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 In signal processing, a signal is a function that conveys information about a phenomenon. Any quantity that can vary over space or time can be used as a signal to share messages between observers. The ''IEEE Transactions on Signal Processing'' ...

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 ...

or Waverley Route. It was used as a goods loading bay. The site is now the home of the Whitrope Heritage Centre, as well as the current terminus of the heritage Border Union Railway. Whitrope summit station

The siding is located just south of the highest point on the line, the famous ''Whitrope Summit'', 1006 ft above sea level. It is approximately 300 metres south from

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 ...

, and 4 km north from Hermitage, Scottish Borders.

Whitrope Heritage Centre

Rth Rly Whitrope Summit Memorial Sign 2017

Waverley Route Heritage Association Waverley Route Heritage Association is a heritage railway group involved with the history, heritage and preservation of the Waverley Route, based/centred on Whitrope, south of Hawick, Scotland. Current projects include the restoration of the 1 ...

maintains a small museum of old Waverley Route related artefacts and photographs within a static carriage (Mk2 BSO 9400) together with an adjoining buffet carriage (69316 from a 4BIG EMU). As of 2019, there is now a platform on the "down" side with over of track laid from the tunnel over the summit southward to Bridge 200. There is a plan to rebuild a replica of the old Whitrope Signal Box, as well as to extend the running line southwards to the former site of Riccarton Junction. In 2005 a survey was carried out on Whitrope Tunnel to determine if a northern extension through it towards Shankend would be possible. As well as the two static carriages mentioned above, there are also two locomotives on site; the WRHA's own shunter 0-6-0 DM JF 4240015 of 1962 which arrived on 9 December 2009, and 4w DM Ruston - a 48DS on loan from Rocks by Rail and arrived on 14 June 2011. On 16 April 2012 another item of rolling stock arrived; Mk2f RFO 1215 on loan from Northumbria Rail Ltd. It was planned that this would be joined by Mk2f BSO 9538 (also from Northumbria Rail) and these carriage were intended to form a short rake for passenger trains later in the year.
WRHA news page - Inter-city arrives at Whitrope On 31 May 2012 BRE / Leyland railbus RB004 on loan from Northumbria Rail Ltd, was unloaded at the site having been moved up by road from the Midland Railway: Butterley in Derbyshire by Reid Freight the day before.
WRHA news page - Our latest arrival Early in 2020 it was announced that this was shortly expected to be joined by two production

British Rail Class 142 The British Rail Class 142 Pacer were diesel multiple units built for British Rail (BR) from 1985 to 1987. The class were built with a high level of commonality with the widely-used Leyland National bus. They are part of the Pacer family of r ...

Pacer units, 142019 and 142020, latterly in service with

Northern Northern may refer to the following: Geography * North, a point in direction * Northern Europe, the northern part or region of Europe * Northern Highland, a region of Wisconsin, United States * Northern Province, Sri Lanka * Northern Range, a ra ...

External links

Waverley Route Heritage Association
- official site
RCAHMS record for Whitrope TunnelRCAHMS record for Whitrope Culvert, Access FootbridgeRCAHMS record of Whitrope Cottages, Railway Linesmans CottageRCAHMS record for Whitrope Summit Sidings and Signal BoxGEOGRAPH image: Whitrope SidingVideo footage of the tunnel approach and Whitrope Siding station

References

{{authority control Rail transport in Scotland Buildings and structures in the Scottish Borders Museums in the Scottish Borders Railway museums in Scotland

Whitrope Heritage Centre

See also

External links

References