Alnwick Lionheart railway station

Alnwick Lionheart is a railway station situated on the edge of the Lionheart Enterprise Park on the outskirts of Alnwick, Northumberland. It is the western terminus and operational base of the preserved Aln Valley Railway which is currently working to rebuild the original Alnwick branch line from there to Alnmouth station. The station was constructed on a different site from the original Alnwick station due to the construction of the A1 Alnwick bypass which removed a section of the original trackbed on the edge of the town as well as the construction of buildings on the original station site and some of the trackbed on the approach to it. The Newcastle and Berwick Railway (N&BR) main line between Gateshead and Berwick was authorised by the Newcastle and Berwick Railway Act 1845 (8 & 9 Vict. c. clxiii) of 31 July 1845 but due to its primary purpose being for inter-city traffic, it passed almost 3 miles east of Alnwick, the area's main market town. Thus also included within this act were powers to construct a branch line to link Alnwick to the main line at Alnmouth station. Nonetheless, the company's priority was to construct its main line which was completed 1 July 1847. The delay to the opening of the branch line meant that a temporary horse-drawn omnibus service was provided between Alnwick and Lesbury station on the main line. This was, however, short-lived and the contract for construction of the branch was let in August 1848, with rapid progress meaning that the line could formally open on the 5 August 1850. The original 1850 Alnwick station was constructed at the edge of the town, adjacent to Shilbottle Coal Company depot (linked to Shilbottle Colliery by a wagonway). It was a modest single-platform station and a steady growth in traffic meant that it had become inadequate by 1885 when Alnwick Town Council requested that North Eastern Railway (NER) (successor to the N&BR) improve the facilities provided for the town. After some initial reluctance, the NER constructed a new station, closer to the town centre, which opened on 5 September 1887, coinciding with the opening of the NER-built Alnwick to Cornhill Railway, and converted the original station buildin

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