In just a few minutes from the time of posting on Saturday 22nd August 2026, ‘The Ancient Kingdom’ railtour, operated by UK Railtours will depart from London King’s Cross towards Berwick-Upon-Tweed, calling to pick-up passengers at Potters Bar, Stevenage, Peterborough, and Doncaster, and setting down at Alnmouth for Alnwick is due to run, and from the website seems that it will be very well filled with few available seats in any class of travel.
1Z50 from London King’s Cross to Berwick-Upon-Tweed, with onward coach connections.
The train taking passengers from Kings Cross in London up here to Northumberland is the 1Z50, a diesel locomotive with a 455 tonne train in tow, at a maximum speed of 95mph (locomotive not yet announced).
At Alnmouth, road coaches will take passengers on to Alnwick, and at Berwick, will take them on to Lindisfarne, or the Heatherslaw Light Railway, but a little dive into the railway timetable raises some interesting possibilities…
Arrival at Alnmouth is due at 12:11, after standing in the loops at Wooden Gate for about 13 minutes, then the train proceeds to Berwick Upon Tweed, arriving at 13:02, having waited in Crag Mill Loop for around 12 minutes between Alnmouth and Berwick.
These stops in loops are usually part of being on a railtour; usually they use heritage or freight locomotives and heritage carriages that cannot reach 125mph, and so need to be ‘looped’ to allow a faster train behind them to overtake, much like a tractor driver pulling into a layby so that faster vehicles behind can overtake.
(Fittingly, Class 37 locomotives from the 1960’s get nicknamed ‘tractors’ by some on account of their engine sound, and would be an example of a heritage loco commonly used on railtours).
However, does this suggest an opportunity to develop these into more routine stops for passenger trains?
Expanding or relocating Alnmouth station to Wooden Gate Loops, and a reopening of Crag Mill/Belford station?
Post being progressed, a link will be posted here once ready; check back soon!
The Northumberland Coast Loop 