EDITED 28th December to include caption highlights.

And an Early Blue 47 at Melrose (image 26778), check out the headcode, I would LOVE confirmation that this is 1547, that I have now based a Bachmann i.d. tweak on, as covered in my W/B Blog.

Enjoy...

http://www.railbrit....e2.php?id=26820 Keshopefoot looking north towards L/C

http://www.railbrit....e2.php?id=26778 1547 (?) at Melrose, check out headcode

http://www.railbrit....e2.php?id=26771 GRCW at Leith Central DMU shed

http://www.railbrit....e2.php?id=26756 Selkirk Sta 1970

http://www.railbrit....e2.php?id=26755

http://www.railbrit....e2.php?id=26736 St Boswells northwards view

http://www.railbrit....e2.php?id=26733 D2720 ready to lift Kelso - Tweedmouth section

http://www.railbrit....e2.php?id=26719 Riccarton from Up Peak-hauled Class 1

http://www.railbrit....e2.php?id=26663 Early Blue 24 at Whitrope, i.d. confirmation sought

http://www.railbrit....e2.php?id=26600 Up view into Whitrope from 40-hauled 4M45

http://www.railbrit....e2.php?id=26572 5307 at Whitrope, obbo special April 1st 1971

http://www.railbrit....e2.php?id=26541 Class 37 D6838 at Whitrope December '68 RARITY

http://www.railbrit....e2.php?id=26522 Non-Waverley: last Corstorphine DMU at Waverley

http://www.railbrit....e2.php?id=26493 Class 08 across Hawick rooftops, demolition 1971

http://www.disused-stations.org.uk/l/longtown/index5.shtml

I thought it as good a time as any to dedicated a thread to the Specials that worked over the route.

Excursions, Ruggexes, Crankexes, Scottish Grand Tours and the Ghoulexes that ran on the Last Weekend.

* a dram on me for the correct answer

It wouldn't strictly be a reopening of the Waverley Route as the strengths and weaknesses of current trains are different to Victorian ones - so the curves are wider and the gradients steeper. It's envisaged as an electrified double-track railway (which, yeah, would require some rebuilding and rethinking of the current route).

The major obstacles, as always, are not technical so much as persuading the UK and Scottish governments of the desirability and necessity of the scheme!

I haven’t been to quickly find the answer on line hence my question . 
Help appreciated.

Cheers

Mac

I'm planning to build 'Cruikglen', a station in a similar location to Hawick which never really existed. I do plan to run two timetables based on Waverley traffic. One will be based around 1956/57..the second around 1964/65.

I've done some research on the passenger train formations of the time:

St Pancras - Waverley 1955 21:05 from St Pancras - A3 hauled on Waverley

All Stanier stock

Full brake

Sleeping composite

Sleeping composite

Sleeping third

Sleeping first

Corridor composite

Corridor composite

Corridor third

Corridor third

Corridor third

Full brake

St Pancras -Waverley 1964 21:20 from St Pancras - Peak hauled on Waverley

All Mark 1 stock

Full brake

Sleepingsecond

Sleepingfirst

Compositecorridor

Compositecorridor

Secondcorridor

Secondcorridor

Secondcorridor

Full brake

Anyone disagree with this so far, and can you guys point me to references for other through and stopping train formations in the appropriate years.

Thanks in advance

Dave

Hello everyone, my name is Alastair and I am from Hawick, Scotland. I am 25 years old and I consider myself a keen amateur historian and archivist. I hold a particular nostalgic interest in the Waverley Route, West Fife Mineral Line and the railways of Glasgow. My dad first took me to a model rail exhibition in Hawick Town Hall c.1991 and purchased me my first Hornby set soon after! These days my significant other has set a blanket ban on creating/discussing model railways although I intend to create my own homage to the Border Union Railway once I get a big enough garden!!!

In my spare time I run a community group called 'Project Hawick' (link in signature). We are a social discussion forum and digital archive for Hawick and the wider Borders region which started in October 2012. So far we have 93 members and our aim is to educate people on local history and to facilitate an online historical repository, in a similar vein to the B.B.C.'s Doomsday Project of 1986.

I hope to use my time on these forums to re-invigorate my interest in model rail and make some contacts regards to the Waverley Route and Project Hawick. Thanks for having me!

I'm not looking reproduce it 100% but rather I want a box which 'captures' the Waverley Route feel, so from that point of view perhaps one of the most famous boxes on the route would have to be Shankend.

I've managed to google a couple of pictures of the box, mostly in its currently holiday home guise but still useful.

Just wondering if anyone could point me in the direction of any useful looking pictures, in particular no one seems to have taken a shot from the steps end of the box for some reason!!

Thanks in advance

MHB

I intend to write an account of the issues facing the railway and the efforts of the railwaymen to keep it open, for the next issue of the WRHA's journal, The Waverley. Quite a difference in comparison with the lack of effort to keep the railways open these last few days.

For now though, here are a few links to photos of the episode, from Whitrope to Steele Road.

https://www.railscot.co.uk/img/47/146/

http://www.disused-stations.org.uk/s/steele_road/steele(lynn_peter_brock_archive1.1963)old19.jpg

https://waverleyrouteha.files.wordpress.com/2013/01/snowplough_riccarton_1963.jpg

https://waverleyrouteha.files.wordpress.com/2011/03/scan0011.jpg

https://waverleyrouteha.files.wordpress.com/2011/03/scan00071.jpg

https://waverleyrouteha.files.wordpress.com/2011/03/scan00102.jpg

Stobs couldn't be much simpler as stations go - a single goods siding on the Down side and a trailing crossover opposite the signalbox of whose purpose I have no idea. The only uses I can think of are rescuing trains which have got into trouble on the climb out of Hawick, or releasing banking engines used to give heavy troop trains an initial shove out of Stobs Camp sidings. So I will model the crossover but non-working as I can't imagine ever needing to use it.  

The main problem is the usual WR one - no useful scenic breaks.  At the south end there is a deep cutting and lots of trees which should be enough to hide the entrance to the loops, but to the north of Barns Viaduct is a long embankment which is really unhelpful. I'll have to fudge it, with sharply rising ground to a typical WR sheep bridge providing the necessary scenic break, helped by a few more trees. I think it's doable but the first stage will be to knock up a quarter-scale model out of card and polystyrene and see how it looks.

This layout is going to be all about operation, presenting a representative selection of WR trains in a sequence which bears at least some resemblance to the working timetable.  I'll have eight loops to play with, the shortest of which will handle 10 coaches or 30 wagons with room to spare.  Keeping one loop free  I need to come up with seven classic WR formations.  Suggestions welcome, but my thinking at the moment is as follows:

1. Waverley / Leeds-Edinburgh express (8-9 coaches)

2. Edinburgh-Carlisle semi-fast (4-5 coaches and a varying number of vans)

3. Carlisle-Hawick stopper (2-3 coaches)

4. Class C fast freight (30 wagons inc fish and perishables vans)

5. Class E freight (30 wagons)

6. Carlisle-Hawick pick-up goods

7. The tricky one.  Parcels, or night sleeper?  If I make the two short trains share a single loop I could have both...

Locomotives - I gave some serious thought to the "death steam" era around 1965, but as DJM have shelved their Clayton for now I've gone for that short but glorious period when Pacifics and V2s were being cascaded down from ECML services and could turn up on pretty much any working.  There are a fair few gaps in the RTR offerings - K3, D49 and J36 are the obvious ones - but A1, A2, A3, A4, B1, V2, J39, Standard 4MT, diesel classes 26 and 40, and the odd Britannia and Black Five should cover most workings for now.

Does anyone have scale drawings for any of the station buildings?

Richard

Out of curiosity, does anyone know where D5307 and inspection saloon went, after Bruce McCartney photographed them exiting Whitrope Tunnel?  Did they get as far as Carlisle and come back?  I don't recall seeing any photos of the return leg.

Richard

Anyone wishing a copy should send me a message on this forum with their email address.

Bill

At 28ft long, probably one for a Lottery win and that bespoke train room/outbuilding you've always fancied:

The initial plan is using turn of the century 25 inch maps and so some pruning would be required dictated by the time period you'd want to set it in.  I've added the shed sidings though.

Code 40`

Best

Scott

I seem to recall that both Eastfield and Haymarket depots received a small allocation of class 25/3s when new in 1966/67. Does anyone know if the Haymarket 25/3s ever ventured onto the Waverley route, or alternatively did any of the LMR 25/3s reach the route?  I ve noted a couple of  Waverley based layouts here on RMweb have 25/3s featured on them, however  l confess l don't think l ve ever seen a photo or heard mention of this  actually occurring ?

Bob C

Can anyone advise when the Down and Up sidings were lifted respectively? Ditto demolition of the original 3-road engine shed.

I assume the later engine shed and elevated coal loading siding would have been removed when the branch was closed?

It looks like the bay at the Edinburgh end was removed very early on.

I'm primarily interested in mid 50s to early 60s.

Best

Scott.

Richard

I'm imagining a loaded train travelling north for some weekend works. Anyone know what haulage power would have been ~1957 and ~1964.

I suspect I can use an EE type 4 for the later date, but can I justify a WD or 8F for the earlier date? Anyone know of any photographic envidence?

Cheers

Dave

Can anyone advise on appropriate numbers and dates for suitable locomotives, along with advice on disc/central box/split box configurations on those dates. Links to photographs would be appreciated.

I have a few already:

http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/gallery/image/14929-dent-head-class-45-d34-down-waverley-may-66jpg

D19 - Split box? -1964 - TWR post war years p27

D20 - Split box -1962 - TWR post war years p12

D24 - Split box -1965 - Last years of TWR p36

Cheers

Dave

Absolutely no prizes for identifying the location in Hornby's catalogue photo of 78047.

 https://www.hattons.co.uk/stockdetail.aspx?SID=513728 

Richard

Books: 

Steam on the Waverley Route - R.H.Leslie (Bradford Barton)

On the Waverley Route (Edinburgh - Carlisle in colour) - R Robotham (Ian Allan)

The Waverley Route (Postwar Years) - R Robotham (Ian Allan)

Hexham to Hawick - Darsley & Lovett (Middleton Press)

Carlisle to Hawick - Darsley & Lovett (Middleton Press)

Last Years of the Waverley Route - D Cross (OPC)

Waverley (Portrait of a Famous Route) - R Siviter (Runpast)

Waverley Route Through Time - Perkins & Macintosh (Amberley)

BR Past & Present No 9 (South East Scotland) - Sanders & Hodgins (Silver Link)

Waverley Route (Railway World Special) - N Caplan (Ian Allan)

Border Country Branch Line Album - N Caplan (Ian Allan)

District Controller's View No 8 The Waverley Route - J Hodge (Xpress)

Border Counties Railway 2 (Reedsmouth to Hawick) - D R Dunn (Book Law)

DVDs:

Railways of Scotland vol 2 The Waverley Route (Cinerail)

Britain's Lost Main Line (TVP)

What follows is the launch post, exported from Photo Links & Discussion:

Now I realise there's a structures list somewhere, and no doubt one of our regular contributors can put their hands straight on it, however, being of Geography bent, red-brick taught, and hungry for Waverley research, I've been busy on the usual satellite websites to try and fill in Dave's gaps. And I must say, with some inconclusivity.

• I'm taking as my datum, bridge 251 that I assume to be the Esk Viaduct at Longtown, demolished.
• Immediately south, the line passed over the lane continuation of Esk Street, I'm assuming, on demolished underbridge 252
• A minor road passes over the line near to the Arthuret Church, as recorded by Dave and Abi, and labelled clearly BRB ETC 253 on the parapet
• A short distance south is a private farm access which I assume had a user-worked occupation crossing at one time, then
• There's a culvert east of Arthuret Road which appears to be extant - could this be 254?
• Next we reach Fauldmoor L/C which appears to have a brick and conrete-built hut and its original keeper's cottage intact and in a delightful state of upkeep
• The footpath/ fisherman's span over the abutments of the Lyne Viaduct is presumably the former bridge 255
• Lyneside (station) L/C switch room and spacious station house every inch a des-res
• A substantial culvert south of here may be bridge 256
• A private farm access intersects on its way west from the A7, another user-worked crossing maybe
• A minor road crosses bridge 257 (no BRB ETC markings visible - Dave did you definitely record this as 258, because...)
• A substantial breach in the P-way yawns where it's bisected by a fulsome tributary of the Lyne flowing west, at what was bridge 258 I'd reckon
• Harker - still appeared in the W/T/T in 1968 - when it was presided over by bridge 259 as today
• Parkhouse old A74 bridge 260, shame the adjacent pub's no longer consecrated, start or finish point for many a recce
• Bridge 261 Kingmoor Road
• Bridge 262 the WCML Caley hump
• Kingmoor/ Cargo Road Culvert 263
• Stainton L/C
• Bridge 264 Stainton occupation bridge
• ETC 265 Eden Viaduct

So, was 265 the highest numbered Waverley structure? And what's the truth about these bridges between 253 and 259? Did all culverts warrant a number, for instance?

However I have studied photographs of the Shankend area during the time of the legend and I can't find anything to suggest a manor or gardens, ruined or otherwise. So is there any truth to the legend? has anyone had a weird experience at Shankend during the 1950s, don't worry there'll be no mockery on this thread. In fact does anyone have any story they'd like to put forwards?

ScR

Theres a voice that calls me on.