South Tyne Trail Traditional Cache

This cache is located close to Haltwhistle Railway station and the old Haltwhistle to Alston railway line.  Parking is available at the railway station or in Haltwhistle Town Centre or you can arrive by train of course. Bring your own pen and tweezers may also be required.

The Haltwhistle to Alston branch line covered 17 miles (27km) from the town of Haltwhistle, providing both passenger services and, in the early days, carried lead from mines in the upper South Tyne Valley. It included the monumental Lambley Viaduct and was the last of the branch lines to close in 1976. Part of the Alston end has been turned into a narrow gauge heritage railway, the South Tynedale Railway.

The nearby viaduct over the River South Tyne, known as the 'Alston Arches' is a six arch structure, with the water spanned by four wide segmental skew arches. The line started to climb at the viaduct on a gradient of 1:100. To gain height to bypass the initial constrictions in the valley, the line left the town in an arc. The viaduct is approached from the junction near Haltwhistle station by a high embankment, which lifts the track-bed off the flood plain of the River South Tyne. To the south of the viaduct this embankment was breached in 1996 by the new A69 Haltwhistle by-pass.

In spite of being only a single track railway, the Grade II listed viaduct appears quite massive. The river piers have cutwaters upsteam and downstream. An unusual feature is the line of openings through the piers, which have been said to be intended to take a footbridge. There are no indications that a footbridge was ever provided and there are no fixing holes or bolts and curiously there is no opening through the right bank pier. It is therefore more likely that the openings are to reduce the weight of the piers and loading on the foundations, which are supported on timber piles. They have the aesthetic merit of lightening the structure.

Thanks very much to cookiesx4 for the inspiration behind this cache