Berwickshire Railway
| Berwickshire Railway | |
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The Duns Branch and the Berwickshire Railway together formed a through railway route from Reston, near Berwick-upon-Tweed, to St Boswells in the Scottish Borders. The line was promoted in two stages. The first was from Reston on the Edinburgh to Berwick main line to Duns (then spelt Dunse, and the county town of Berwickshire); it opened by the North British Railway in 1849.
The second section was promoted independently by the Berwickshire Railway Company, but with considerable assistance from the North British Railway. It opened most of its line in 1863, but delay in constructing a large viaduct, Leaderfoot Viaduct, led to the opening of the final section of the line being delayed until 1865.
The North British Railway had conceived the line as a strategic trunk route across southern Scotland, but this development was never realised, and the line was never heavily used.
During the violent rainstorm in the area in August 1948 the line was breached west of Earlston, and the passenger train service ceased permanently. Duns reverted to being a branch line terminus from Reston until that too was closed to passengers in 1951.
The North British Railway obtained Parliamentary authorisation for its main line from Edinburgh to Berwick (later called Berwick upon Tweed) in 1844, and pressed ahead with constructing it. Equally urgently addressed by the Directors, was the capturing of territory and the exclusion of competing railways. As part of that strategy, the NBR proposed numerous branch lines, and on 9 February 1846 a special Shareholders' Meeting approved the presentation of Parliamentary Bills for several branches, including one to Dunse (later known as Duns) from Reston, on the main line, a short distance north of Berwick. The Bill was to include branches to North Berwick, Tranent and Cockenzie, as well as to Dunse, and the estimated capital required was £170,000.
The NBR got the Act which authorised the branch in the 1846 session.
Construction of the line was not difficult and in 1849 it was ready for opening: free travel was permitted on a ceremonial opening day on 13 August 1849 and two long trains were fully loaded to make a return trip to the junction at Reston, although the trippers were not permitted to alight there.
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