Coldstream railway station

Coldstream railway station served the town of Coldstream in Berwickshire, Scotland although the station was across the River Tweed in Northumberland, England. The station was on both the Alnwick to Cornhill Branch which ran from Alnwick to Cornhill Junction on the Kelso line near Coldstream and the Kelso to Tweedmouth line.

History

The project was authorized in 1882, the Cornhill Branch built to link the farming communities of north Northumberland with the market town of Alnwick and link the North Eastern Railway's Kelso line to its Alnwick Branch. Construction started by the North Eastern Railway in 1884. The line opened to freight between Cornhill and Wooperton in 2 May 1887, and the whole line for both freight and passengers on 5 September of the same year. The line had difficulty attracting passengers as many of the stations were some distance from the communities they served. Increased bus competition in the 1920s led to passenger trains being withdrawn on 22 September 1930,^[1] although the service resumed briefly during the Second World War to serve RAF Milfield near Akeld.^[2]

After a severe storm in 1949 washed away a bridge north of Ilderton station British Railways who had recently taken over the line decided that the volume of traffic along the line did not warrant replacing it. The line was thus split into two, Alnwick to Ilderton, and Coldstream to Wooler which included Akeld. This coupled with an infrequent service caused the line to go further into decline and the section from Alnwick to Ilderton closed on 2 March 1953 with the other section following suit on 29 March 1965.

Services

Present day

The station has been demolished and a housing estate occupies the site.^[3]

References

• Butt, R. V. J. (1995). The Directory of Railway Stations: details every public and private passenger station, halt, platform and stopping place, past and present (1st ed.). Sparkford: Patrick Stephens Ltd. ISBN 1-8526-0508-1. OCLC 60251199. 
• Jowett, Alan (March 1989). Jowett's Railway Atlas of Great Britain and Ireland: From Pre-Grouping to the Present Day (1st ed.). Sparkford: Patrick Stephens Ltd. ISBN 1-8526-0086-1. OCLC 22311137. 
• Jowett, Alan (2000). Jowett's Nationalised Railway Atlas (1st ed.). Penryn, Cornwall: Atlantic Transport Publishers. ISBN 0-9068-9999-0. OCLC 228266687. 

External links

• Coldstream Station on Disused Stations
• Coldstream Station on navigable O.S. map
• Pictures of possibly the last passenger train to Wooler at Coldstream station

Cornhill Branch
Locale Northumberland Predecessor North Eastern Railway Track gauge 1,435 mm (4 ft 8 1⁄2 in)
Legend
Kelso to Tweedmouth Coldstream    Kelso to Tweedmouth Mindrum Kirknewton Akeld Wooler Ilderton Wooperton Hedgeley Glanton Whittingham Edlingham Alnwick    Alnwick branch line

Coordinates: 55°38′58″N 2°13′07″W / 55.64945°N 2.21868°W / 55.64945; -2.21868