The Amble Branch Railway
February 2026 Meeting Report
Bartle Rippon, a lifelong railway enthusiast, was born in Amble where he still lives. As a child and later as a young man he had first hand experience of the comings and goings of cargo on the Amble Branch railway line. The line had closed to passengers in July 1930 but continued for freight and coal until finally closing completely in October 1969. At our meeting on Monday 2nd February he took us on a pictorial and anecdotal journey through the history of the Amble Branch Railway.
Coal mining in the area began in the C18th and Amble was the nearest port from which the coal could be exported. From Acklington it had once been carried by horse drawn cart and later by locomotive engine until the opening of the branch railway line in 1849. It was originally a single track line with branches joining from the Togston, Newbrough, Radcliffe and Hauxley Collieries.
Thirty years later passenger trains were introduced to the line with the station at Amble being completed in 1892. A photograph of a crowded Broomhill Station from 1910 shows that these trains were well used.
During the Second World War children were being evacuated to the relative safety of Northumberland from areas considered to be at risk from German air raids. The Amble branch line played a part here too. In 1939 a photograph taken at Amble Station shows local school children taking part in an enactment to demonstrate what evacuation would look like.
But Amble continued to be a thriving harbour for the export of coal, with the line running all the way down to the quayside. The Coquet Oil Company also grew up in the area because of its proximity to the harbour.
After its closure in 1969 the line fell into disrepair until no trace of its existence now remains. It was interesting to see photographs of whole streets of houses, shops and businesses which have sprung up in the intervening years to fill the space once occupied by the railway.
A view of the SS Thrift, the last steamship to enter Amble Harbour on the 30th July 1966, served as a reminder of the thriving port that once existed on our doorstep.
Report by Kathryn McLachlan