A Rail Tour train at St Boswells Station in 1961

Image: © Ben Brooksbank Taken: 9 Jul 1961

View northward, towards Galashiels and Edinburgh on the ex-North British Waverley Line (Edinburgh - Carlisle) and towards Greenlaw and Reston on the branch to Reston (Greenlaw since 1948). This was an elaborate grand 'Borders Rail Tour' organised by the Railway Correspondence & Travel Society. We started from Leeds with Stanier 'Duchess' Pacific No. 46247 'City of Liverpool', which took us over the Settle & Carlisle Line to Carlisle. From there we took the Waverley Route to St Boswells, thence on the Reston line (truncated since the 1948 floods), to Greenlaw, back to St Boswells, then to Jedburgh and back to Roxburgh, where we reversed once again and continued to Tweedmouth. From there we came up the ECML to Newcastle with A1 Pacific 60143 'Sir Walter Scot', finally with A3 Pacific 60074 'Harvester' via Darlington, Northallerton and Harrogate back to Leeds - a journey of 12 hours. The two NB locomotives here, are D34 'Glen' 4-4-0 No. 256 (LNER 62469) 'Glen Douglas' and J37 0-6-0 No. 64624, which hauled the Special between Carlisle and Tweedmouth. The 'Glen' had been withdrawn from normal service in 8/59 but was restored to NBR livery and used for Special Workings until 12/62; it resided until 1992 at the Glasgow Transport Museum and is currently exhibited at the Scottish Railway Exhibition at Bo'ness. [It is a shame this was not a colour photograph, as No. 256 was splendid in NBR ochre].

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