Background

We've moved back to the North Northumberland coast after living around here for a while a few years ago, during which time I fell in love with the minor railways in the area. Researching for my first layout made me realise that the weakness of the local railway infrastructure due to poor planning decisions when the lines were developed was a major factor in the relative stagnation of the local economy; my project is an attempt to show how things might have been better if more joined-up thinking and co-operation had taken place. I have a 38' x 16' workshop which will be exclusively for the railway; it is stonebuilt and has power, central heating and good lighting so should be an improvement on the small spare bedroom and motorhome tabletop which were the homes of my 2 earlier efforts!

The History

The NER and NBR shared the common goal of linking the ECML across the border at Berwick in the mid 19^th century, but, largely due to ambition and the bull-in-a-china-shop approach of George Hudson (Mr NER at the time), they couldn't agree to work together. NBR had built Berwick station, with goods facilities and a substantial loco depot, and that should have sufficed, but Hudson had his ego to consider, and instructed his architect to design Tweedmouth station with the express purpose of outdoing his rivals.
The result of this nonsense was the existence of 2 mainline stations, each with a full set of facilities and loco yards, all of half a mile apart with the Royal Border Bridge over the Tweed in between. The Kelso branch left the mainline at a north-facing junction just south of the river, so trains left Berwick, stopped at Tweedmouth less than 5 mins later, and reversed to take the Tweed Valley line.........hmmmmm.
While this was going on, local industries (lots of them) were springing up and demanding transport infrastructure. The Tweed Basin is one of the UK's most productive areas, and the existence of local raw materials such as coal, lime, and various types of stone were generating much activity. The salmon fishing industry had prevented the development of Berwick as a port, and in the 1870s Tweed Dock at Tweedmouth was opened to support and develop all this activity. The NER was asked to build a branch to the dock, which it did, but because Tweedmouth station was so close to the coast, and so high above it, the dock branch had to be a switchback with gradients as steep as 1 in 30 and two headshunts which limited traffic to a small tank loco and 3/4 wagons max. Needless to say the branch was not hugely effective, and though it survived in operation till the sixties it never really allowed the local industries to achieve what they should have. Spittal, just south of Tweedmouth, had no railway connection but had a major industrial element and was also a beach resort much used by people from the Northeast and the Tweed Valley for holidays and daytrips. In the great days of rail travel, they could see the ECML just above and inland from the beach, but to get there they had to travel to Tweedmouth or Berwick and walk the rest of the way. Spittal needed a railway.
It was all a bit Heath-Robinson in style. With the great benefit of hindsight I think it's easy to see what should have been done, and my project explores what might have happened had Hudson and the NBR had more sense and worked together.

My Alternative

Still awake? That's a bit of a surprise.........
Hudson and the NBR did a deal to develop Berwick station, goods depot and locoshed together, and Tweedmouth station was never built. When Tweed Dock was built in the 1870s, the NER built the branch starting from just south of the bridge, giving greater length for the descent and easier gradients. Rather than a simple reversing spur at the south end the NER built Spittal Town station, with a branch from there heading back north to the docks at Tweedmouth. The line was built concurrently with The Alnwick and Cornhill branch which features some of the most outstanding branchline architecture in Britain, and the same style was used to build Spittal Town.

Spittal Town has 2 platforms and a goods and transfer yard, and in addition to the Tweed Dock branch there is a short industrial branch which serves the industrial area on Spittal Point (4 chemical works, a foundry, a gasworks and one or two smaller industries) and also the fish quay.

Passenger traffic consists of the Berwick shuttle, the Tweed Valley branch trains, trains to Alnwick via the A and C and the occasional excursion from the inland mill towns, Edinburgh or Newcastle.

Goods traffic is about 90% of the activity at Spittal, and consists mainly of lots of local short trip workings linking Tweed Dock, Spittal Point, Spittal Town, Berwick on the ECML, the A and C and the Tweed Valley branch. There is no loco shed at Spittal; 2 tank locos are based there each day for shunting and trip working and return to Berwick each evening.

The Model

The model is J shaped, starting in a fiddleyard which represents the junction with the ECML. Spittal Town occupies the whole of one side and the dock branch curves round one end of the room to Tweed Dock about halfway down the other side. Most of it is to be built in place to be moveable if required, but the dock branch will almost certainly be portable and exhibitable should anyone be deranged enough to invite it. I'll post a trackplan shortly.

The layout is set in 1960, and is to 4mm scale with EM wheel and track standards. I've just started building. Three baseboards have been constructed to date, and the first track is laid and wired for DCC and my EM-converted Heljan class 26 has tried it out successfully. Track, all of which is ash-ballasted in true NER branch style, is handbuilt on walnut sleepers and all buildings and structures will be scratchbuilt using various methods. The emphasis will be on accurate recreation of the local architecture, together with good enough operating standards to enable the vast amount of shunting this layout will require to be a demanding but enjoyable experience. DG autocouplers will be used.

A couple more photos of the bridge over the Brandywell (yes, I know, it sounds like 'The Hobbit') just before the branch enters Spittal: