While listening to the latest Railnatter (Episode 248: What should the Scottish rail map look like? 2), a point mentioned during the episode was enhancing existing lines and doing some ‘corner cutting’; meaning taking out sharp bends in the track to achieve enhancements of the alignment for better speeds, capacity etc.
Applying that to the newly opened Northumberland Line, I feel that the New Hartley Curve would be one obvious place where a new alignment to cut off the current near ‘corner’ would be advantageous to improving the alignment ahead of works like electrification etc.
All of the below comments are my own opinions, and do not represent those of any other organisations or bodies. I am also an interested amateur, so this lacks the engineering knowledge to ascertain it’s viability as a proposal. It is intended to be a talking point and hopefully lead to a wider discussion of how the arguably already successful Northumberland Line might be
The Existing Line (Jan 2025)
Further evidence for how tight the curve is at New Hartley is the presence of a check rail, which is a third rail laid adjacent to the inside rail of the curve to help protect trains travelling around it.
As can be seen from this cab ride video, from the West Blyth Shed YouTube channel, from 12m 18s, passing over St. Michaels Avenue, through to 13m, the New Hartley Curve is fitted with a check rail, indicating how tight a curve it is.
This tight curve is a limit on line speed, as well as presenting an increased risk to trains (which is why a check rail is present to reduce this risk to a more acceptable level).
Easing or Doubling the Existing Curve?
With a lot of new buildings on the inside of New Hartley Curve, easing of it is unlikely; indeed had this been something easily done, it probably would have been already undertaken for the Northumberland Line scheme.
The line is also single track through this section, and while doubling might be possible along the present alignment, the space between running lines would have to be greater to allow for the overhang of longer rail vehicles going around the curve, and could result in the inside curve being even tighter.
Again, development being fairly tight against the curve will make this a challenging objective to achieve; and doing this work on a now live railway will be particularly challenging.
Electrification, and more intense use of the lines in this part of Northumberland would make a lot of sense; with intensive Northumberland Line services already, alongside railfreight, and the campaign for longer distance Newcastle to Berwick/Edinburgh services to run via Bedlington (the Northumberland Coast Loop), using the known diversionary route via Hepscott, but also the longer term proposals for a new Ashington to Widdrington link line too.
To me, leaving such a tight curve in place seems a little absurd in the longer term and to ‘wire it up’ would be illogical too, when the opportunity for a much better route is there.
A New Curve at New Hartley
In my view, an overall better solution might be to build a much shallower (gentler) curve to the north west of New Hartley. This would replace the existing line, which could be closed and made into a footpath/cycle route linking to the new Newsham station (giving a more direct, off road route between Blyth and Seaton Delaval Hall/North Tyneside.
The old alignment could be repurposed as an active travel route, but retaining strategic ownership in the (perhaps very unlikely) event that reopening of the Avenue Branch, (which would connect Newsham, on the Northumberland Line, to Monkseaton station on the Coast Loop of the Tyne and Wear Metro) ever comes in the future.
Starting at Seaton Delaval station (itself a candidate for doubling), the current line would be followed under the A192 bridge, with the new curve starting just beyond, curving into what is presently a caravan sales site. This would readily relocatable or even simply adjusted around any new line, especially as once the older line was replaced, it would likely close to rail traffic and be turned to other uses.
To cross Double Row/Bristol Street there should be potential to bridge the new rail alignment, avoiding needing a new level crossing here. Once across the road, the new line would head through a small plantation woodland, to connect to the Northumberland Line again near Lysdon Farm.
The concept for this cut-off curve was actually from looking at old maps of the area, and seeing that a very similar route linking collieries existed back on the 1937-1961 OS Maps, as seen above on the National Library for Scotland side by side map service.
Due to development of housing around the area of the former Hastings and Melton pits, the new route would have to be bent further north, but as this is agricultural land, should be able to be done with little to no major problems.
Aside from the slight relocation of a caravan sales business, and a new bridge to take Double Row over the new alignment, the rest of the route is just new track over farmland or through small bits of plantations; which could be compensated elsewhere by planting of new woodland.
Route Protection
Understandably, the Northumberland Line is a newly opened route, has just had near £300m spent on it, and is not yet fully open, so the proposal to build a new section of line to bypass this curve might seem extreme.
That being said, the Northumberland Line is already showing great signs of success; despite only two stations being open at time of writing (25.1.25) at Ashington and Seaton Delaval, the line has already carried well over 50,000 passengers since opening on 15th December 2024. Also, housebuilding in Northumberland, particularly in this area, is expanding rapidly, so protection of this route is vital to ensuring other developments don’t block it.
Future Fitness, Not Preservation In Aspic
Whilst the New Hartley Curve has long been part of the Blyth and Tyne route, now the Northumberland Line; the rail network should not been seen as being ‘preserved in aspic’, and left unchanged for centuries. While track might be called ‘the permanent way’, it reality it is anything but, with routes realigned and adjusted depending on demands.
With a brighter future ahead, with the Northumberland Line steadily working towards full opening, and expansions to the services already been proposed, replacing New Hartley Curve could help enable this, driving up rail capacity, improving line speeds and making the rail network better.
Let’s push for the potential new route to be protected for the future, and hopefully built sooner rather than later.
Ryan Hogg 