Berwickshire Railway

The first was from Reston on the Edinburgh to Berwick main line to Duns (then spelt Dunse, and the county town of Berwickshire); it opened by the North British Railway in 1849.

During the violent rainstorm in the area in August 1948 the line was breached west of Earlston, and the passenger train service ceased permanently.

The over-provision became apparent, and in 1856 the North British Company found itself in financial difficulty and economies were sought:[1] the line was reduced to single track on 17 January 1857.

All except the early trains are shown in Bradshaw as giving connections to Edinburgh and Berwick (though there is no reference to Reston or other intermediate stations, nor to the necessity to change).

This idea took shape as the Berwickshire Railway, planned to run from Dunse to Ravenswood Junction, a short distance north of St Boswells station (then commonly referred to as Newtown) on the Hawick line.

However antagonism had been created between the NER and the NBR over running power agreements between Berwick and Edinburgh and from Hexham to Newcastle upon Tyne in connection with the Border Counties Railway, and co-operation at Kelso was lacking.

"[1] In fact local proprietors had been anxious to have the railway; two of the biggest landowners pressed the company to take £5,000 worth of land for nothing, and they took shares as well.

[3] During construction, the North British Railway insisted on land being taken for a double line, even though the Duns branch from Reston had been singled by this time.

The onward section to Ravenswood Junction was delayed because of the complexity of building the Leaderfoot Viaduct, a massive structure of nineteen arches.

Two piers immediately north of the public road gave trouble shortly after opening of the line, and strengthening work had to be carried out.

[1] In 1895 the passenger service consisted of three trains every weekday running throughout between Reston and St Boswells, and two short workings from Duns to each end of the line respectively.

Many watercourses overtopped their banks and the ground was already saturated; this resulted in multiple washouts of railway embankments and undermining of bridge abutments and piers.