The Borders Railway

On 10 October Dave Pearce presented Over the Border or Ramble around The Cheviots. He described the history and route of the former North British line from Hexham on the Newcastle to Carlisle line to the isolated hamlet of Riccarton Junction on the Waverley route. He outlined his inspiration to study the route which were the Garden Trains featured in an LNER book run on Sundays for viewing those well kept gardens along the line.

Fully opened by 1860 roughly following the course of the North Tyne river, every station was featured using maps and a wide selection of both black and white and Colour Rail images with many only serving small villages,sometimes remote from their station. Some views were compared with earlier times showing ongoing changes to both buildings and signalling. The infrastructure included the Kielder viaduct over the the Tyne and crossing both Hadrian's Wall and the Scottish Border near the terminus with the only intermediate junction being at Reedsmouth which had a connection to Scotsgap and also a small loco shed. Passenger services were only three trains per day powered by a variety of ex LNER power from Class J21s to the larger Class K3s usually with two or three coaches and a Saturdays only train from Kielder to Hexham.

There was also a freight service serving various sidings along the line and occasionally military trains and enthusiast specials. The line closed to passengers in October 1956 and freight in 1963 although some stations such as Wall had closed earlier and part of the route is now submerged under the Kielder Reservoir constructed in the early eighties.

Some of the buildings are still in use by the Leisure industry. A fascinating insight into a little know line.