Dismantled railway

Today's the day .......................... for a birthday treat

It has taken a while to organise - because my birthday was actually back in April - but today I received my present from Ron and Margaret.

It was a lovely present too - a trip on the new Borders Railway Line from Edinburgh Waverley to Tweedbank - and a visit to Sir Walter Scott's Abbotsford House.  It might be said that the Borders Railway begins at a station named after a novel by Sir Walter Scott, and ends just a stone’s throw from where he wrote it.

The line follows the course of the northern part of the Waverley Route, a former double-track line in southern Scotland and northern England that ran between Edinburgh and Carlisle.  That line was controversially closed in 1969, as part of the Beeching cuts, leaving the Borders region without any access to the National Rail.  Discussion on reopening the northern part of the line came to a head during the early 2000s. Following deliberations in the Scottish Parliament, the Waverley Railway (Scotland) Act  received Royal Assent in June 2006.  Eventually building works began in November 2012 and a passenger service on the line began on 6 September 2015.

It's wonderful to think that this line is back in service - and perhaps one day, it might be possible to travel all the way to Carlisle ........................