The Border Counties Railways

The Border Counties Railway ran from the old railway village of Riccarton Junction on the Waverley Route across the Border and through Northumberland to Hexham. Partly intended to provide access to coal deposits at Plashetts, near Kielder Water, the railway was also linked to a scheme by the Duke of Northumberland to alleviate local hardship. Services began in 1862, some eight years after the Act for the railway received Royal Assent, on the same day as the Waverley Route opened. Closed to passengers in the late 1950s and to freight in the early 1960s, the line has largely disappeared. However, it has not completely vanished as part of the line at Saughtree has been restored and there have been plans to open a narrow gauge line along Kielder Water. In this book, Roy Perkins and Iain MacIntosh use a selection of period and contemporary photographs to bring the history of the line, and its landscape, to life.