1835.
Blaydon to the east bank of the River Derwent, 1¼ miles, on 11th June 1836.
Hexham to Haydon Bridge, 72 miles, on 28th June 1836.
Carlisle (London Road) to Blenkinsopp Colliery (1 mile east of Greenhead) 20 miles, on 19th July 1836.
River Derwent to Redheugh (Gateshead), 2¾ miles, on 1st March 1837.
Carlisle (London Road) to Carlisle (Canal Basin), 12 miles, on 9th March 1837.
Official opening of the entire line connecting the River Tyne at Redheugh with the Carlisle Canal, on 18th June 1838.

The Company organised a series of events to celebrate the opening of their railway, which was the first line across Britain. First, a series of six early morning trains were run from Carlisle to Redheugh, and the guests on these trains were entertained to breakfast by the Directors at the Assembly Rooms in Newcastle. About 12.30 p.m., no less than thirteen trains left Redheugh for Carlisle. Unfortunately, things did not go exactly according to plan, with the last train not arriving at Carlisle until 6 p.m., an hour after it was timed to leave for the return journey. The first return train reached Redheugh at 3 a.m. on 19th June, while the last did not arrive until after 6 a.m..

When the Company obtained its first Act of Parliament, it had been intended that the railway would be operated by horses, but by 1835, the superiority of steam engines had been established, and locomotives were used (illegally) as soon as the section to Hexham was opened. However, Captain Bacon Grey of Styford objected and obtained an injunction on 28th March preventing their use. The N.&.C.R, immediately withdrew all trains, but soon Captain Grey gave in to the pressure of public opinion and services were resumed on 6th May, before the Company obtained an Act to legalise the use of locomotives, on 17th June 1835. Traffic developed steadily as the railway was extended, helped, according to the Directors, by their policy of charging passengers lower fares than most other lines.

Although Newcastle was always the intended eastern terminus, it was not until 21st May 1839 that the line opened to a temporary station near the old Shot Tower in Newcastle. Leaving the Redheugh branch at Blaydon, the new line crossed the Tyne at Scotswood and climbed gently to Newcastle in preparation for later extension to a high level station.

Although the magnificent Newcastle Central station, built jointly by the Newcastle & Carlisle and York Newcastle & Berwick Railways, was opened by Queen Victoria, and Prince Albert on 29th August 1850, the N.&.C.R. did not begin running into the station until 1st January 1851, whereas their partners started using it immediately after the official opening. Trains from Carlisle used the route along the north bank of the Tyne into Newcastle until 4th October 1982, when the line from Blaydon to Scotswood was closed. The trains were then diverted onto the Redheugh branch as fax as the junction with the line to Dunston, opened by the North Eastern Railway on 29th August 1904, and then via the Norwood Junction to Gateshead extension opened on 22nd April 1907.

Applications to Build Branch Lines

With their main line completed and prospering, the N.&.C.R. directors decided to apply to parliament for powers to build branches up the valleys of both the North and South Tyne Rivers, but the Act of 26th August 1846 only authorised a line from Haltwhistle to Nenthead. No work was done until a second Act was obtained which allowed the heavily graded extension from Alston to Nenthead to be abandoned. Construction then proceeded rapidly and the line was brought into use in sections from 1851, with the entire branch being opened on 17th November 1852. The Alston branch was the final extension of the Newcastle & Carlisle Railway, as, after two unsuccessful attempts, on 17th July 1862 an Act was, obtained to authorise amalgamation with the North Eastern Railway.

During the second half of the nineteenth century, several branches were built from the Newcastle & Carlisle line, all of which became part of the North Eastern Railway, apart from the Border Counties Railway. This single track ran up the North Tyne Valley from Hexham to Riccarton Junction, where it joined the North British Railway’s Edinburgh to Carlisle main line. Today, only the original main line of the N.&.C.R. remains of the once extensive network of lines between the Rivers Tyne and Eden. Although several of its smaller intermediate stations have been closed, there is a frequent service of passenger trains as well as regular freight traffic.

Branch Line Closures

Passenger services were usually withdrawn first, and on 29th October 1923 the short link from Brampton Junction to Brampton Town, which had only been upgraded from part of Lord Carlisle’s mineral railway on 31st July 1913, lost its passenger trains, while goods traffic ceased on 31st December. The branch from Hexham to Allendale was next to go, losing its passenger service on 22nd September 1930, although goods traffic lasted until 17th November 1950. The Border Counties line soon followed, being completely closed on 13th October 1956, except for the short Reedsmouth to Bellingham section which survived for a while with freight traffic via Morpeth. Most of the North Wylam line, which had opened throughout on 6th October 1876, was closed completely on 11th March 1968, although freight traffic continued until recently on the Scotswood to Newburn section. In 1965, freight services had been withdrawn from the Alston branch and, despite strenuous efforts to prevent it, the line closed completely on 1st May 1976.

The South Tynedale Railway

The South Tynedale Railway Preservation Society was formed on 3rd April 1973 with the intention of preserving the entire Alston branch intact. Unfortunately, it proved impossible to raise the necessary sums of money, and in 1977 it was decided instead to construct a narrow-gauge railway from Alston along the former standard-gauge trackbed. Services started over the first section of the 2 foot gauge South Tynedale Railway on 30th July 1983, and the line was extended to the Northumberland/Cumbria county boundary at Gilderdale in December 1986. Initially, services were operated entirely by diesel locomotives, but on 18th July 1987 the Society’s first operational steam engines no.6, a Henschel 0-4-0 tank loco built for the German army in 1918, entered service.

A further landmark was attained on 23rd August 1987, when the Society’s Patron, the Earl of Carlisle, named no.6 “Thomas Edmondson” to commemorate the inventor of the ticket system used by British railways for over 150 years. The magnificent brass plates which were carried by no.6 were generously provided by a member of the Transport Ticket Society. It is particularly appropriate that an engine on the S.T.R. should bear this name, as Edmondson’s tickets were first used in 1836 at Milton station (later known as Brampton Junction and now simply known as Brampton), where the N.&.C.R. intersected the even older railway serving Lord Carlisle’s collieries.

It is the Society’s intention to extend the line at least as far as Slaggyford, where the traditional wooden station building is to be restored to its former glory. The three-year development programme now under way includes the first part of this extension, the construction of a carriage shed, and the re-erection at Alston of the former North Eastern Railway signal box from Ainderby on the Northallerton to Leyburn branch. We look forward to celebrating many further years of railway operations over routes which were built by the Newcastle & Carlisle Railway.

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).