The Kelso Branch was a twin track branch railway in

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and

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that ran from on the

East Coast Main Line The East Coast Main Line (ECML) is a electrified railway between London and Edinburgh via Peterborough, Doncaster, York, Darlington, Durham and Newcastle. The line is a key transport artery on the eastern side of Great Britain running broa ...

via seven intermediate stations to .

History

Plans for a horse drawn railway between

Berwick-upon-Tweed Berwick-upon-Tweed (), sometimes known as Berwick-on-Tweed or simply Berwick, is a town and civil parish in Northumberland, England, south of the Anglo-Scottish border, and the northernmost town in England. The 2011 United Kingdom census recor ...

and Kelso were put forward as early as 1809. An

Act of Parliament Acts of Parliament, sometimes referred to as primary legislation, are texts of law passed by the Legislature, legislative body of a jurisdiction (often a parliament or council). In most countries with a parliamentary system of government, acts of ...

was passed in 1811 allowing the enterprise to proceed, but it was formally abandoned in 1827 after failing to secure sufficient investment. There was a brief flurry of interest in reviving the scheme in 1836, when estimates showed that the two towns could be linked by rail for the relatively modest sum of £100,000. Nevertheless, attempts to raise the necessary funds were once more unsuccessful. In 1844, two rival proposals for a main line between

Newcastle upon Tyne Newcastle upon Tyne ( RP: , ), or simply Newcastle, is a city and metropolitan borough in Tyne and Wear, England. The city is located on the River Tyne's northern bank and forms the largest part of the Tyneside built-up area. Newcastle is ...

and Berwick were submitted to

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, both of which included the building of a branch to Kelso. The accepted bid was that of the Newcastle and Berwick Railway, supported by

George Hudson George Hudson (probably 10 March 1800 – 14 December 1871) was an English railway financier and politician who, because he controlled a significant part of the railway network in the 1840s, became known as "The Railway King"—a title conferr ...

Opening

Authorised in 1845 the Kelso Branch was built by the North Eastern Railway to link the communities of the Tweed valley with the fledgling railway network at . The line opened in two stages, to on 27 July 1849, and to on 1 June 1851.

Alnwick Branch

In 1887 the Alnwick Branch was opened linking to the line just to the west of station. The Tweedmouth-Kelso-St Boswells line provided part of an alternative route when the

was blocked north of most notably when in August 1948 when the main line was closed for three months."Tweedmouth to Kelso Branch"
John Speller's Web Pages; Retrieved 13 February 2017

Closure

In 1955 all the stations on the line apart from and closed to passengers, and on 15 June 1964 passenger services were withdrawn along the whole line. Freight services between Tweedmouth and Kelso followed suit the next year on 29 March with the complete closure of the line. The Kelso to St Boswells section closed to all traffic on 30 March 1968. Only one track of the double line between Kelso and Tweedmouth was initially lifted, but all track was removed in 1969 from St Boswells through to Tweedmouth following closure of the freight service to Kelso and complete closure of the Waverley Route.

References

External links