RAILDATE 2024.08.09

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The Weekly Poser: Where is this?

The straight line (bottom) of a Roman road just misses this town/city, and a cycleway clearly follows the route of a former railway on the right. Where is it?

Last week's Where is this?

The buildings of this former terminus still stand, and now house a well-known business. Where is it?

Answer: Alnwick. Congratulations are due to the following for their correct answers: Keith Langston, Dave Goodyear, Ian Lowe, Colin Penfold, Chris Parker, Leslie Braithwaite, Andrew Treves, Richard Maund, Brian Billing, Chris Gibbard, Philip Hastings, Paul Tambini, Mike Rapp, Tony Fox, Chris Knowles, John Czyrko, Phil Drake, Simon Wass, Bob Joshua, Paul Hopper, Jim Allwood, Peter Tisdale

One of Britain's largest second-hand bookshop - Barter Books - now occupies the site. There is more info about their usage of the station buildings on the Barter Books website.

Alnwick was a terminus for two lines. The "senior" line connected with the ECML at Alnmouth and closed in 1968. The second line was the short-lived line to Coldstream in Berwickshire (1887-1930), whose station was some way away at Cornhill on Tweed in England.

The town developed around Alnwick Castle, the home of the Percy family - the Earls of Northumbria. It is a key point on the Great North Road, but is now bypassed. The bypass prevented the Aln Valley Railway from reaching the former terminus, but the replacement yard is adjacent to the the new road.

Alnwick has an interesting marine connection, despite its inland location. The 1st Class Dining Room of the Olympic, sister ship of the Titanic, was bought at auction by the owner of the White Swan Hotel as the ship was being broken up at Jarrow in 1935. He remodelled the 300-year-old coaching hotel around it. The Olympic Suite is shown below.

At the time of Nationalisation, the former Coldstream route had been replaced by a fairly frequent United Automobile service (No. 21) which stopped where people lived, not miles away. Passengers on some services would change onto a Newcastle-Edinburgh No 15. See the article above about the "Alnwick Greenway", which is adopting some of the former railway.

SMALL PRINT

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©  Matthew Shaw 2024