Border Counties Railway

The Border Counties Railway was a railway line connecting in Northumberland, with on the Waverley Route in Roxburghshire.

Its promoter had hopes of exploiting mineral resources in the area, and it was taken up by the North British Railway, which hoped to develop it as a through main line between Edinburgh and Newcastle upon Tyne.

The railway opened in stages between 1858 and 1862, but the anticipated level of commercial traffic did not materialise, and the sparse population produced very little local passenger traffic. The line closed to passengers in 1956 and completely in 1963.

History

Linking Central Scotland with England When the Edinburgh and Glasgow Railway was under construction between 1838 and 1842, thoughts turned to the construction of longer distance railways in Scotland, and in particular to connecting central Scotland to the developing English network. For some time it was assumed that only one route was commercially viable, and vast controversy took place over what that should be, with a large number of candidate routes being put forward. The Southern Uplands and the Cheviot Hills presented a considerable topographical obstacle to many of the options, especially because at that date the power of steam locomotives, and their ability to climb steep and lengthy gradients was very limited.

Many of the proposals were motivated by sectional interests. The Newcastle and Carlisle Railway (N&CR) had opened the main part of its route in 1836, and a line running north from Hexham, following the River North Tyne, appeared to some to suggest a convenient approach from the south.

The Tyne, Edinburgh and Glasgow Railway proposed in 1836 by Stephen Reed of Newcastle would have left the N&CR at Hexham and run north through Carter Bar; altitude . to reach Melrose and thence Edinburgh and Glasgow, but this was modified in 1838 as the proposed Hexham and Edinburgh Railway to run from Hexham via Kielder and Note o' the GateOn the present-day B6357 just north of Saughtree; the location is at about above sea level. to Melrose. This scheme was encouraged by the N&CR (to which it would bring traffic) and the city of Newcastle upon Tyne, which would acquire commercial advantage from being on the main line.

As the debate about an Anglo-Scottish route continued over some years, the capabilities of steam locomotives improved, and the increasing availability of money moved the issue away from a single route determined by political considerations, to simple economics. In 1844 the North British Railway (NBR) was authorised to build a line from Edinburgh to Berwick to join an English line there. The NBR line ran close to the coast avoiding most high ground and opened in 1846. In 1845 the Caledonian Railway was authorised to construct a line from both Glasgow and Edinburgh to Carlisle, crossing the Southern Uplands at Beattock Summit, above sea level.

North from Hexham: first steps

The notion of the only Anglo-Scottish main line running through Hexham was now finished. If the area north of Hexham was not to be on a main line, then the sparse population and meagre mineral resources made it difficult to justify a railway line, and for some years none was proposed. In 1853 a scheme was put forward on the unproven assumption that a known four-feet coal seam was widespread in the region, based on Plashetts. A meeting at Bellingham in March 1854 attracted considerable support, and Robert Nicholson was engaged to survey a route. His line was to run from Hexham (on the N&CR) through Reedsmouth to Bellingham, and on to the coal deposits at Falstone. His work was remarkably quickly done, for a bill for the Border Counties Railway was submitted to Parliament for the 1854 session. The proposal was attacked on the grounds of the doubts about the mineral reserves, and also Nicholson's proposed laminated timber bridges, but in fact the scheme was authorised when the (17 & 18 Vict. c. ccxii) was given royal assent on 31 July 1854. The capital was to be £250,000.Sewell, Thomas, Carter and Bell; Ross says 1 July 1854.

Raising the capital proved to be difficult, and the first shareholders' meeting was not held until 20 March 1855. Robert Nicholson died in 1855 and the position of engineer to the company was assumed by his nephew J. F. Tone. Tone decided that the bridge over the River Tyne at Hexham (sometimes referred to as the Border Counties Bridge) should be in iron girders on stone piers instead of Nicholson's timber. In October 1855 contracts were let for part of the work to William Hutchinson.

At the ceremony of cutting the first sod on 11 December 1855, W. H. Charlton, the company's chairman, stated that Hutchinson would build the line for £180,000 and that the line would be extended to Scotland, making Hexham one of the great railway centres. Hutchinson immediately started work on the piling for the Hexham bridge but the first pile broke at and doubts about the strata caused Tone to redesign the bridge. Hutchinson had in fact tendered for the work without seeing a design, and he now had to stop work (on 10 January 1856). Scour was a serious issue at this location, and redesign was necessary on that account. Eventually, on 2 April 1858, the first section of line was opened, about in length, over the bridge and as far as Dunkirk Farm, a short distance north of Chollerford. The bridge had cost twice the originally estimated sum. Hutchinson had got into serious financial difficulty on completing the contract, largely because he had priced the work without seeing designs and without certainty of the ground conditions. The Border Counties Railway appears to have given him some considerable extra-contractual relief, putting their own financial position at risk.

The line was built as a single line, but land was acquired for later doubling, and all the bridges except the Hexham bridge, were built for double-track.

A public train service started on 5 April 1858;Sewell, Thomas, Bell; Ross says (page 46) 29 August 1858. there were four passenger trains each way Monday to Saturday, and two on Sunday. They ran from Hexham to Chollerford, with an intermediate station at Wall.

Completing the first authorised line The train service paid surprisingly well and encouraged a feeling of optimism among the Directors.

Notwithstanding Hutchinson's contractual difficulties, he accepted a contract for completing the authorised line from Dunkirk Farm to Falstone.

During the 1858 parliamentary session, the company presented a bill for a northward extension of the line into Scotland, and to authorise financial support from the North British Railway (NBR). This was opposed by the Caledonian Railway and the promoters of the Border Union Railway, which had not yet presented its own bill, and was supposedly friendly to the NBR. The bill failed in Parliament.

The climate had changed the following year, and the Border Union got its own act of Parliament, the Border Union (North British) Railways Act 1859 (22 & 23 Vict. c. xxiv). The Border Counties presented a fresh bill for an extension from Bellingham to a junction with the BUR, at Lees Bog. The location later became better known under the name Riccarton Junction. This time around the BUR was friendly, and although there was some opposition, the BCR got its act: the (22 & 23 Vict. c. xliii) got royal assent on 1 August. The act of Parliament authorised an extension of time for construction of the earlier part of the line; the powers had in fact run out eleven days previously. The authorised capital was increased by £100,000. The North British Railway, by now overt sponsors of the BUR, were authorised to guarantee interest on BCR loans, and to make a working arrangement with the BCR.Ross (page 49) gives a Border Counties Railway Act of 5 August 1859 with similar powers, but this may be confusion with the associated Wansbeck Railway Act of 8 August 1859.

From Wark, the line approached Reedsmouth, and there was a temporary goods terminus at Countess Park there while the river bridge was completed. The passenger service terminated at Wark. There was a demonstration train from Newcastle to Countess Park run on 1 December 1859. Public opening was expected "within the week" but this proved to be inaccurate, and the opening throughout to Falstone was delayed until 2 September 1861.Sewell's narrative is unclear here; the Countess Park facility was a "station" but passenger services did not reach it, so it must have been a goods station only. It was the terminus of the line while the River Reed bridge was being completed, but he says that the line did not open until it was complete to Falstone on 2 September 1861. Yet the Countess Park facility was closed when the line was extended to Bellingham. Quick lists the station as a passenger station.

Amalgamation with the North British Railway

By 1860 the company was seriously short of cash; the authorised capital had never been fully raised and the hoped-for coal reserves at Plashetts were disappointing. There seemed little chance of raising more capital now. The North British Railway was expansive, and was happy to take over the local line, and the result was the (23 & 24 Vict. c. cxcv), passed on 13 August 1860; the capital for the BCR lines was increased to £350,000, and the act regularised the use by BCR trains of Hexham station of the Newcastle and Carlisle Railway. The BCR network was known now as the NBR (Border Counties Section).

Completion of the line The construction of the line throughout to Riccarton was completed by mid-April 1862, and it was satisfactorily inspected by Captain Tyler of the Board of Trade. As that location was simply a remote junction with (at the time) no actual settlement,Riccarton was purely an interchange station; later there were 38 houses there, all occupied by railway workers and their families. there was no point in opening the extension until the Border Union Railway opened its main line there. Accordingly, the opening throughout of the BCR was on 24 June 1862Sewell, Thomas; Ross (page 55) gives 23 June. for goods trains, and on 1 July 1862 for passengers.

The line was operated on the train-staff and ticket system.

Poor Hutchinson had been ill-used by the BCR and his contractual position had been taken advantage of. After completion of the line he was still placed at an unfair disadvantage and he was declared bankrupt on 5 December 1862.

Running powers

The North Eastern Railway and the Newcastle and Carlisle Railway now proposed to amalgamate, under the name North Eastern Railway. The NBR and several other competing lines opposed the parliamentary bill. The NBR was persuaded to withdraw its opposition in return for an exchange of running powers: the NBR was to get running powers from Hexham to Newcastle, and from Sprouston to Kelso. The NER obtained running powers between Berwick and Edinburgh, including all facilities at and between those places, except for the running of local trains and fish trains.

The Wansbeck line, which connected Morpeth and Reedsmouth, had been planned as an NBR route to Newcastle, using the Blyth and Tyne Railway east of Morpeth. This was a very circuitous way to reach Newcastle, and the North British now believed it had a more direct route to the city, which it had long sought. The junction at Reedsmouth had been aligned to face northwards, to allow direct running from Hawick to Morpeth, but in the changed circumstances, it was modified to face south.