The ‘lost’ Wansbeck Line
STRIKING IMAGES RECALL NORTHUMBERLAND RAILWAY LINE
IT was carved through the heart of rural Northumberland, for decades the hiss and roar of its steam trains encroaching on the silence and solitude of the surrounding countryside.
The Wansbeck Line stretched 25 miles from Morpeth to Reedsmouth, near Bellingham, where it joined the Border Counties Railway.
All has been quiet since the last trains ran in 1966. The railway tracks are long gone and the scarred land has been reclaimed by nature.
These images recall the ‘Wannie Line’ (as it was affectionately known) in its later years.
The were kindly shared by the Armstrong Railway Photographic Trust.
The Trust was formed after the death in 1987 of lifelong railway enthusiast Jack Armstrong. During his long life, Mr Armstrong took a comprehensive and historically significant collection of photographs, mainly in the North East.
He recorded not only trains, but stations, signal boxes and virtually every area of railway infrastructure.
A group of North East-based railway enthusiasts raised sufficient funds to purchase the whole collection. Around 500,000 images have now been digitised. The collection also includes pictures of buses, collieries, and ships on the River Tyne.
Trustee and railway enthusiast David Dunn, who has undertaken much of the time-consuming restoration and digitisation work, said: “The Wansbeck Line is a lost railway treasure.
“Backed by the Wansbeck Railway Company, the line from Morpeth to Scotsgap opened in 1862, and was extended to Reedsmouth three years later.
“It’s still possible to trace the course of the railway, but parts of it cross private property and farmland.
“Most of the former station buildings are extant but are today private residences.”
The Wansbeck Line carried passengers, freight (especially minerals), and livestock. Leaving Morpeth, trains would stop at stations in Meldon, Angerton, Middleton North, Scotsgap, Knowegate, Woodburn and Reedsmouth.
David Dunn added: “After the end of World War I, passenger numbers and freight began to decline on the Wansbeck Line - and indeed on railway lines across Britain - largely due to the rise of buses and lorries.
“The last passenger trains ran on the Wannie Line in September 1952, and limited goods services continued until October 1966.”
On the National Trust’s website, you can discover the circular Wannie Line Walk, “which will take you on to both the Wannie and Rothbury railway lines, where trains once steamed carrying Wallington’s stone, lime, coal and livestock, as well as passengers”.
■■If you have any transport images you’d like to share with the Armstrong Trust collection, email David Dunn at dr_dunn@hotmail.co.uk - or telephone him on 01670 715262 or 0780 6940972.