Location type

Name and dates

Description

This was a single platform station with a group of siding serving the Plashetts Colliery.

Coal made Plashetts arguably the most important location on the line, the reason for its construction and its being fought over. Today it is under Kielder Water.

James Furness Tone (J.F. Tone & Co) was the operator of the Plashetts Colliery in the 1860s, taking over from the Duke of Northumberland. Tone was an engineer involved with the Blyth and Tyne Railway and various railways and works for the Duke in the West Country.

The original Border Counties Railway had promoted a line from Hexham to collieries at Falstone and Plashetts, the North British Railway saw a chance to create a new independent route to Hexham, Newcastle upon Tyne and the south.

Tone supported the North British Railway in their promotion of the extension of the Border Counties Railway by producing plans and petitions, preventing the Caledonian Railway from successfully promoting a similar line. He also promoted the Border Union Railway (North British Railway).

Coal from Plashetts would now flow north, rather than the original intention to take it south. Unfortunately the quality of the coal made it unsuitable for the mills of Tweeddale, but it found use as domestic coal.

The station had no road access, other than dirt roads. There were railway and other cottages by the station. This was a single platform station, on the south side of the line, with a loop to the east. Also to the east, north of the passing loop were looped sidings, an exchange yard for the Plashetts Colliery. Its screens, brick works and a smithy were located nearby while at the top of two separate inclines were the mines themselves. Slater's Incline, the more major incline to the south, was the start of the Plashetts Colliery Waggonway which ran east.

The signal box (opened 1893 as the colliery expanded) was at the east end, by the loop and sidings. On the platform was an unusually tall water tower and station building. There was snow fencing at the east end to protect the station from drifting snow.

The box closed in 1925.

The mines closed in 1926 during the general strike due to flooding. Limited drift mining continued until 1964.

The signal box was closed in 1925, replaced with a ground frame. The loops and sidings at the bottom of the inclines survived into the 1950s but were gone before closure. The station closed to passengers in 1956 and the line closed in 1958.

Buildings were demolished before the flooding of the valley to create Kielder Water. Even Plashetts Farm itself, to the north of the former station, is under water. Boats now call at the former incline pier.

Local

Kielder Art and Architecture - Plashetts Village

Tags

External links