HARTBURN

by Ian Manderson

I have always had an interest in the railway lines in Northumberland having been born and brought up in the county. I suspect seeing Ian Futers’ wonderful layouts in amongst the marble columns at York shows long-since passed also had something to do with that. Over the years, I’ve had ideas to build a layout based on one of the many stations that used to exist, ranging from Falstone on the Border Counties line, to most recently, Woodburn on the Wansbeck Valley. Could I not do something similar using the test-track boards? This would have the benefit of allowing me to play with a very simple track-plan to see if it would provide sufficient operator interest as a potential exhibition layout. A far cry from the urban decay of Easington Lane.

Hartburn is a small village in Northumberland. It was never served directly by rail but lay just north of the old Wansbeck Valley Railway from Morpeth to Redesmouth, with the nearest station being Angerton. However, the original plan put forward in 1855 to link Morpeth and Rothbury proposed a line running via Meldon, Hartburn and Longwitton.

This proposition pre-dated the Wansbeck Valley. A survey and report was produced by John Willet but nothing came of the project and Rothbury was eventually linked to Morpeth by the Northumberland Central Railway (NCR) that joined the Wansbeck Valley at Scot’s Gap.

I have therefore based the plan for the layout on the assumption that this original route was built. The track-plan is based upon an amalgamation of the 1862 and 1896 layouts for Angerton. The station buildings will be based on those at Brinkworth on the NCR.

Click here - to see the original page, with details and photographs of construction.