On the 27th October 1951, the North Sunderland Railway ceased operations; it had been a relatively short lived line, having opened for goods on the 1st August 1898, and for passengers belatedly on the 18th December 1898.
Below are a selection of photographs of the line in its operation life, shared via hyperlink to their original source.
Also, is this 1928 British Pathe news reel showcasing the line:
The initial locomotive was a Manning Wardle called ‘Bamburgh‘, purchased on hire purchase due to the shaky finances of the line, with this locomotive assisted by hired in NER, LNER, and later British Railways locomotives, as well as a diesel electric shunter called ‘Lady Armstrong‘, one of six built specuatively by Armstrong Whitworth and Co (the company of Lord Armstrong of Cragside and Bamburgh Castle fame), this loco being the now long scrapped D25*, with two surviving sister locomotives in the form of D21, which is painted green and part of the NRM collection, and D22 now based on the Tanfield Railway and in regular use, the North Sunderland Railway itself being part of the inspiration behind the Tanfield Railway itself.
Could one of these survivors visit Chathill and see their sister loco’s former stomping ground this year to mark the 75th anniversary?
The time of the closure of the North Sunderland Railway makes for an interesting comparison with the world’s first preserved railway, the Talyllyn Railway in Wales. This line reopened on the 14th May 1951 as a heritage line, and has just celebrated its 75th anniversary, and it is somewhere I finally ticked off the ‘must do’ list just a couple of weeks ago.
For those who haven’t been, I would highly recommend a visit and I’ve included a few snaps for your enjoyment!
Had the North Sunderland Railway survived a little longer into the later 1950’s and early 1960’s, it is interesting to speculate that it might have had a chance of survival and transitioned into a heritage line.
The Bluebell Railway (one still on the to do list!) is regarded as the first standard gauge preserved railway opened on 7th August 1960, just over nine years after the Talyllyn Railway reopened, and the just before the ninth anniversary of the closure of the North Sunderland Railway.
Given the huge popularity of visiting the Farne Islands in recent years to see the Puffin colonies, seals and other wildlife, a ‘Farne Islander’ running between Chathill Station and Seahouses would likely have proven immensely popular, but sadly this wasn’t how history turned out in the end.
Chathill Station: Junction of the past and a hub for the future?
After a meeting with the Chathill Rail Action Group (CRAG) tonight (8.6.26), I decided to make a call at Chathill Station on my way home, a lovingly kept station, and definately giving a sense of its former life as a junction station between the various mainline operators (NER, LNER, & BR), who operated the mainline between 1898 and 1951.
Hopefully once restored, the waiting room might be able to commemorate the interesting North Sunderland Railway as perhaps a micro museum, and like the Talyllyn, an old waggon or two could maybe be displayed in the former bay platform to highlight that once this was once a junction station?
More importantly perhaps, can stations like Chathill be better served by rail once again? The North Sunderland Railway would be a long way down the list of reopenings, but Chathill could be a very useful connection to and from the North Northumberland Coast; something which CRAG is certainly pushing for!
Chathill is much more likely to be reached by bus nowadays than a small branchline running antique carriages, but it could become an important hub for local transport with just a little bit of work.
The Northumberland Coast Loop 