The LNER Encyclopedia

A couple of threads that i need answering.
1. When was the petrol depot on the up side of the branch opened and did anyone take any photos of it. I often passed by it in my younger days and watched trains working but have never seen any photos of it.
2. In Robert Robothams book Branches & Byways South west Scotland & the Border Country he mentions Stothill colliery junction box which he has as adjacent to Alnwick gas works. As far as i am aware the only signal box would be Alnwick East.
I am also interested in old wagonways and tramways and know that there was a wagonway from Long dyke pit near Shilbottle to Alnwick gas works i have researched and mapped the route but can not find any reference to a junction with the NER.
Can anyone help with a gauge and method of working of this tramway, due to gradient i think it may have been rope worked.
There is also another tramway from colliery farm near Shilbottle which terminated at the bottom of wagonway road Alnwick on the site of the later NER coal drops at the rear of Alnwick station.
I have checked the excellent Durham Mining Museum website for references to Stothill colliery to no avail.

Hi all trying to add a few old maps of alnwick station the first one shows the original NER station. no colliery wagonways & no Cornhill branch are shown on this map but if you look in the top left hand corner of the map adjacent to St Micheals church you will see the original Alnwick Gas works.
This i think was the reason for building the first tramway into Alnwick from Colliery farm near Shilbottle.
If you follow the line towards Alnmouth you may just be able to make out what looks to be a siding on the site of the later gas works.

I too have puzzled to the reference to Stothill colliery, I think that this is a typographical error. There was a Shilbottle Colliery Junction box on the up side which opened 27th October 1908 to replace a older box on the down side about 1/2 mile from Alnwick. It controlled colliery sidings, access to the gas works and, from 6th February 1943, also controlled the ground frame which gave access to the petrol sidings. In order to prevent confusion with the Shilbottle Colliery Box on the main line south of Alnmouth, it was renamed Alnwick East in 1923. It closed on 14th Feb 1965.

The first tramway, or waggonway opened in 1809 which pre-dated the original Cannongate gasworks by about 30 years, so it must have been used to transport house coal for Alnwick, also it ended at a site adjacent to the former Great North Road, so presumably coal would have been transferred to road transport for distribution to other towns and villages near by. It could also have been taken by road from there to Alnmouth which was quite a busy port at the time. It would most likely have been horse drawn. The later tramway from Longdyke is shown on 1895 O.S. maps. A friend of mine is writing a book on the minor railways of Northumberland (he has discovered hundreds!), I will see if he can help with any details.

Thanks for replies i am starting to see the light now. I too think Robotham has made an error I wrote to him via his publisher to try to check if his information was correct but got no reply.
Have a look at enclosed map it shows the Alnwick end of the Tramway from colliery farm at the end of what would later become wagonway road.
Ask your mate thats writing a book to send me an email as i have a lot of source material that he may be able to use including Littlemill Quarries, Embleton Quarry, Detchant forestery Railway, the Shilbottle Whittle Allerdean and Scremerston colliery systems and the military target railway at Ross Links

Hi
I have forwarded your e-mail address to my friend, so he should contact you soon. The map is interesting, I have seen earler tithe maps but this is the first that I have seen this one. The detail is superb.
As an aside, you mentioned the Ross Links Railway, a couple of years ago a group of us visited the target railway at Silloans Farm on the Otterburn training area, which was built using the rails from Ross sometime in the mid 60's. They also have one of the original Whickham trolleys from Ross, although the ones in use are all modern. If you are interested, I can send you some photos of this.

Hi
Another couple of posers, on the cornhill line just past summit cottages there was a quarry shown on early maps i have looked at this quarry in some detail and think that stone from here was used in various structures on the branch one that stands out is the bridge over the line near lemington hall. When was this quarry in use.
At Whittingham station there was a branch to serve a brick and tile works I have not been able to study this any further was their a possibility of an engine being used to shunt here and privately owned or did the NER shunt when required.
Watch this space for more maps of the local area.

According to the new book on the Alnwick and Cornhill line, the quarry at the summit was used to build many of the bridges and also provided the stone for the station at Alnwick. If this was the case, the construction of the southern part of the line must have been at a quite advanced state before the work started on the new station. As far as I know, it was only used to provide stone for buildings on the branch, so closed when the line opened. As to your other question about the Whittingham brick and tile works, I have not come across any evidence that there was a loco dedicated to the shunting here, so assume that the pick-up goods would shunt as required. About a mile away along the road towards Alnwick, near Low Broome Park, there was another brickworks that was used to provide the bricks that were used to line Hillhead tunnel. The clay pits are visible from the road, and the kilns still exist in the grounds of the cottage nearby. There was a 2 mile tramway from there to the Learchild entrance of the tunnel.