Earlston

Location type

Station

Name and dates

Earlston (1863-1948)

Opened on the Berwickshire Railway.

Description

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.

At the east end of the eastbound platform was a stone built goods shed, approached from the east from a goods loop on the north side of the line which was entered by reversing from the east or by reversing from the westbound loop line. There were several sidings in the goods yard. The Earlston market was just to the north, later the site of a works. Opposite the goods shed, at the east end of the westbound platform, was the signal box (1893-1953).

During construction this was the terminus of the line from Duns until completion of the Leaderfoot Viaduct from 1863 to 1865. During the short period as a terminus there was a turntable here.

The station was in the village, on its southern edge. In addition to the market was a sawmill, the Mid Mill and Rhymer's Mill to the west, the gas works to the east of the station, and a quarry.

East of the station was a level crossing with a crossing keeper's cottage, 'Crossing Cottage'.

The station closed to passengers in 1948 with the washing out of a bridge east of Greenlaw in the severe floods of 1948. The line remained open to goods and minerals until 1965.

Little remains of the station, the site is now an industrial estate with a palisade of railway sleepers as a fence, but the keeper's cottage remains standing. Some houses on Station Brae, to the west of the station, are on the trackbed where it doubled on the approach to the station.

Over two miles east was Fans Loanend Siding.

Going south west to Ravenswood Junction the line climbed after crossing the Leader Water on a single track three arch viaduct, passing Rhymer's Tower which was to the west. Improvements to the A68 to the south have robbed much of the trackbed until just north of the Leaderfoot Viaduct.

Tags

Station terminus

External links

Canmore site record
NLS Collection OS map of 1892-1914
NLS Collection OS map of 1944-67
NLS Map
NLS Map
NLS Map
NLS Map
03/11/2018


Chronology Dates

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).

News items

09/03/2022Consultation seeking feedback on plans for Tweedbank to Eyemouth active travel route [Scottish Borders Council]

Books


A Regional History of the Railways of Great Britain: Scotland - The Lowlands and the Borders v. 6 (Regional railway history series)

St Boswells to Berwick: Via Duns the Berswickshire Railway (Country Railway Routes)