The engineering contractors, George Meakin and J.W. Dean of Hampstead, North London, were appointed by the North Eastern Railway to execute Contracts numbers 1 and 2 for the building of the railway line between Alnwick and Cornhill. Contract number 1 was for the southerly part of the line, starting from Alnwick. They started work in January 1884 and laid various temporary tracks associated with their work. At least seven small locomotives were used during the works plus about 150 small wagons. The locomotives were offered for sale at auctions in Alnwick on 26th July, then 26th and 27th August 1887 after the line was complete. One of the locomotives, named SAMBO, was involved in a derailment and fire in Rugley Woods during the progress of the work. The only known photograph of one of the locomotives employed on this contract is shown below. The photograph was not taken at Alnwick but on a subsequent contract. Its name, by this time had been changed from CORNHILL to LULI.
A second contractor was involved with the Alnwick to Cornhill line in 1967 and 1968 when George H. Campbell, of Glasgow, won the contract for the dismantling and track-lifting of the southern part of the line in which a small 4-wheeled locomotive was used.