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Herewith a photo taken from Laing Terrace in Hawick. I've enhanced it slightly. I thought originally it was a silver top of a Royal Coach, but was informed (thanks, Dave) that it's probably a lot lower in order - the "Scudd". Bruce

True - and, of course, it helped to swell the deficit figure!

First and foremost, the original photo was taken by a friend living in Longtown, so it's thank to him for allowing me to scan it and put it up on Railscot. (He has more....) The location is around a mile and a half north of Longtown. The loco's on the Up line; the location is just at what's known locally as Three Bridges, ie the A7, the railway and an old road bridge all over the Glenzier Burn which appears on some maps as the Glinger Burn. There was another post of one of his photos with someone stripped to the waist uprooting the track on the same day on Railscot a while back. Hope this clears up any confusion probably brought about by the rarity of seeing LMR demolition of the line in progress! Bruce.

Common Ridings are "better felt than telt". Download the Hawick Word book to find out more about the C-R in Hawick.

And here's an old postcard of the bridge being used as an advantage point during the Common Riding. Bruce.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-leeds-25364686 Article on the S and C with a Waverley Express train photo. What might have been had the Waverley Route survived a few more years?

Definitely blue and grey, but can anyone identify the Peak? It appears to be a single number. Attached scan of my original photo. (Note the left hand handle grip of my Velocette just in view!) The photo was also taken with some Agfa roll film I'd been persuaded to try by the local shop in Hawick: it was colour negative, but would give b/w prints (allegedly). It wasn't a complete success. Railscot ref 22999, 22905 and 29747 were also with the same film and faulty camera. Bruce.

Sorry, a bit off-topic, but a little piece of history. One very happy man who used to work Stow box above and was on duty at Hawick South on 5 January 1969. http://www.hawick-news.co.uk/lifestyle/lifestyle-leisure/centenarian-james-joins-elite-club-1-3022853 Jimmy was scheduled to be on duty for the final working, but the late Gordon Hall swapped shifts with Jimmy so that Gordon could signal the last train through Hawick. Bruce

The "Landward" programme is on iPlayer until 19 April and the railway report is the first item in it. Bruce

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-21859794 A feature about Beeching on the BBC Scotland site, Bruce.

And a wee bit more detail about the left hand photo from Sandy Mullay's "Last Trains" series. This was the first Up "Waverley" of summer 1968. Camera was an Ilford Sportsman and the registration of the Velocette motor bike on the left was VRM 827 (£10 from Tiffen in Carlisle!). The bike actually went faster than a 300hp diesel shunter on the Kelso branch once. Bruce

Hope this helps Bruce. Posted 05 July 2011 - 21:02 under CoBos on Waverley Route I am amazed at the ammount of info that is on this site regarding the old Waverley Route, well done to everyone who has contributed, it is certainly a veritable mine of information. Living in Edinburgh, I have always been interested in the line although my apprenticeship of loco spotting did not start until I was 11 years old in 1969, just after the line closed. I went on a railtour in October 1971 formed of a Met Camm DMU that did the line as far as Lady Victoria pit and had a stop at the closed Eskbank station which still had a running in board sign in place. Unfortunately I did'nt own a camera at the time so dont have any pics. One thing that I have always wondered about is if any of the Metro Vic Co Bos ever worked over the line. I feel sure that one must have made it from Kingmoor to Millerhill due to the unavailability of another suitable loco, but no one has so far been able to confirm or deny that such a working ever happened. Obviously it would have had to be an out and back working with a Carlisle crew as Millerhill and Haymarket crews would'nt have had the required traction knowledge. One of my colleagues dad was a second man at Haymarket in the last days of the Waverley Route and he has told me that the only diesels he worked over the line were BR Sulzer types 4s (classes 45, 46 and 47). Sulzer type 2s (classes 24 and 26)and EE type 4s (class 40s). The Millerhill drivers drove Claytons and EE type 3s (class 37s)as well as the 40s, Peaks and 47s. I hope some of this info is useful and that someone can come up with any thougts on Co Bo workings.

Last Weekend Footage on YouTube Can anyone point me to the links that old Border TV (of blessed memory) had on YouTube? I suspect that the links are down as my searches throw up nothing. Bruce

And by the laws of coincidence, I met in Langholm a steam driver yesterday morning who'd driven "Blue Peter" and was on board the footplate during the infamous "wheel-slip" incident. Although we'd spoken upwards of a dozen times recently, neither of us had mentioned "Trains" - I guess that we'll have a lot to talk about when next we meet walking our dogs! Bruce

Believe it or not, the same shot on More 4 for a second, but the BBC programme was better. I'm almost sure there was a real fleeting shot of Steele Road just before Whitrope Box on the BBC. B.

Nice shot of Whitrope in 1963 on Winterwatch tonight. Bruce.

With a fine view of the roof of the house (above and between the two chimney stacks on the workshops) from where I took the final night recordings! Bruce

The "Flying Greenhouse" before the last Pullman. http://dl.dropbox.com/u/108575562/Clayton%20Exploding%20Detonators.mp3 Turn the volume up! Bruce

'Chard - it'll be just around the "Six-airch Brig" over the Slitrig by then. Tony - I assume that you've not heard my recording of the Clayton exploding the detonators. If not, I'll pop it up in the next day or two.

My apologies if I've posted this photograph before. This is recorded in the signalbox register as 0002 on 6 January. The last train just on the move. I hung a mike out of my bedroom window and here's the link to the recording (an .aiff file) below. Hopefully, it'll work! Remember this was 1969, a reel to reel at 15/16 inch per second and around 300 yards from Lochpark south of Hawick. It's definitely lo-fi. Bruce http://dl.dropbox.com/u/108575562/Last%20train.aiff

The full story will include the viewpoint of the lad on my Velocette chasing the train to Stobs: he didn't give up on me, but went on to Shankend where he assumed that I would have got off there. As I didn't, events took a comedic turn as he started wondering if I had jumped the train after Stobs! Bruce

My computer says 1757, so I guess I've missed the departure from Edinburgh. The chances are that this would be the last ticket written out for Riccarton. For the story have a read here: http://www.railbrit.co.uk/articles.php?recno=31 Bruce

No comment necessary! Bruce

Thanks Matt. I think there must have been a stake in the yard at Langholm which said "Photographers, stand here", however Robin broke the mould with this one. Cheers Bruce

Sorry, it wasn't my intention to have this as a mystery location, but as has been said, it's Scotch Dyke. The ground frame controlled the crossing gate to Kirkandrews Church from the A7 road just visible to the extreme left. See the screen-shot (courtesy of Bing maps). I can think of one other ground frame on the Waverley Route remaining in recent years; that for Lochpark works just to the south of Hawick - it was removed in 1967, I think. ... But there must have been others for some of the old sidings, e.g. Standhill, Darnick &c. [edit] ... and the ground frame which replaced Kelso Junction box for the last years of the Kelso freight branch. Bruce