The Kelso Line was a long North British Railway built double track branch railway line in the

Borders A border is a geographical boundary. Border, borders, The Border or The Borders may also refer to: Arts, entertainment and media Film and television * ''Border'' (1997 film), an Indian Hindi-language war film * ''Border'' (2018 Swedish film), ...

Scotland Scotland (, ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a Anglo-Scottish border, border with England to the southeast ...

, that ran from a junction south of on the

Waverley Line The Waverley Route was a railway line that ran south from Edinburgh, through Midlothian and the Scottish Borders, to Carlisle. The line was built by the North British Railway; the stretch from Edinburgh to Hawick opened in 1849 and the remaind ...

to (the line ended at a temporary terminus at until 1851) via three intermediate stations, , and where a branch line to

Jedburgh Jedburgh (; gd, Deadard; sco, Jeddart or ) is a town and former royal burgh in the Scottish Borders and the traditional county town of the historic county of Roxburghshire, the name of which was randomly chosen for Operation Jedburgh in s ...

joined the line. Little of the existing railway line remains, with most of the former track now occupied by the A6968 Kelso Bypass. Kelso railway station building - where the Kelso Line turned into the

Kelso Branch The Kelso Branch was a twin track branch railway in Northumberland, England and Roxburghshire, Scotland that ran from on the East Coast Main Line via seven intermediate stations to . History Plans for a horse drawn railway between Berwic ...

, continuing on to Sprouston, and terminating at

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 ...

- is no longer standing.

History

Opening

The line opened as far as a temporary terminus at to the west of Kelso on 17 January 1850, and to itself in the January of the next year. The North Eastern Railway

line coming into Kelso from the west had reached Sprouston on 27 July 1849 leaving a two-mile gap between the two railheads. This gap was closed on 1 June 1851 when the North Eastern Railway line reached its destination.

Alternative route

The joined line provided part of an alternative route when the East Coast Main Line was blocked north of most notably in August 1948 when the main line was closed for three months. The line served the same purpose in 1954. Singling in the 1930s of the double track section between Kelso and the Waverley Route and an overall speed restriction made diversion working difficult. Roxburgh 2 railway geograph-2328652-by-Ben-Brooksbank

Roxburgh 2 railway geograph-2328652-by-Ben-Brooksbank

Closure

Passenger services ceased on 15 June 1964 with freight services ending on 1 April 1968.

References

{{reflist

External links