It’s easy to take for granted the awesome endeavours of 19th Century railway pioneers which thread us seemlessly through, round or over the nation’s natural barriers. It was an age of speculative adventure, built on innovation, will power and elbow grease. But many magnificent creations were abandoned during the industrial vandalism of the fifties and sixties. In this series of articles, Graeme Bickerdike celebrates some of them.

Forgotten Relics of an Enterprising Age Brief Encounter

Whilst the world around him was Optimism subsided in June 1854 when welcoming the arrival of 1948 with a Select Committee sat to consider the laughter, drink and song, Isaac prospectus. Opposition was unexpectedly Elliott took to his bike for a nine fierce and well prepared, calling into mile trek across the hills of question both the viability of the coal . This was not a deposits - which had not been surveyed - bizarre expression of his youthful and the line’s proposed timber exuberance. As the clock struck structures, deemed unsuitable given the midnight, he joined the mass ranks strength of local river currents. With its of railwaymen as cleaner-fireman Rich reserves of coal shortcomings exposed, relief must have at Reedsmouth, a posting which Promoters of the Border Counties been palpable when the scheme would prove the most gratifying of Railway thought their feet were firmly on successfully negotiated these choppy his working life. But that first shift the ground, even if their commercial parliamentary waters by July’s end. had a surprise in store. After two future lay some distance beneath it. With But the great British institution of hours of unremarkable solitude, a the prospect of meagre revenues from friends in high places had sodden apparition came knocking local passenger traffic, they set their delivered a hollow victory. at the shed door. It was a surreal sights on supposedly rich reserves of Investors ran from the twist which lived long in Isaac’s coal, estimated at more than 100 million deafening alarm memory. tonnes. These, coupled with rejuvenated bells. Reedsmouth was a humble community iron furnaces at Bellingham, of railway cottages, fifteen miles up the would form a solid industrial line from , at the junction of the base from which a new rail Border Counties and Wansbeck railways. link - with buffer stops just The latter cut a meandering path east to beyond - could Morpeth whilst the former headed west profit. to climb the North Tyne valley, joining the famous route in the high fells at Riccarton. This desolate place gave Reedsmouth the feel of a bustling metropolis.

A J21 waits at Reedsmouth’s Wansbeck platform with an early departure for Scotsgap. As cash stopped flowing, the scheme fell railway and a deviation at Reedsmouth the first leaseholder. The 16-mile section into disarray, running years behind where the planned Wansbeck route through to Riccarton received the Board schedule. Contractual shenanigans would join. Twelve months on, the of Trade’s nod of approval in April 1862 between overbearing engineer, J H Tone, merged with though, with work there also behind and his builder, William Hutchinson of the North British, finally placing its schedule, it was not until 24th June that Hartlepool, added to the sense of finances on a firm footing. the ribbon was cut on the goods service. impending doom. This dysfunctional Passenger trains were shining the rail- relationship cast a long shadow over top one week later. the project. Farcical tribunal Acrimony between engineer and contractor persisted to the end. Tone pointed the finger of blame for the line’s belated opening firmly and unfairly at Hutchinson, activating harsh penalty clauses. With all payments frozen, Hutchinson was declared bankrupt before the year was out. Legal action rumbled on for four years, concluding in a farcical tribunal over which Tone was appointed arbiter. Details of the settlement have not survived. For Reedsmouth, the rapid approach of Wansbeck metals drove its sudden transformation from humble halt to principal staging post. Rebuilt as early as Looking south from the four-foot 1864, its main building was dominated of the Counties’ Riccarton-bound line. by a vast water tank, perched on its roof, holding upwards of 60,000 gallons. It was shortly before Christmas 1855 Rails were eventually laid into Falstone These were guzzled from a moorland when shovels were first heard on the in September 1861, more than seven stream. Offices and a waiting room Tyne’s south bank near Hexham, where years after the original 26-mile plan was sheltered beneath. The Counties side the single line of the Border Counties rubber-stamped. A siding and incline comprised two platforms - allowing diverged from the Newcastle & . provided the connection to the large passenger trains to pass, though they Within a month, Tone was back at his colliery at , of which Tone was rarely did - whilst a generous drawing board - he spent a lot of time marshalling yard was installed on the there - redesigning the 440-foot river eastern side, with turntable, weighbridge crossing which had already run into difficulties. Silence prevailed for more than a year. When work finally resumed, the viaduct rose from the water in just 14 months but at a price double the original estimate. By now, the company was struggling to stay afloat.

Temporary terminus , just four miles from the junction, enjoyed the role of temporary terminus when wagons first rolled in April 1858. Progress thereafter continued at a snail’s pace - indeed, the parliamentary powers vested in the company would have expired long before construction was even close to completion. Relief arrived during the summer of 1859 in the form of a second Act authorising an extension into The Down platform and its to meet the Border Union shelter await discovery in the undergrowth. and accommodation for livestock. Standing sentinel on the platform end was an imposing signal box, overlooking the pointwork. Initially the only one on the line, it was joined by half a dozen others when Absolute Block signalling entered the statute books in 1889.

Journey times were awful Motive power for both the Wansbeck and Counties was housed at Reedsmouth. Three local passenger trains ran each way during the day, with specials added when needs must. Through services linked Newcastle to and , a somewhat futile venture by the North British which liked to think of the route as an alternative Anglo-Scottish main line. Journey times were awful. On Although lacking its former splendour, a refurbished Reedsmouth box still the goods side, coal headed north, stands on the platform end. though never in the quantities foreseen by the line’s promoters, whilst went out by rail. Their modest cottage after clocking-on, the silence was broken agricultural supplies made the trip had neither water nor electricity, but by a knock at the door. “I thought Gabriel inbound. boasted a train at the back door and bus had landed!” jokes Isaac. He peered out In the 1920s, a at the front. to see a girl shivering in the shadows. national reserve of Elliott Junior served his country with “I think she was a Land Army type - timber was both Army and Navy, gaining quite an something like that. She had an overcoat established, with the education during a year-long turn of duty on but was absolutely soaked to the skin. largest development in India. Discharged in 1947, his father’s I’m quite sure she’d crossed one of the consuming 120,000 footsteps soon lead him into gainful rivers.” acres of moorland employment on the railway, preparing Our hero brought her in, took her coat - around . By engines over the hills at Reedsmouth. “just her coat, mind!” - and sat her by the the start of the Second World War, fire to thaw. In spite of his care and forestry was a major employer Knock at the door hospitality, not a word passed her lips. throughout the district. Working at its That career got off to an unsociable start Perhaps her jaws had frozen shut. “We had fringe was a young Isaac Elliott who was at midnight on New Year’s Eve. A solitary a bothy outside - an old carriage with a helping to fell trees for ten shillings a light glowed by the shed door though, fire in. I lit it and, after it took hold, I put week. The Wansbeck had attracted a saw inside, it was lifeless - just a handful of her in there for the night.” Eventually she mill to his home village of Knowesgate, locos sleeping peacefully in the gloom. So found her voice and asked “Will you see I where his dad was a platelayer. Timber it was quite a revelation when, two hours get the Kielder train in the morning?”

A view of the Down platform from a Hexham-bound passenger train. Reedsmouth engine shed today and (above) in healthier times.

Duly installed on that first service north, Hands were rarely idle. Carriages and easy shift, that one!” On a return journey, the damp damsel disappeared in a cloud engine had to be coupled, taking care to Isaac and driver once stopped for water of smoke, never to be seen again. “To this dodge the buffers. Water was taken daily at Hexham. As the huge pipe was coaxed day, I don’t know who she was. It was to slake the thirst of a crossing keeper. into the tender, a Newcastle-bound train one of the mysteries of life” Isaac muses. And then there was the coalman who was pulled in alongside. Its passengers A cleaner’s lot did not often feature always thankful for help with his load. turned to watch the action. Regrettably, such intrigue. It was a tough, dirty Digging into that was “absolute slavery”. the driver was a little over-enthusiastic business, involving an early start to get with the valve. “He turned it on too the engine fired ready for the driver. “If it A swift departure quickly, the pipe bent, lifted out and the wasn’t lit, you were in trouble! I used to After a few months in service, each water went straight in through the leave home at two-thirty in the morning locomotive was taken down to Blaydon carriage window opposite!” A swift and cycle to Reedsmouth for four o’clock. to have its boiler washed out. “It was an departure was called for. After a week or two, I got board and lodgings in the village which helped a bit. It took about two-and-a-half hours to get the engines steamed up.” Like people, these living machines could be temperamental. “On damp mornings, the fires would hardly burn at all!”

Not a popular turn Reedsmouth shed was brick-built and occasionally played host to six locos, mainly J21s and J36s. Some of them were still going strong at retirement age. Eight men were based there - four drivers and four cleaner-firemen. As the junior, young Elliott would often find himself booked on the Saturday night train out of Hexham, heading up to Kielder. It was not a popular turn - the old hands took the day off. “There was no turntable at Kielder so you’d come back tender first. Whatever was coming out of Rusting relics of Reedsmouth’s signalling system. the heavens, you got a bit of it!” COLOUR PHOTOS: FOUR BY THREE Firing was a skill which got easier with and, as Isaac recalls, “he stepped into the Whilst the iron deck of Border practice. Good drivers offered advice; line and it took his foot clean off.” The Counties viaduct is long gone, its others said nothing - just gazed across at unfortunate soul succumbed to his concrete foundations still stand like giant the steam gauge. “You knew what that injuries a couple of weeks later. stepping stones across the Tyne. The meant - get it stoked up!” Footplate By the 1950s, both the Counties and trackbed beyond Falstone was relationships varied. “The majority of the Wansbeck were also struggling to overwhelmed by Kielder Reservoir drivers were alright but some didn’t trust survive. When Northumberland’s during the Seventies, yet much of the you. If there was a signal on your side, highways had been upgraded 30 years remainder can still be traced and, in parts, you’d tell him what it was showing but earlier, railways shouldered the burden is walkable. At Reedsmouth, the decaying they’d still come across and have a look.” of carrying stone to the roadworks. Ironic shell of the engine shed now benefits a then that affordable motor cars caused their local farmer. Both the station building Do the job right demise, prompting an exodus from rail to and signal box are reborn as dwellings. Pride was in plentiful supply and road. “By the end, we’d just have two or everyone tried to do the job right. The three passengers on, or a bundle of Evening Chose a career change railway was run with locals in mind, not Chronicles. It couldn’t have been paying. For Isaac Elliott, the railway’s decline management. After a Saturday shopping Originally, the railway meant everything was sad, if inevitable. trip to Morpeth, the platelayer’s wives because of the lack of road transport but dangled the carrot of employment in would be dropped at their door, half way eventually that’s what killed it.” Hull - a prospect with no appeal so he between two stations. As a thank you, The plug was pulled on the Wansbeck’s chose a career change, signing up with they’d give the crew chocolate bars. Lumps passenger service in September 1952. the forestry which kept him busy for of coal were shared with all and sundry. The Counties’ kept rolling for four more forty years. “I never had any complaints And, when the Scotgap stationmaster’s years and it was the autumn of 1958 about the railway except for starting at goat passed away, the driver offered to before the last through goods trip ran. that ridiculous time! It was the best job I cremate it in the firebox. The mile-and-a-half section from ever had and I was quite sorry when it Scotsgap sat at the Wansbeck’s Reedsmouth to Bellingham clung to life packed up.” That’s progress, isn’t it? midpoint and visits there often as an extension of the Wansbeck Visitors to the area can journey back to involved a bit of shunting in the though, when this was abandoned the Border Counties’ heyday through a yard. Tragedy could strike if those on 9th November 1963, one hundred photographic exhibition at the working lineside didn’t have their years of community service was brought Bellingham Heritage Centre. It also wits about them during to a disappointing end. The Wansbeck lodges a collection of memorabilia, these slow, quiet completely shut up shop including signs, tools and even a station movements. In in October ’66. clock. Opening times are from 1030- one episode, 1630, Friday through to Monday, from the guard Easter until the end of September. didn’t hear the There’s a small entrance fee. approaching For more information or to engine arrange a group visit, call 01434 220050.

More information on Reedsmouth junction can be found online at: © Four by Three 2007 www.bellingham-heritage.org.uk/railway.html www.northumbrian-railways.co.uk/border.html������������������������������������������� www.railscot.co.uk/Border_Counties_Railway/body.htm