Station Updates (Northumberland Line project)
A new ‘fly through’ video of Bedlington has just been released by NorthumberlandTV (YouTube Channel) which shows the final plans for Bedlington Station, and the complexity of the site between a junction at the northern end and a level crossing on the southern end.
There is also an update on the Northumberland Line website about the recent Bedlington Station drop-in event, with some of the Q&A on the evening quoted to give added info.
Northumberland Coast Loop proposals
With the forthcoming ‘Railway 200’ celebrations for the 200th anniversary of the Stockton and Darlington Railway (one of the railways seen as the beginning of the ‘modern era’ of rail technology, with railways themselves dating back to at least Ancient Greece), hopefully Bedlington Station will be completed fairly early in 2025 to showcase its important role 200 years ago.
As stated in a previous post for a ‘Railway Quarter’ in Bedlington, the town, and particularly the ironworks/engineworks in Blyth Valley was where a pivotal development in rail technology took place; with the malleable iron rail by John Birkinshaw being patented.
This new rail was vastly superior to the cast iron ‘fishbellied’ rails that had gone before, and George Stephenson recognised this and against his own investment and interests in in cast iron rail making, adopted the malleable iron rail for the S&D, being used for about 2/3rds of the whole length of the line (sourced from the Friends of the S&D).
Building of locomotives in the Blyth Valley was also a major enterprise, with the first locomotives in the Netherlands (‘De Arend‘) and Italy (‘Vesuvio’ and ‘Bayard‘) all Bedlington built locomotives, and perhaps R.B. Longridge could claim the title of the most northerly loco builder in England?
There is also the Gooch family, most notably Sir Daniel Gooch who was locomotive engineer to Sir Isambard Kingdom Brunel, and is recorded as selecting Swindon as the location of the works for the Great Western Railway, but many members of his family were heavily involved in railway history.
Could bi-mode GWR 800004 ‘Sir Daniel Gooch’ possibly traverse the route on a special service, or would LNER consider also naming one of their bi-mode units ‘Sir Daniel Gooch’ too?
With the Northumberland Line due to fully complete in 2025, co-inciding with this major anniversary, could there be scope to offer regular services from further afield (esp at weekends, bank holidays etc) to showcase this often overlooked but important place in railway history?
The Northumberland Coast Loop could allow for a Newcastle – Edinburgh service to pass directly over the Blyth Valley where the works was located, and if stopping trains were enabled at either Blyth Bebside or Bedlington, they could offer a tourism gain for the area with visiting fans of industrial heritage, and fittingly, bring them in via a newly reopened railway?
The Northumberland Coast Loop 