Berwickshire Railway

Introduction

This railway is closed. It ran between Duns near the east coast and St Boswells in the Scottish Borders. The line extended the Dunse Branch (North British Railway) and completed a chain from the 'Waverley Route' to the East Coast Main Line. Today the nearest stations are at Berwick and Dunbar.






Dates

17/07/1862Berwickshire Railway
Act receives Royal assent for a line from Duns to St Boswells. At both ends the line will connection with the North British Railway.
16/11/1863Berwickshire Railway
Line opened from Duns to Earlston. A coach ran from Earlston to St Boswells.
02/10/1865Berwickshire Railway
Line extended from Earlston over the Leaderfoot Viaduct to St Boswells (Ravenswood Junction).
01/08/1876Berwickshire Railway North British Railway
Berwickshire Railway absorbed by North British Railway.
13/08/1948Berwickshire Railway
St Boswells (Ravenswood Junction) to Duns (excluded) is closed to passengers. The Langton Burn Bridge, between Duns and Greenlaw, is washed away and the track is left hanging, bridging the gap. Due to this flood damage Greenlaw to Duns is closed to all traffic. St Boswells to Reston via Duns ceases to be a through route.
  /  /1953Berwickshire Railway
Track at Marchmont lifted.
  /04/1959Berwickshire Railway
'Scott Country Tour' visits Greenlaw.
  /04/1963Berwickshire Railway
Specials visit Greenlaw.
19/07/1965Berwickshire Railway
Ravenswood Junction (excluded) to Greenlaw closed to freight.

Locations along the line

These locations are along the line.

A tranquil stretch of the surviving solum of the Berwickshire Railway between the former Ravenswood Junction and Leaderfoot Viaduct - seen here ...
David Spaven 08/05/2013
An Earlston - Gordon - Greenlaw trip working returning to St Boswells at Easter 1965. Ravenswood Junction signal box stands in the right background ...
Bruce McCartney //1965
2 of 2 images.


This was a two platform station with a passing loop on the single track line. The eastbound platform had the main station building, stone built and of two storeys and typical of the Berwickshire Railway. Over the west end of the station was a road bridge which crossed the west end of the loop.
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View to Gordon over what had been Earlston station, a two platform station with a goods yard (to the left). Little remains of the station and goods ...
Ewan Crawford 06/03/2016
Station Brae, Earlston, is not on the site of the station but the north end of the loop which passed between the two station platforms. The station ...
Ewan Crawford 06/03/2016
Platform scene at Earlston, looking west at Easter time 1965, with the branch pickup goods paused on its outward journey from St Boswells to Greenlaw. ...
Bruce McCartney //1965
A sleeper palisade fence remains to the north of the former goods yard at Earlston station - one of very few reminders of the railway here. The goods ...
Ewan Crawford 06/03/2016
4 of 21 images. more


This was a single platform station to the north of West Gordon, a third of the mile to the north. There was a stone station building, of two storeys, typical of the Berwickshire Railway. The platform was on the south side of the line.
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Entrance to the former station and goods yard at Gordon, Berwickshire, looking east from the A6089 Station Road in the spring of 2016. The last branch ...
John Furnevel 06/03/2016
The former station at Gordon on the Berwickshire Railway, looking north east towards Greenlaw in March 2016. The station here closed to passengers in ...
John Furnevel 06/03/2016
Posing alongside the last goods at Gordon station on 16 July 1965. The train was on its way back from Greenlaw to St Boswells see image 58669. ...
Bruce McCartney 16/07/1965
View west from the road bridge at Gordon looking towards Earlston on a fine day during the Easter holiday in 1965. The branch pick up goods is on its ...
Bruce McCartney //1965
4 of 16 images. more


This two platform station was just to the south of the village of Greenlaw. The station had a passing loop on a line which was otherwise single track.
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Looking back from the cab of a class 08 at the head of the branch goods leaving Greenlaw in 1965. ...
Bruce McCartney 16/07/1965
No 256 on manoeuvres at Greenlaw in July 1961 having arrived as part of the RCTS Borders Railtour. ...
K A Gray 09/07/1961
Looking along the approach to the former Greenlaw station in June 2005. The station, originally opened by the Berwickshire Railway in 1863, lost its ...
John Furnevel 20/06/2005
The former station at Greenlaw (closed to passengers in 1948), seen platform side from the redundant road bridge see image 40779. View is west ...
John Furnevel 06/10/2012
4 of 14 images. more




This was a single platform station built for Marchmont House and its estate. The mansion was to the north west of the station, nearly a mile away.
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Road approach to the former Marchmont station on the Berwickshire Railway, photographed in June 2006. The station closed along with the line between ...
John Furnevel 10/06/2006
View west towards Greenlaw at the former Marchmont Station in June 2006. ...
John Furnevel 10/06/2006
The old Berwickshire Railway station at Marchmont, between Duns and Greenlaw, in March 2009. ...
Ian Whittaker 13/03/2009
3 of 3 images.


This was a two platform station around half a mile south of the village centre. The station was the terminus of the originally double track Dunse Branch (North British Railway) before it was extended to Ravenswood Junction, north of St Boswells, by the Berwickshire Railway in 1863. (Dunse is the old spelling for Duns.)
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See also
Dunse Branch (North British Railway)
Granary in the yard alongside Duns station, viewed from the south in June 2005. ...
John Furnevel /06/2005
Old marker in Railway Avenue, Duns, now part of a housing estate built on the line of the railway just before it reached Duns Station. ...
Ian Whittaker 27/02/2009
Looking south across trackbed and former goods yard to the old granary at Duns in June 2005. The western end of the old station building is on the ...
John Furnevel 16/06/2005
View of the combined station building and goods shed at Duns in 1998 from across the infilled trackbed. The building, on the former westbound ...
Ewan Crawford //1998
4 of 24 images. more