My First Trip On The Northumberland Line – 18th December 2024
Yesterday, I took Lumo to Newcastle and took my first ride to Ashington on the Northumberland Line.
These are some of the pictures I took.
Note.
- Much of the route is double-track.
- Bridges over the tracks indicate, that some stations will have two platforms.
- I suspect some stations could take a five-car train.
- One guy said that there is a lot of landscaping to do.
- The standard is very similar to the Borders Railway.
I have some other thoughts.
The Blyth Valley Is Well Supplied With Electricity
Several high-capacity connections to wind farms and Norway are planned to come ashore at Blyth and it appears from the pictures that the area is well connected to the grid.
This must have nudged Britishvolt to put their battery plant at Blyth.
But no matter for those jobs, as with a rail service to Greater Geordieland and lots of electricity, there must be other energy-hungry businesses like datacentres or small modular reactor factories, who would want the site.
The Long Platforms
I am fairly sure that some of the platforms have been sized to take a five-car Hitachi Class 80x train, which are only 130 metres long and can carry around 400 passengers.
This must enable the ability to use the Northumberland Line as a diversion for the East Coast Main Line.
Some services could perhaps stop at Blyth for the large factories and/or Northumberland Park for the Metro.
It looks to me, that the Northumberland line was designed for large factories or businesses with lots of workers, that needed lots of electricity.
Development North Of Ashington
This OpenRailwayMap shows the area North of Ashington.
Note.
- The orange line going up and down the map is the East Coast Main Line.
- Morpeth station is in the South-West corner of the map.
- Ashington station is in the South-East corner of the map.
I think there might be scope to develop this area to make the heavy components needed for wind farms and small modular reactors,
The Anonymous Widower 