Tyne Valley line

Tyne Valley line
Northern Rail Class 142 Pacer departing MetroCentre station in July 2014
Overview
Other name(s)	Hadrian's Wall Country line
Type	Heavy rail
System	National Rail
Status	Operational
Locale	North East England North West England
Termini	Carlisle Newcastle
Stations	16
Operation
Commenced	1834
Opened	18 June 1838 (1838-06-18) (complete route)
Completed	From 1835 (in stages)
Owner	Network Rail
Operator(s)	Northern
Rolling stock	Class 142 Pacer Class 156 Super Sprinter
Technical
Line length	60 mi (97 km)
Number of tracks	Two
Track gauge	1,435 mm (4 ft 8 1⁄2 in) standard gauge
Loading gauge	W7[1]
Operating speed	Mostly 60–65 mph (97–105 km/h)[1]

The Tyne Valley line, built by the Newcastle & Carlisle Railway, is a railway line in northern England. The 60-mile (97 km) line was built in the 1830s, and links the city of Newcastle upon Tyne in Tyne and Wear with Carlisle in Cumbria. Formal opening took place on 18 June 1838. The line follows the course of the River Tyne through Northumberland. Five stations and two viaducts on the route are listed structures. The line is referred to in tourist publicity as the "Hadrian's Wall Country line."

Services

All passenger services on the Tyne Valley line are operated by Northern, although a handful of services which operate beyond Carlisle along the Glasgow South Western Line are operated using ScotRail stock - the train operating company (and crew) changes at Carlisle. Services are operated by diesel multiple units; Class 142 Pacers and Class 156 Super Sprinters which were introduced in the late 1980s. The line is also used for freight and is an important diversionary route during East Coast Main Line closures, although the line is not electrified.

History

The railway was built by the Newcastle and Carlisle Railway Company, the requisite Act of Parliament gaining Royal Assent on 22 May 1829. The line was built in sections from 1834 onwards. The first section (Hexham - Blaydon) opened in March 1835 but services were then suspended until May after a local landowner objected to the use of locomotives (specifically prohibited by the Act of Parliament).^[2] The entire route between Carlisle London Road railway station and Redheugh in Gateshead was formally opened to passengers on 18 June 1838. A temporary Tyne bridge was built at Scotswood to allow trains to reach a terminus at Forth Banks in Newcastle - this opened on 21 October 1839. N&CR trains first used Newcastle Central railway station on 1 January 1851.

The N&CR was absorbed into the North Eastern Railway on 17 July 1862. From 1864, trains ran to Carlisle Citadel station, and the old London Road station was closed. In 1870, the temporary bridge at Scotswood was removed, and a new iron Scotswood Bridge was built to replace it.

In 1982, British Rail closed the Scotswood Bridge,^[3] which had become uneconomic to maintain. Tyne Valley trains from Newcastle were diverted to use the present route, crossing the King Edward VII Bridge south-west of Newcastle Central Station, and running via Dunston to Blaydon, on an upgraded section of the original route along the south bank of the Tyne that had previously been freight-only since the 1850s.^[4]

Tyne Valley Line
East Coast Main Line north Durham Coast Line via High Level Bridge Newcastle Forth Banks Junction King Edward VII Bridge across the River Tyne closed 1967 Elswick Durham Coast Line closed 1944 Scotswood Works Halt East Coast Main Line south Scotswood Dunston Scotswood Junction Dunston Power Station closed 1981 closed c.1990 Scotswood Railway Bridge across the River Tyne MetroCentre closed 1958 Lemington closed 1991 Stella N. Power Station Derwent Valley Railway to Consett closed 1963 closed 1958 Newburn Blaydon closed 1958 Heddon on the Wall Stella S. Power Station closed 1991 closed 1968 North Wylam Ryton closed 1954 Wylam Railway Bridge across the River Tyne Wylam West Wylam Junction Prudhoe Mickley closed 1915 Stocksfield Riding Mill Farnley Scar Tunnel 1962 diversion Corbridge Hexham Border Counties Railway Allendale branch closed 1950 Warden Railway Bridge across the River South Tyne Warden closed 1839 Fourstones closed 1967 Allerwash closed 1839 Haydon Bridge Bardon Mill Alston line closed 1976 Haltwhistle Greenhead closed 1967 Gilsland closed 1967 Low Row closed 1959 Naworth colleries branch closed 1953 Naworth closed 1952 Brampton closed 1923 Brampton Town Brampton Fell closed c.1850 How Mill closed 1959 Heads Nook closed 1967 Corby Bridge across the River Eden Wetheral Scotby closed 1959 Settle–Carlisle line Petteril Bridge Junction Lancaster and Carlisle Railway (West Coast Main Line south) Carlisle London Road Maryport and Carlisle Railway London Road Junction Upperby Junction │ Currock Junction Bog Junction (under bridge) Citadel South Junctions Forks Junction Carlisle Citadel Rome Street Junction Caldew Junctions Port Carlisle Branch Junction Port Carlisle Junction Carlisle and Port Carlisle Railway and Dock Company closed 1969 Border Union Railway Caledonian main line West Coast Main Line and Glasgow South Western Line north

Route

After leaving Newcastle the line originally ran along the north bank of the River Tyne for around 4 miles (6.4 km), serving the Sir W G Armstrong & Co works at Elswick, before crossing the Tyne at Scotswood and rejoining its current route along the south bank from Blaydon. Since 1982, after leaving Newcastle, the line crosses the Tyne on the King Edward VII Bridge and then diverges from the southbound East Coast Main Line passing west through Gateshead, with stations at Dunston, the MetroCentre and Blaydon.

At Wylam station, the line enters Northumberland. The station house at Wylam was built in 1835, and is Grade II* listed. The line continues along the south bank of the Tyne, with other stops in Northumberland at Prudhoe, Stocksfield, Riding Mill, Corbridge, Hexham, Haydon Bridge, Bardon Mill and Haltwhistle.

A diversion at Corbridge, opened on 27 May 1962, allowed straightening of the line to remove a 45 mph (70 km/h) speed limit and closure of the 510-foot (160 m) long tunnel, which was in need of further reinforcement.^[5]

In Cumbria, the Tyne Valley line serves Brampton and Wetheral stations. The line then joins up with the Settle-Carlisle Railway just before reaching Carlisle.

References

Further reading

• Butt, R. V. J. (1995). The Directory of Railway Stations. Sparkford: Patrick Stephens Ltd. ISBN 1-85260-508-1.
• Grainger, Richard (1836). A Proposal for Concentrating the Termini of the Newcastle & Carlisle, Great North of England & proposed Edinburgh Railways. Hodgson. A short pamphlet plus fold-out map. The original from which reference has been made is in the North of England Institute of Mining and Mechanical Engineers. It is reference Tracts vol 57 p200ff This contains a great deal about the early period of N&CR activity in Newcastle/Gateshead.
• Whittle, G. (1979). The Newcastle & Carlisle Railway. Newton Abbot: David & Charles. ISBN 0-7153-7855-4.
• Young, Alan (2003). Railways in Northumberland. Pudsey: Martin Bairstow. ISBN 1-871944-26-0.

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Tyne Valley Line.

• British Railways in 1960 - Newcastle to Carlisle
• Railscot site for Newcastle and Carlisle Railway
• electronic copy of Tomlinson's History of the North Eastern Railway