Roygraham

Can anyone help me with details of working arrangements for Hardengreen (South) Signal Box? roygraham

I have a picture 'somewhere' of one pulling some ECS off the Border Counties at Riccarton. I'll try to dig it out. roygraham

When did Peaks on the WR start using brake tenders? roygraham

Pre-Grouping working arrangements. From a detailed examination of working timetables it would seem that there was a major reconfiguration of workings around the time of WW1. Prior to that it would seem that with the exception of the three, yes three, Midland expresses, trains from Carlisle terminated at Riccarton, and a shuttle service operated thence to Hawick. Similarly with the Border Counties, hence Riccarton was a more significant shed than Hawick with a bigger allocation. So that I can pinpoint the date of change can anyone help me with copies of WTTs from 1910 to 1923? roygraham

In a word, No. roygraham

Hi Chard, Thanks all o.k. The idea of a double decker going through the 'golden bridge' however, brings tears to the eyes!!!! roygraham

The elusive school train. The school train stopped running the summer of 1962. I started at the High School in 1963. Paul's brother Tony was the year above me and he was in the first year on the buses. Another person you could ask about the school trains is Sandra Inglis, who lives in details removed to protect personal data in Newcastleton. She might have been the year above Paul Davidson. The train left the Holm at 08.00 ( I can provide you with times taken from a copy of the working timetable which I have at home). As I understand it one of the locos came off banking duties and worked the school/ workers train between Newcastleton and Hawick. The return working of the coaches was on the 18.15 from Hawick, which was mainly used by mill workers returning home in the evening. According to the working timetable I have, after dropping the coaches in Newcastleton yard, the loco ran light to Carlisle. About 1961, the railway cut the service on the Waverley route - a pair of Edinbrugh-Carlisle trains was taken off including the one which left The Holm about 4pm and took school children up to Steele Road, Riccarton and Whitrope (after the closure of Riccarton School). There was even somebody who travelled form Shankend to school in the Holm. After this point, the few Riccarton kids had to catch a train home about 2pm. But the Patterson family moved to Newcastleton (Thomas Patterson still lives in Newcastleton, so you could ask him about Riccarton school). I can give you approximate dates when people left Riccarton, gleaned from the Valuation Rolls. Back to the school train. About 1961, I think the mill times changed, and the trains no longer suited the workers. Nichols started running what we called the workers' Bus - 08.00 from the Holm and returning at 17.15. There was also another Workers Bus run by Dodman's Garage. It left the Holm at 07.00 and also returned at 17.15. Rob Wilson was one of the drivers and he still lives in the Holm. I think the 0700 bus worked back to the Holm and opicked up school kids from the Hermitage area for Newcastleton School. And wiorked from The Holm to Hawick via Hermitage with school kids in the afternoon. I think Dennis Elliot was the driver. Now, it gets more complicated. The Workers' Bus signalled the end of commuting by trains. All the remaining workers deserted the train, and the evening Hawick to Newcastleton train was withdrawn. At this point the school train was reduced to a single coach, leaving the Holm at 08.00, It returned to the Holm on a mid afternoon freight train and was dumped off in the siding. This was the situation immediately prior to the withdrawal of the school train in 1962. Starting in August 1962, the Council had the problem of how to get the Riccarton kids to school in Hawick. So they attached a coach to a Kingmoor - Millerhill freight. It used to go through The Holm about 7.20, and picked up at Riccarton about 07.53. I think the coach must have returned on an afternoon freight. This arrangement lasted for two or three years, but by 1965 or '66, there was nobody left at Riccarton. I can give you details of this. My father said that Baroness Elliott was to blame for the demise of the school train and therefore of the Waverley route. You might ask him about this. Ironically, if the school train had still been running when the Newcastleton school secondary department shut, it would have been picking up about 60 or 70 passengers each day. They could have run the 0920 ex Carlisle a couple of hours early. but I guess that was too creative for those days. There were 2 school buses in my day. A fat bus leaving at 08.00, and the 'Country Bus- which left at 07.50. One bus sat in the school playground overnight ( it was always freezing in the winter, and disgustingly flithy). The two drivers came down on a bus from Hawick leaving about 07.00 and this bus carried a few passnegers e.g. school teachers working in the Holm who lived in Hawick. In the evening, they returned on one bus about 5pm

Hard to tell from this shot whether the roof has been raised of not. i.e. is it early or late 50's.

There was certainly a typhoid outbreak at Shankend which killed many people, my recollection of reading about it tells me it was earlier than WWI but I could be wrong. No doubt documented in Hawick library or the Heritage hub. roygraham