Kilnknowe Junction

Location type

Junction

Name and dates

Kilnknowe Junction (1866-1962)

Opened on the Edinburgh and Hawick Railway (North British Railway).
Opened on the Galashiels, Innerleithen and Peebles Railway (North British Railway).

Description

This was the junction between the Edinburgh and Hawick Railway (North British Railway) and the Peebles loop (Galashiels, Innerleithen and Peebles Railway (North British Railway)).

The main line here was a double track. In its original layout the Peebles line diverged as a double track quickly reducing to a single track (with possibly sufficient length to hold a train on the westbound track without fouling the junction). This later became a single lead with a crossover. The Peebles line, just west of the junction, occupies the former course of the Gala Water which was diverted to the north with a large amount of material deposited to build the embankment of the railway on its former course.

A two arch bridge crosses over the site, the southern arch crossing the branch and northern the main line.

The signal box here (on the south side of the junction) was closed in 1937 to be replaced by a central new box at the north end of Galashiels [1st] station (although the base was retained presumably as a switch room).

The branch closed in 1962, lifted in July 1963, and main line in 1969, surviving until at least 1971.

The trackbed remained as an overgrown walking route until 2015 when the main line re-opened as a single track.

To the north, on the main line route, is Torwoodlee South Viaduct. To the south east both lines crossed Bridge No 95 to reach Galashiels.

Local


Catrail


Both the main line and Peebles line cut through the Catrail ditch, the main line twice and the Peebles line three times.

Tags

Junction

Aliases

Torwoodlee

External links

Canmore site record
NLS Collection OS map of 1892-1914
NLS Collection OS map of 1944-67
NLS Map
NLS Map
04/02/2023


Chronology Dates

18/06/1866Galashiels, Innerleithen and Peebles Railway (North British Railway)
Galashiels [1st] (Kilnknowe Junction) to Innerleithen opened. Stations at; Thornilee and Clovenfords.
05/02/1962Peebles Railway
Hawthornden Junction (excluded) to Peebles to Kilnknowe Junction (excluded) closed to all traffic, passenger, goods and mineral trains operate as far as Rosewell and Hawthornden only.

Books


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

Forgotten Railways: Scotland

Forgotten Railways: Scotland

Galashiels 1897: Selkirkshire Sheet 08.02 (Old Ordnance Survey Maps of Selkirkshire)

Galashiels to Edinburgh: Including the Lauder and Dalkeith Branches - the Waverley Route (Scml)

Hawick 1897: Roxburghshire Sheet 25.07 (Old Ordnance Survey Maps of Roxburghshire)

Hawick to Galashiels: The Waverley Route Including the Selkirk Branch (Scottish Main Lines)

Last Years of the Waverley Route

North British Railway, Vol. 1 (Standard Railway History)

North British Railway, Vol. 2 (Standard Railway History)

On the Waverley Route

Peebles Railways

Railways Of Scotland 2: The Waverley Route DVD - Cinerail

The Waverley Route Through Time

The Waverley Route: Its Heritage and Revival

The Waverley Route: The Postwar Years

Waverley Route: The battle for the Borders Railway

Waverley Route: The Life, Death and Rebirth of the Borders Railway

Waverley: Portrait of a Famous Route