The South Tynedale Railway is a preserved2 ft (610 mm) heritage railway in England and is England's highest narrow gauge railway. The route runs from Alston in Cumbria to Lintley in Northumberland via the South Tyne Viaduct, the Gilderdale Viaduct and the Whitley Viaduct.
The railway is operated by a charity, The South Tynedale Railway Preservation Society, which was registered in 1983.
Passenger trains operate on the railway between April (or from Easter weekend if in March) through to October each year and currently (2011) attract 40,000 people to the district every year. Special trains operate including Santa Special trains on certain days in December each year. Although no Santa trains ran in 2011 as volunteer efforts were put into completing the extension to Lintley in time for the 2012 season, they will run again in December 2012 on two successive weekends, 15th, 16th, 22nd, 23rd.
At Alston station there is a cafe and gift shop both operated by the railway company. Free car and coach parking is available adjacent to the station which is located about a quarter mile north of the town on Hexham road.
The present line is now currently more than three and a quarter miles in length and there are plans to extend the line by a further mile and a quarter miles to Slaggyford. It is built on the southern end of the track bed of the disused 4 ft 8 1⁄2 in (1,435 mm) standard gauge Haltwhistle to Alston Line, which formerly connected with the Newcastle and Carlisle Railway at Haltwhistle. The standard gauge line closed down by British Rail on 1 May 1976 and the track bed is mostly intact. The Society has in its principal aims a hope to completely reopen a railway to Haltwhistle.
Read more about South Tynedale Railway: Developments
Famous quotes containing the words south and/or railway:
“To lib and die in Dixie!
Away, away, away down South in Dixie!”
—Daniel Decatur Emmett (1815–1904)
“Her personality had an architectonic quality; I think of her when I see some of the great London railway termini, especially St. Pancras, with its soot and turrets, and she overshadowed her own daughters, whom she did not understand—my mother, who liked things to be nice; my dotty aunt. But my mother had not the strength to put even some physical distance between them, let alone keep the old monster at emotional arm’s length.”
—Angela Carter (1940–1992)