The Berwickshire Railway

 

 

In August 1849 the North British Railway (NBR) opened a double-track branch line, 8½  miles in length from Reston Junction on the main Edinburgh Berwick line to Duns with stations at Chirnside and Edrom. The station at Duns was built about half a mile south of the town because of the marshy nature of the ground. The railway had initially met with a certain amount of opposition. When restoration work was recently being carried out at Gunsgreen House Eyemouth a draft memorial was uncovered drawn up by the Rev. Abraham Home then residing in the property protesting at the opening of the Railway and particularly at the running of services on the Sabbath. A copy of this draft is in the Society Archives. The venture however proved less than successful and eight years later one of the lines was lifted.

Duns Station looking east 1962

However in 1862 a new Company was formed, The Berwickshire Railway Company (BRC) with the purpose of extending the line a further 21 miles to meet the Hawick to Edinburgh ( NBR) line at Ravenswood Junction just north of St. Boswells and involving crossing the River Tweed at Leaderfoot.

At this point work was underway to extend the NBR line to Carlisle, a route subsequently to be known as The Waverly line which would mean not only that the journey to Carlisle from Duns would be cut by 31 miles but also that here would be a direct route to the north west of England.

The new Company had an authorised share capital of £100,000 half of which was to be raised by local subscribers and the other half by the issue of preference shares to shareholders. The Berwickshire Railway Act was passed in 1862.

Among the provisions of this Act was a stipulation that although the Railway was to be single track nonetheless enough land was to be bought for the provision of a second track in due course.

The line would be worked and maintained for the first six months by and at the cost of BRC but thereafter the line would be operated by NBR for a period of ten years renewable by agreement.

Initially it was provided that BRC should have five directors two to be appointed by NBR and the remaining three  by BRC these to be Sir Hugh Hume Campbell, Bart of Marchmont, George Cranstoun Trotter Cranstoun of Dewar and James Dalrymple of Langlea. The two NBR appointments were for life not subject to rotation or re-election.

There were also specific stipulations that where the line crossed Drygrange Estate near Earlston it was to be invisible from Drygrange House by the construction of an artificial grassy knoll and that a station should be built about 350 yards from Sir Hugh Hume Campbell's House at Marchmont where trains would stop for "the purpose of Traffic".

The ceremony of turning the fist sod took place at Greenlaw  then the County Town of Berwickshire on 14th. October 1862.  Just over a year later  construction had reached Earlston with stations having been built at Marchmont, Greenlaw, Gordon and Earlston, 

Now however a major obstacle faced the engineers namely the crossing of the River Tweed at Leaderfoot a crossing which involved the building of a nineteen arch masonary viaduct 907 feet long and 126 feet above the level of the River. The work was carried out by Engineers Charles Jopp and Messrs Wyllie and Peddie and is universally regarded as a magnificent feat of engineering. This viaduct survives and is now a public walkway having been extensively restored by Historic Scotland between 1992 and 1995.

This delayed the completion of the line by almost two years but it was eventually completed on 2nd October 1865. There was later a siding at Lintmill serving RAF Charterhall.

Once completed the line provided a direct service from Berwick to St. Boswells with some trains going on to Kelso and certain goods trains running straight through to Hawick. At St. Boswells there were connections for Edinburgh Waverley and Carlisle.

Initially there were four services per day between Berwick and St. Boswells the journey taking approximately one and a half hours.

Leaderfoot Viaduct	Duns Station looking west

The line never really proved successful partly because it was running in competition with a more southerly line from Berwick to St. Boswells via Kelso.

Although freight was reasonably supported particularly livestock, coal and the transport of building stone from the Earlston area passenger traffic was always disappointing.

Trains were infrequent. Below is timetable from Duns showing apart from a special 6.30 a.m. train to Edinburgh on Wednesday mornings only three trains per day to Edinburgh and Berwick. The date of this timetable is not known but as the old spelling of Dunse appears,this being changed in 1882, it is presumed to be prior to that date. By the standards of the day the fares are not particularly cheap. For instance a first class fare of 10/6d to Edinburgh in even 1880 would equate to something like £70 today. From the ticket there appears  to have been  a stop at Crumstane.

	Following the floods of August 1948 passenger services were suspended pending repairs to the trackbed between Greenlaw and Duns which was washed away. These however these were never fully carried out and while freight traffic continued for a while the line was eventually closed on 16th. July 1965. The line closed without ceremony, the last service being a goods train running from Greenlaw to Hawick. * Much of the above information obtained from a paper written by John Duncan (available in the Society Archives) on the effects on the Railways on Peebles and Duns.
The Railway Track near Duns		A recent photograph of the bed of the Rail Track now a walkway