Border Counties Railway

Border Counties Railway
Overview
Status	Closed
Locale	Roxburghshire, Scotland Northumberland, England
Service
Type	Heavy rail
History
Commenced	11 December 1855
Opened	2 April 1858 (1858-04-02)
Completed	24 June 1862
Merged into	North British Railway - 1860
Merged into	London North Eastern Railway - 1923
Merged into	British Railways - 1948
Closed	1 September 1958 (1958-09-01) (except Reedsmouth–Bellingham, closed 11 November  1963)
Technical
Track gauge	4 ft 8+1⁄2 in (1,435 mm)
Route map Legend Waverley Route to Edinburgh Riccarton Junction Waverley Route to Carlisle Saughtree Scotland England Deadwater Kielder Lewiefield Halt Plashetts Plashetts Colliery Waggonway portion of line flooded by Kielder Water Falstone Thorneyburn Tarset Charlton Bellingham Wansbeck Railway to Morpeth Reedsmouth Countess Park (1859–1861) Wark Barrasford Chollerton Chollerford (later Humshaugh) Wall Newcastle & Carlisle Railway to Carlisle Border Counties Bridge Border Counties Junction Hexham Newcastle & Carlisle Railway to Newcastle

The Border Counties Railway was a railway line connecting Hexham in Northumberland, with Riccarton Junction on the Waverley Route in Roxburghshire.

Its promoter had hopes of exploiting mineral resources in the area, and it was taken up by the North British Railway, which hoped to develop it as a through main line between Edinburgh and Newcastle upon Tyne.

The railway opened in stages between 1858 and 1862, but the anticipated level of commercial traffic did not materialise, and the sparse population produced very little local passenger traffic. The line closed to passengers in 1956 and completely in 1963.