Union of South Africa

Groups of people gathered all along the new Borders Railway this morning to see the steam train take the Queen to officially open the railway.  It follows the northern section of the former Waverley Route which was closed in 1969 after 120 years as a result of the Beeching Report and so leaving the Borders area with no railway stations.
The photo here shows the Union of South Africa with the cream coloured carriage behind carrying the Queen and First Minister of Scotland.  Most of the railway line is single track with three passing loops but at King’s Gate here. is the end of the double track from Edinburgh.  We could see the steam train waiting just beyond the bypass bridge while it waited for a train (see extra) to leave the single track.  Then as the steam engine gathered momentum with puffs of steam and a whistle it passed below us on its way to the Queen’s short stop at Newtongrange and eventually to Tweedbank.
The Queen awoke to a cold fog bound Balmoral which meant her helicopter to Edinburgh and subsequent rail trip was delayed and possibly it reminded her how different the weather was in Kenya in February 1952 when she became Queen and today the longest ever reigning British monarch.