A COFFIN was carried on to the last British Rail passenger train to travel along the Haltwhistle to Alston line in 1976.

Wreaths hung in the stations that May 1 and Northumbrian pipers mourned its passing with sorrowful airs.

The loss of the service felt like a death in the community.

Forty years on, the good burghers behind South Tynedale Railway are planning a whole weekend of activities designed to commemorate that day, but as things have turned out, there is also something to celebrate too.

For the dale still has a railway, albeit in an entirely different form, and it is currently enjoying a £5.6m makeover, thanks mostly to the Heritage Lottery Fund.

Visitor development manager Kim Holden said: “It was a sombre occasion, according to those present in 1976, with a lot of sad people.

“Ironically, they had a really high number of people turn out that day – around 5,000 – most of whom hadn’t used the train for a very long time.

“But, you know, they didn’t manage to kill off the railway in Alston. The South Tynedale Railway Preservation Society came along and here we are today, with a beautiful railway to be proud of.”

And so the events the team have planned for this weekend will, in fact, have the atmosphere of a party rather than a wake.

There will be a disco, complete with ‘70s music and a glitter ball, Northumbrian pipers sounding happier than they did last time round, and food that harks back 40 years – so Findus crispy pancakes and Arctic Roll, surely.

Be warned, though, they also plan to broadcast Brotherhood of Man’s Save All Your Kisses for Me over the tannoy. Sadly, the chart-topper of the time didn’t die with British Rail.

Today, South Tynedale Railway is the highest narrow gauge railway in the North, and as a tourism venture, it is certainly holding its own – last year 16,000 visitors made their way to this far-flung outpost in the North Pennines.

One of the aims enshrined in the charity’s constitution is ultimately to reinstate the railway all the way to Haltwhistle.

However, with significant stretches of the land and many of the properties en route now in private hands, that has proved a sensitive issue.

“We don’t really talk about that anymore,” said general manager Heather Palmer.

“We have no plans to go to Haltwhistle at the moment.

“We need to just focus on what we are doing now, which is extending the line from Lintley Halt to Slaggyford.”

The contractors are due to arrive any day now and the work will begin in earnest during the first week of May on that front.

The track bed will be replaced, a level crossing re-installed at Slaggyford and a new signal box built.

The original station building is still there, but its timber cladding requires a degree of restoration.

A toilet block will be built, one of the old buffet coaches will be turned into a cafe and a car park created.

“With Alston at one end and Slaggyford at the other, that will give us a sort of double-ended terminus with proper facilities for the first time in the society’s history,” said Heather.

There will be new additions at Alston station, too namely a new cafe and toilet block and, importantly, the installation of a second platform.

A roof will also be put up over the two platforms to provide shelter, at long last, from the driving Pennines rain.

On top of that, the old train storage depot will be converted into a super-duper engineering workshop complete with public viewing gallery, with a new train storage depot created further down the track.

A new information centre, christened the Discovery Centre, has already opened this season.

And even the trains themselves are being overhauled.

Two of the locomotives that run on electric batteries are being refurbished, and the prized Hunslet locomotive is being converted to run on wood-waste briquettes instead of coal.

“It will be the first in Britain to do so and maybe the first in Europe,” said Heather.

“Fossil fuels are a big thing within heritage railways, so we are trying to lead the way by finding an alternative.

“Our locomotives usually run at 12mph, but we have permission to run them at up to 25mph and the battery electrics will run at 18mph, so they will have a much quicker transfer time than at present.

“Should we ever get to Haltwhistle, they would be able to play a part in providing a passenger service.”

Under the terms of the Heritage Lottery grant, the restoration work has to be completed by the beginning of April 2017, ready for a grand unveiling that Easter.

The South Tynedale Railway Preservation Society has come a long way in its four decades of existence, said Heather, and achieved an incredible amount, considering it was run by volunteers for most of that time.

The professional management team, comprising Heather, Kim et al, was only appointed 20 months ago to run the multi-million pound redevelopment.

“The volunteers did an amazing job – they delivered way beyond expectations,” said Heather.

Today, the society has 335 members and 60 to 70 active volunteers who turn out come rain or shine.

But with the rate at which the bijou enterprise is expanding, there’s always a need for more.