‘The Royal Edinburgh Military Tattoo and Waverley Weekender‘, a railtour organised by UK Railtours, and operated by the West Coast Railway Company had a section the return leg of the trip from Dunbarton, Scotland to Newcastle-Upon-Tyne, England due to travel over the proposed Northumberland Coast Loop route today (Monday 25th August 2025).
The original plan…
The tour was originally planned to run from Dunbarton to Edinburgh, then run south along the East Coast Main Line (ECML), but at Morpeth North Junction, the train would then leave the ECML, and run along the presently rarely passenger worked section to Bedlington Station on the Northumberland Line; it then continuing towards Newcastle Central via the under-construction and open stations at Blyth Bebside, Newsham, Seaton Delaval, and Northumberland Park.
With an aim to taking photos/videos of this service, I travelled from my ‘home’ station at Alnmouth to Morpeth (in very glorious weather!) aboard the 10:47 TPE service 9N09, as operated by 802213, the aim being to ‘catch’ the railtour on the rarely passenger worked Morpeth North Curve, though sadly this didn’t work out on the day.
The departure from Alnmouth and arrival at Morpeth was two minutes late (11:02 rather than 11:00 exactly) but this allowed more than ample time to walk to my destination as the railtour was booked at Morpeth North Junction for 12:02, reaching Hepscott Junction at 12:04, so still almost an hour ahead of the scheduled arrival time.
A short walk along Coopies Lane, Coopies Lane, and then onto Coopies Haugh brought me to the end of a footpath (w3w ///processes.unwound.barn), which leads to a foot crossing (w3w ///plea.refuses.shepherdess) over the Morpeth North Curve where I intended to view 1Z84 from at a safe distance on the approaches to this crossing.
… but unexpected problems lead to a late running railtour!
Once at the above foot crossing, the data from the excellent Realtime Trains website showed that things were going awry with the railtour, with information beginning to trickle through that the railtour was beginning to get delayed, and then more substantially so quickly.
With my train back booked for 12:54 aboard the LNER service back to Alnmouth, and a family event to attend, I made my way back to the station via Clarks Bog, a nature reserve adjacent to the Morpeth North Curve, and over the bridge that takes Coopies Lane over the line (w3w ///encloses.stowing.loosens)
With the now heavily delayed 1Z84 now expected to pass Alnmouth around 13:30, I decided to simply catch it there instead.
The cause of the delay is at present unclear, with some rumour than the locomotives on the railtour suffered issues, but also other trains in the area having traction problems, but by the time the railtour reached Morpeth North Junction, it was by the 118 minutes behind schedule. The decision was presumably taken by signallers to avoid going via Bedlington, and to make up time by going via Morpeth and Cramlington instead.
The change of route allowed the recovery of 26 minutes, with the delay falling from 118 minutes late to 92 minutes late, with expected timetable for the route via Bedlington from Morpeth North Junction (12:02) to Benton North Junction (12:45½) expected to take 43½ minutes overall, compared to the 17½ of the route via Morpeth and Cramlington for this train (running at max of 95mph with a c.450ton trailing load).
Conclusions
Whilst the problems encountered meant that unfortunately the railtour didn’t actually run via Bedlington today, the planned timetable does offer some useful information for the proposed regular passenger service via this route (Newcastle – Bedlington – Edinburgh and vice versa).
30 minutes or less to go via Bedlington vs via Cramlington
The 26 minute difference in the route timings between Morpeth North Junction and Benton North Junction for example, demonstrates that the route is not an unduly long detour, with modern rolling stock such as the TPE 80x fleet allowing higher train performance, and potential to upgrade line speeds on the Morpeth North Junction to Bedlington Junction section, the running times over this loop, inclusive of stops might be capable of remaining below 30 minutes of additional time compared to the current route via Cramlington, and Morpeth stations.
Driver Knowledge and Route Resilience
In addition, the last minute change of route to run via Cramlington rather than Bedlington, in this case simply to make up lost time, shows the benefits of the driver knowing both routes; had the driver lacked the route knowledge of running via Cramlington, the train would have been restricted to the slower route, or might have been further delayed to await another driver or a route conductor to take the train over the alternative route.
In the event of a much larger problem, as demonstrated by the structural issues with Plessey Viaduct in October 2023, the knowledge of an alternative route could be invaluable, especially if a ‘normal’ route was to be closed for a substantial time (Plessey Viaduct could have been a total closure had damage been more extensive for example).
The use of electric only trains would be problematic due to the absence of wiring ‘on the loop’ at present, but a lot of rolling stock is still diesel or bi-modal, so the lack of wiring would not itself present an issue.
The main challenges would be rolling stock clearance and driver knowledge, but both of these problems could be resolved by routine running; stock clearance would be reasonable to ensure for a regularly run route, and driver knowledge would be gained and retained by using the route routinely for passenger services.
Economic gains
The major justification for a rail service via the Northumberland Coast Loop is the potential economic gain for towns such as Bedlington and Blyth, as well as wider areas such as North Tyneside from the provision of direct rail services to as many places as possible.
It is well known that communities which are better connected by rail tend to thrive economically, Morpeth for example does very well from the wide range of services that call there, with great links to Newcastle, Edinburgh, and Carlisle, as well as many other towns and cities, but shouldn’t far larger towns on the Northumberland Line also see a similar range of destinations become available, even if operated at a lower frequency?
If you agree, please sign the petition here: https://chng.it/zThXj8HBpYhttps://chng.it/zThXj8HBpY
The Northumberland Coast Loop 