A RAILWAY line and station from a bygone era in South Tynedale are slowly being recreated as part of an exciting £5.5m scheme.

The Alston-based South Tynedale Railway Preservation Society is spending the winter months rebuilding a 1.5-mile stretch of the old narrow gauge line from Lintley Halt to Slaggyford.

Scheduled for completion on April 1, it will become a sizeable extension to the society’s existing visitor attraction, which sees steam trains run along the 3.5-mile stretch from Alston to Lintley Halt.

The extension has been made possible after the society received a grant from the Heritage Lottery Fund last year.

The former station at Slaggyford, which closed in 1976, is also being revived as part of the scheme, with £74,328 of funding from the Government-led North East Rural Growth Network.

The old station building is being restored, while work to build a replica signal box, a traditional gated level-crossing, a waiting room, ticket office, shop, cafe and public toilets, is also ongoing.

A spokesman for the society said: “This is an exciting time for us as we expand our offering and restore another section of this area’s railway history.

“We’re making a lot of progress. The recreation of the line from Alston is now about 100-metres from Slaggyford.

“Work at Slaggyford station is also progressing well, and the plan is for it all to be completed by April.”

The latest works will complement other projects.

A new discovery centre opened last year at Alston station, where a new cafe and toilet block is currently being built.

More than two years ago, the society unveiled ambitious plans to revive the narrow gauge line all the way from Slaggyford to Haltwhistle by 2022.

Extending the line to Haltwhistle would cost around £17m.

It would bring an estimated 100,000 visitors per year to the district, creating 50 jobs, and also see historic viaducts at Lambley and Haltwhistle brought back into use.

The spokesman added: “There would be a full consultation and agreement with all interested parties before anything happened with this partcular project.

“There are a lot of factors to be considered, from funding to planning and land matters.

“ We are are not going to run roughshod over anyone’s land.”