Kelso Branch

Kelso Branch
Locale Northumberland Successor North Eastern Railway Track gauge 4 ft 8 1⁄2 in (1,435 mm)
Legend
East Coast Main Line Tweedmouth   East Coast Main Line Velvet Hall Norham Twizell Coldstream   Alnwick Branch Sunilaws England Scotland border Carham Sprouston Kelso   line to St Boswells

The Kelso Branch was a 23.5 miles (37.8 km) twin track branch railway in Northumberland, England and Roxburghshire, Scotland that ran from Tweedmouth on the East Coast Main Line via seven intermediate stations to Kelso.

History

Opening

Authorised in 1845 the Kelso Branch was built by the North Eastern Railway to link the communities of the Tweed valley with the fledgling railway network at Tweedmouth. The line opened in two stages, to Sprouston on 27 July 1849, and to Kelso on 1 June 1851.

Alnwick Branch

In 1887 the Alnwick Branch was opened linking to the line just to the west of Coldstream station.

The Tweedmouth-Kelso-St Boswells line provided part of an alternative route when the East Coast Main Line was blocked north of Tweedmouth most notably when in August 1948 when the main line was closed for three months.^[1]

Closure

In 1955 all the stations on the line apart from Coldstream and Norham closed to passengers, and on 15 June 1964 passenger services were withdrawn along the whole line. Freight services between Tweedmouth and Kelso followed suit the next year on 29 March with the complete closure of the line. Only one track of the double line between Kelso and Tweedmouth was initially lifted, but all track was removed in 1969 from the Kelso Junction end through to Tweedmouth following closure of the freight service to Kelso and complete closure of the Waverley Route.

References

See also

The Kelso and Jedburgh railway branch lines

External links

• The line on RailScot