Waverley Route Heritage Association is a

heritage railway A heritage railway or heritage railroad (US usage) is a railway operated as living history to re-create or preserve railway scenes of the past. Heritage railways are often old railway lines preserved in a state depicting a period (or periods) i ...

group involved with the history, heritage and preservation of the

Waverley Route 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 ...

, based/centred on

Whitrope Whitrope is a densely forested, but sparsely populated area, high in the Southern Upland hills in the south central Scottish Borders in the former county of Roxburghshire. Situated some 12 miles south from Hawick on the B6399 road, the Scottis ...

, south of

Hawick Hawick ( ; sco, Haaick; gd, Hamhaig) is a town in the Scottish Borders council area and historic county of Roxburghshire in the east Southern Uplands of Scotland. It is south-west of Jedburgh and south-south-east of Selkirk. It is one of ...

, Scotland. Current projects include the restoration of the 1,208 yard

Whitrope Tunnel The Whitrope Tunnel is a disused railway tunnel in the Scottish Borders, situated south of Hawick on the Waverley Route, close to Whitrope. It has a length of . It is the fourth longest tunnel in Scotland. The tunnel is on the Hawick to Carli ...

, formerly part of the

Border Union Railway The Border Union Railway was a railway line which connected places in the south of Scotland and Cumberland in England. It was authorised on 21 July 1859 and advertised as the Waverley Route by the promoters - the North British Railway.Awdry (199 ...

. Also under restoration is

Whitrope Siding Whitrope Siding was a trailing short siding or spur off the "up" (southbound) line, an associated trailing cross-over between up and down lines, a pair of railway cottages and a signal box on the Waverley Line or Waverley Route. It was used as a g ...

, which is the headquarters of the line and the home of WRHA's ''Whitrope Heritage Centre''. The Association operates a train service along a mile of former Waverley Route track from Whitrope Tunnel to Bridge 200. The association's other aims include restoring most of the track south of Whitrope to Riccarton Junction. The WRHA have been negotiating a new lease with the Forestry Commission.

Border Union Railway Company

The Border Union Railway Company is a wholly owned subsidiary of the WRHA, which runs trains on a section of demonstration track north and south from Whitrope Heritage Centre.

Motive power

;Diesel locomotives and railcar

Rolling stock

;Passenger coaches ;Goods wagons

Borders Railway

The northern part of the Waverley Route has been re-opened as the

Borders Railway The Borders Railway connects the city of Edinburgh with Galashiels and Tweedbank in the Scottish Borders. The railway follows most of the alignment of the northern part of the Waverley Route, a former double-track line in southern Scotland a ...

which is part of the

National Rail National Rail (NR) is the trading name licensed for use by the Rail Delivery Group, an unincorporated association whose membership consists of the passenger train operating companies (TOCs) of England, Scotland, and Wales. The TOCs run the p ...

network.

References

External links

Waverley Route Heritage Association

Video footage of the tunnel approach and Whitrope Siding station
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