The Anonymous Widower

Onward To Newbiggin-by-the-Sea For The Northumberland Line?

This is the headline on the Chronicle Live.

Plans Underway To Extend Northumberland Line To Newbiggin-by-the-Sea

And this is the heading on the Northumberland Gazette.

Plans Underway To Extend Northumberland Line To Newbiggin

Both articles say council officers have been asked to look at extending the line from its current terminus at Ashington.

This OpenRailwayMap shows the route onwards from Ashington to Newbiggin-by-the-Sea.

Note.

  1. Ashington station is in the South-West corner of the map.
  2. The yellow track is the route of the new Northumberland Line to Newcastle.
  3. The possible site of the proposed Newbiggin-by-the-Sea station is marked by the blue arrow.
  4. The route of the railway between Ashington and Newbiggin-by-the-Sea is marked by a dotted line on the map.
  5. There appears to be a country park and a museum complex with a railway about halfway between Ashington and Newbiggin-by-the-Sea.

There also appears to be other disused colliery rail lines going to other closed collieries, that may be worth developing.

At a first look, it doesn’t appear that extending the Northumberland Line to a new station at Newbiggin-by-the-Sea would be the most difficult of railway projects.

Woodhorn Museum, Woodhorn Colliery And The Queen Elizabeth II Country Park

This Google Map shows this attraction in detail.

Note.

  1. Woodhorn Museum is the fan-shaped building in the North-East of the map.
  2. Woodhorn Colliery is part of the museum and is to the South of the main museum building.
  3. The Northumbrian Archives are also on the Woodhorn site.
  4. The  Woodhorn Narrow Gauge Railway is indicated by the lilac arrow in the North of the map.
  5. The Queen Elizabeth II Country Park is indicated by the green arrow in the West of the map.
  6. Across the bottom of the map, there appears to be a double-track railway, which appears to connect to the new Ashington station.

This is the sort of attraction, that is crying out to have its own railway station.

This Google Map shows the Woodhorn Roundabout on the A 189 to the South-East of the Woodhorn Museum

Note.

  1. The road to the North is the A 189 which leads to Lynemouth power station, which is fueled by biomass.
  2. The double-track  railway across the top of the map, also goes to Lynemouth power station. Note it has a bridge over the A 189.
  3. The single-track railway to the South of the double-track can be followed almost to the centre of Newbiggin-by-the-Sea. It looks like it goes under the A 189.

It looks to me, that a single-track could easily handle two trains per hour to a single-platform at Newbiggin-by-the-Sea station.

 

February 21, 2025 Posted by | Transport/Travel | , , , , , , | 2 Comments