Riccarton Junction train station
Coordinates: 55 ° 16 '16 " N , 2 ° 43' 35.9" W.
Riccarton Junction was from 1862 to 1969 a train station and also a railroad settlement on the Waverley Line , a railway line in the Scottish Borders that was closed in 1969 . Until a forest road was built in 1963, the Scottish town was only accessible by rail; all goods were supplied exclusively by train. When the line was closed, the last inhabitants left the place, which, like the train station, was demolished in the following years. Individual ruins and remains of walls have been preserved from the buildings, but the school and teachers' houses have recently been renovated.
history
The North British Railway (NBR), as the owner of the line from Edinburgh to Hawick , opened in 1849 , spent a long time looking for suitable ways to extend its line south towards Carlisle in order to increase its share of the lucrative through traffic between Scotland and England . The topographically easier route via Langholm was initially blocked by efforts by the competing Caledonian Railway . As a replacement, the NBR was looking for a way through the largely unpopulated mountainous country of the Borders, south of Hawick, which required the Whitrope Tunnel, a long apex tunnel and a winding, inclined stretch through Liddesdale , the valley of Liddel Water . Since the NBR also endeavored to serve the traffic from the Borders to Newcastle upon Tyne , from which they hoped to be in good demand, a branch line in the direction of Hexham on the already existing line from Carlisle to Newcastle was also planned as the Border Counties Railway .
In the valley of the Riccarton Burn , a small tributary of the Liddel Water , the NBR built the Riccarton train station (called Riccarton Junction from 1905 ) for the branch to Hexham south of the Whitrope Tunnel, far away from existing villages . In order to have accommodations for the staff, the North British Railway also laid the village of Riccarton. Previously there had been no town in this remote part of the Borders, only two crofts were in the vicinity.
The station served the branching traffic to Hexham and the provision of sliding locomotives for the ramp to the Whitrope Tunnel. He received a wide central platform on which the one-story station building was created. Two butt tracks were created in the central platform on both sides of the station building. The southern track was used for passenger trains to Hexham. There was no permanent need for the northern track and it was filled in. The village northwest of the station could be reached from the station building via a lattice bridge. Other station tracks were used for freight traffic. For the sliding locomotives and the locomotives on the line to Hexham, the station was given a locomotive shed with a turntable, which was assigned to the Hawick depot as a branch. Furthermore, two signal boxes, a wagon, a goods shed, a coaling plant and a workshop were built. A small gas works was built to illuminate the station .
A total of 37 cottages were built for the railway workers and their families , plus additional buildings. Riccarton Junction also received a school and a community center (village hall). A maximum of 120 people lived in the settlement. A post office , a shop for the Hawick consumer cooperative and a pub were set up in the station building. Until 1963 the place could only be reached by rail, all goods were supplied exclusively by train. Riccarton did not receive a church . First on Sundays, the pastor of the neighboring village of Saughtree held the service in the engine shed and later in the waiting room. To do this, he had to walk several kilometers. In later years, the NBR and its successor London and North Eastern Railway operated separate Sunday trains to Hawick and Newcastleton . Funerals took place in Newcastleton. For medical care, a locomotive was always kept ready in Hawick outside of the times of scheduled trains so that a doctor could be brought from there if necessary. The place was cut off from the outside world several times in winter due to masses of snow, most recently in winter 1963 when the Waverley Line in this area had to be closed for over a week due to snow drifts .
Only for the last few years of its existence did the place get connected to the road network in 1963 via a provisional forest road. Riccarton had previously been connected to the power grid in 1955. As early as 1956, the line to Hexham was closed to passenger traffic and Riccarton lost its function as a transfer station. Until the locomotive shed was closed in 1958, the function as a location for pushing locomotives was retained, and the steam locomotive staff in front of the freight trains liked to use the station to increase the steam pressure for the rest of the ascent. It remained in operation until the Waverley Line was closed on January 6, 1969. The gradual loss of importance as well as the decreasing need for personnel due to the progressive replacement of steam by diesel locomotives led to a considerable decrease in the number of railway workers required in Riccarton. The school closed in 1962, the remaining children took the train to school in Hawick. In April 1967 the last family with children moved to Hawick. At the end of 1967 only one married couple was still living permanently in Riccarton, the last railroad workers needed to operate came to work by train or car. In February 1967 the local freight traffic was stopped and the station was no longer continuously manned. With the closure of the Waverley Line, the place lost its livelihood and the last remaining residents moved away. Most of the vacant buildings at the station and the village were demolished in the following years. Only the school master's building and the school went into private ownership, were extensively renovated in 2010 and now used as a holiday home.
The outer walls of the stationmaster's house have been preserved, and some of the foundation walls of the other buildings. The platform was also preserved. The entire area of the station and the village are now owned by the Forestry Commission .
The Friends of Riccarton Junction were founded in 1997 with the aim of restoring as many of the existing buildings as possible. In 2004 they laid a few meters of track at one of the remaining platform edges as a souvenir and put up a sign and a telephone booth. However, due to internal disputes, the association dissolved again in 2008.
Web links
- Riccartonjunction.org (English)
- Scotlands places: Riccarton Junction Station (English)
- Disused Stations: Riccarton Junction (English)
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b Disused stations: Riccarton Junction , accessed April 19, 2015
- ↑ Erichall.eu: Scottish Borders: Riccarton Junction - the end , accessed April 19, 2015
- ^ History of Riccarton Junction , accessed April 19, 2015