Help with trains and booking

This is the official rail site for the UK:

http://www.nationalrail.co.uk

This will tell you the schedule and which train company operates your chosen train. You can buy tickets from any train company but I prefer to buy from the company operating the train.

For Hadrian's wall, you can definitely go on your own or take a small group tour with Rabbies out of Edinburgh:

https://www.rabbies.com/en/england-tours/from-edinburgh/day-tours/hadrians-wall-roman-britain-the-scottish-borders-day-tour

For your routing, I doubt a rail pass would pay off. Price each leg of your journey and compare that to the cost of the railpass.

If "we" is two of you, you can probably save with a TwoTogether railcard. It costs £30 for a year but gies you 1/3rd off rail fares, so as long as your planned trains cost £90 or more you will save.

Haltwhistle is the better base to see Hadrian's Wall. But have you thought about how you are going to see it once you get there? It's about 1.5 mile walk north of Haltwhistle so you can either walk (and you can walk along the line of the wall from here) or check up times of the AD122 bus which runs along the line of the wall.

wasleys - although not mentioned directly in the OP Michael mentions saving £125 by going to Haltwhistle rather than being collected in Carlisle, so I assume he's referring to the Hadrian's Wall tour that Peter Carney offers.

Trains don't have public numbers in the UK, unlike in North America. They do internally, within the industry, but those numbers are not used by the public

It doesn't really matter if you go on to Newcastle or back to Carlisle from Hexham or Haltwhistle. Two trains per hour on LNER from Newcastle to London Kings Cross (plus very infrequent Lumo trains), and two trains an hour on Avanti from Carlisle to London Euston.

It's usually cheaper on Avanti from Carlisle, and last trains to London are on either line are after 9pm, getting into London after 1am.

For my liking Avanti are way more comfortable than LNER. But that is subjective.

The AD122 bus is currently every two hours from Haltwhistle station to Hexham station and was in Summer 2023. Whether it reverts to it's historical hourly schedule in Summer 2024 only time will tell.

As I’ve mentioned before, the most scenic part of the wall, the bits in all the photographs, runs from Housesteads fort west to Greenhead. If exploring on your own I’d recommend getting the AD122 bus, as wasleys suggested and get dropped off at Twice Brewed (handy pub if you need to wait for the return bus) and walk up to Steel Rigg car park. From there you have a choice of good wall sections in either direction, east or west. If driving yourself, then merely drive to Steel Rigg and park there.

I guess it depends on how far you want to walk and what you specifically want to see. For instance, Housesteads fort is smack bang on the wall, but Vindolanda is set some distance south of the wall, the Roman Museum is again, a separate location, so you need to work out what you want to see and work out what travel mode gets you there most efficiently. I’d guess that driving yourself would be the best answer but the AD122 does give you a public transport option.

Ian