Kelso Branch (York, Newcastle and Berwick Railway)

Introduction

This line is closed. The line was opened from Tweedmouth on the former Newcastle and Berwick Railway (by this time owned by the York, Newcastle and Berwick Railway) and ran west towards Kelso, crossing the English/Scottish Border near Carham station. It was, like the Kelso Branch (North British Railway) line which it met at Sprouston Junction (just outside Kelso), a double track line. It was met by the single track Cornhill Branch (North Eastern Railway) at Coldstream.






Dates

  /  /1849Kelso Branch (York, Newcastle and Berwick Railway)
Opened from Tweedmouth to Sprouston. Velvet Hall, Norham, Cornhill, Carham and Sprouston opened.
  /  /1851Kelso Branch (York, Newcastle and Berwick Railway)
Extended to meet the Kelso Branch (North British Railway) at Sprouston Junction.
27/01/1851Kelso Branch (North British Railway)
Extended to Kelso from Wallace Nick station, a temporary terminus just west of Kelso, which is closed. The line extends east to Sprouston Junction where the Kelso Branch (York, Newcastle and Berwick Railway) is met.
  /  /1861Kelso Branch (York, Newcastle and Berwick Railway)
Twizell and Wark [Sunilaws] opened.
  /  /1871Kelso Branch (York, Newcastle and Berwick Railway)
Wark [Sunilaws] renamed Sunilaws.
  /  /1873Kelso Branch (York, Newcastle and Berwick Railway)
Cornhill renamed Coldstream.
  /08/1948Kelso Branch (York, Newcastle and Berwick Railway)
Kelso Branch (North British Railway)
Edinburgh and Hawick Railway (North British Railway)
Line used by expresses including the Flying Scotsman which are diverted from the East Coast Main Line due to flooding damage to the main line.
11/08/1948Kelso Branch (York, Newcastle and Berwick Railway)
Landslip at Carham during heavy rainfall and flooding.
  /  /1950Kelso Branch (York, Newcastle and Berwick Railway)
Kelso Branch (North British Railway)
Edinburgh and Hawick Railway (North British Railway)
Route via Kelso used by expresses diverted from the East Coast Main Line due to flooding damage to the main line.
04/07/1955Kelso Branch (York, Newcastle and Berwick Railway)
Local stations closed. Velvet Hall, Twizell, Sunilaws, Carham, Sprouston closed. Tweedmouth, Norham and Coldstream remain open.
15/06/1964Kelso Branch (York, Newcastle and Berwick Railway)
Kelso to Tweedmouth closed to passengers. Coldstream, Norham and Tweedmouth closed.
29/03/1965Kelso Branch (York, Newcastle and Berwick Railway)
Kelso to Tweedmouth closed to goods.

Locations along the line

These locations are along the line.

This station on the East Coast Main Line was south of the Royal Border Bridge and at a junction with the line to Kelso. The location was a station, junction, locomotive shed, yard and start of a zig-zag line to dockside (Tweed Dock).
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See also
Newcastle and Berwick Railway
Looking west along the Tweed estuary towards Tweed Dock in October 2012. The last leg of the zig-zag of the former freight only branch linking ...
John Furnevel 07/10/2012
Dock Road Viaduct on the former zig-zag line opened in 1878 to link Tweedmouth goods yard with the recently opened Tweed Dock. The viaduct carried the ...
John Furnevel 07/10/2012
9019 Royal Highland Fusilier roars through Tweedmouth on 19 September 1970 with the 10:30 Aberdeen - Kings Cross. The Deltic will have taken ...
Bill Jamieson 19/09/1970
The north end of the former repair shop at Tweedmouth MPD in September 1970, with the once all-important bike shed prominent in the foreground. ...
Bill Jamieson 19/09/1970
4 of 34 images. more


This two platform station was located at Velvethall, Northumberland, just over a mile south east of Horncliffe. The goods yard was on the south side of the line, reached by reversal. On the north side, opposite the goods yard, was a loop and the signal box. The main station building, stone built and of two storeys, was on the westbound platform.
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The privately owned former station at Velvet Hall, Northumberland, in the summer of 2005. The station had lost its passenger service in 1955, with the ...
John Furnevel 05/07/2005
Entrance to the former Velvet Hall station, serving the village of Horncliffe, Northumberland, approximately 5 miles south west of Berwick. The ...
John Furnevel 05/07/2006
Loading bank in the gloom of a forest at Velvet Hall. ...
Ewan Crawford 27/12/2002
Base of signal post (and mystery object) on the Norham side of Velvet Hall station. ...
Ewan Crawford 27/12/2002
4 of 4 images.


This was a two platform station.
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Surviving bridge abutments at Norham station in August 2022.
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John Yellowlees 01/08/2022
Information board at the Norham station 'Time capsule'. ...
John Yellowlees 01/08/2022
This postbox, set in the wall at the former Norham station, must be at least 120 years old but is still in use by Royal Mail.
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John Yellowlees 01/08/2022
The former Norham station, on the Kelso Branch, closed in 1964 and seen here in August 2022.
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John Yellowlees 01/08/2022
4 of 14 images. more


This was a small two platform station. Platforms were staggered, the eastbound being slightly west of the westbound. There was a single storey stone building at the east end of the eastbound platform and small timber waiting shelter on the westbound. At the east end, on the south side of the line, was a goods yard added in the 1880s. The signal box was at the east end of the platforms.
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Westbound platform at Twizell. The view looks south-west towards Coldstream. Behind the camera the station building still stands on the site of the ...
Ewan Crawford 27/12/2002
1 of 1 images.




This station was originally named Cornhill for the nearby Cornhill Castle. It was located in England but served Coldstream, a mile and a half north west over the River Tweed, in Scotland.
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Cornhill Branch (North Eastern Railway)
A service from Berwick to St Boswells calls at Coldstream on the morning of Saturday 13th June 1964, the final day of passenger services on the ...
Brian Haslehust 13/06/1964
I've heard of manicured lawns, but never manicured fields. This accommodation track-over-rail bridge at Coldstream was clearly built to last. ...
Ken Strachan 21/05/2014
We'll ramble again - don't know where, don't know when. (added during May 2020 lockdown). The beautiful trackbed West of Coldstream raises memories of ...
Ken Strachan 21/05/2014
Coldstream station was actually located across the border in the nearby village of Cornhill-on-Tweed. This view is south across the A697 from the ...
Ken Strachan 21/05/2014
4 of 7 images. more


Cornhill Junction, south of Coldstream station. The branch to Alnwick is straight ahead running directly south whereas the route to Kelso curved ...
Ewan Crawford //1998
Simply beautiful. The single track solum from Cornhill Junction heading for Alnwick in May 2014. Taken ten feet forward and left from my previous ...
Ken Strachan 21/05/2014
A particularly rural outpost of the NER was Cornhill Junction, seen looking south in May 2014. The track to the right - now passable by bike if you ...
Ken Strachan 21/05/2014
3 of 3 images.


There's a viaduct in this picture; but the fence is the only giveaway from this angle. The bicycles appear to be growing among the other vegetation! ...
Ken Strachan 21/05/2014
The empty stock of the Royal Train crossing the viaduct over the Duddo Burn at West Learmouth near Coldstream on 5 July 1962 behind Dalry Road Black ...
Bruce McCartney Collection 05/07/1962
West Learmouth Viaduct to the south of Coldstream on the Kelso - Tweedmouth line, photographed on 3 March 2014. The line closed in 1965. ...
Bruce McCartney 03/03/2014
3 of 3 images.




This was a small two platform station. It was just north of Sunnylaws Farm. The village of Wark is just under a mile to the north. Platforms were staggered on either side of a level crossing with a signal box on the east side of the crossing, north of the line. The eastbound platform was to the west and westbound on the east side of the level crossing. The station building, stone built and of two ...

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The former Sunilaws station in July 2005. Photograph showing the uphill approach to the site of the level crossing. View is west towards Kelso. ...
John Furnevel 05/07/2005
View from the surviving staggered platform at Sunilaws, Northumberland, in July 2005 looking west towards Kelso over the site of the level crossing. ...
John Furnevel 05/07/2005
View over the level crossing towards the main station from the westbound platform at Sunilaws in 1968. The station on the Kelso - Tweedmouth route had ...
Bruce McCartney //1968
3 of 3 images.


This station was located in Scotland, with the Border with England immediately to its east. It was a two platform station, with staggered platforms. The westbound platform was to the west of a level crossing, the eastbound to the east of the crossing. There was a two storey building on the eastbound platform similar to that which survives at Sunilaws. The signal box was on its west side, right ...

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The view east from the eastbound platform of the former Carham station. The goods yard was to the right, a loading bank remaining. The station ...
Ewan Crawford //1998
Carham station looking west from the level crossing with the westbound (Kelso) platform on the left. ...
Ewan Crawford //1998
The view west from Carham on 3 March 2014, looking back towards Kelso. ...
Bruce McCartney 03/03/2014
The trackbed through the staggered platforms at Carham, now a pleasant walkway. View back towards Kelso in March 2014. ...
Bruce McCartney 03/03/2014
4 of 7 images. more


This station was a two platform station on a double track railway. The main station building on the up (eastbound) platform remains in use as a house. This is two storey with a single storey to west and east. The east end features a bay window looking out over the station. The trackbed has been infilled. Portions of the platforms remain intact at the west end.
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The former Sprouston station from west in early 1998. See image 58917 [Ref query 13240] ...
Ewan Crawford //1998
Scene at Sprouston looking east towards Tweedmouth in 1968. The station had lost its passenger service in 1955, with the line between Kelso and ...
Bruce McCartney //1968
Bridge built by the NER a mile east of Sprouston, between Kelso and Tweedmouth, on the route opened in 1849. Hard to believe now that this line once ...
Bruce McCartney 06/05/2013
Road approach to the modified former Station at Sprouston, on the Kelso branch (closed July 1955). Photographed looking south in September 2006. See ...
John Furnevel 02/09/2006
4 of 4 images.


This end-on junction was located at Mellendean. Sprouston station was a short distance to the east and Kelso is to the west.
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Kelso Branch (North British Railway)
St Margarets B1 no 61191 hauling a long train of brake vans between Kelso and Sprouston. Thought to have been taken in 1956 with the train heading ...
D Welsh Collection [Courtesy Bruce McCartney] //1956
D20 4-4-0 2344 of Tweedmouth shed with a Berwick - Kelso train approaching the meeting point of NE and NB metals at Mellendean, Kelso, on the ...
D Welsh Collection [Courtesy Bruce McCartney] 25/03/1947
2 of 2 images.