The first of these was a branch of the Newcastle and Berwick Railway, departing from a junction at Tweedmouth, near Berwick-upon-Tweed, and initially terminating at Sprouston, two miles west of Kelso.

Although woollen manufacture and shoe-making were important local industries, Kelso's economy was largely agricultural.

Boot and shoe-making is carried on upon a very large scale... disposing of immense quantities at the different fairs and markets in the north of England.

[2] The location of the towns, remote from navigable water, made transport of products and raw materials difficult.

A railway connecting Kelso in Roxburghshire with Berwick-upon-Tweed, thereby providing the Scottish Borders with access to the North Sea and coastal shipping, was first seriously proposed in 1809.

Local promoters again attempted to revive the scheme in 1836, with updated estimates for construction amounting to £100,000 for a 22 mile line.

This was particularly significant because of the barrier of the Southern Uplands and the Cheviot Hills, both considered passable only with great difficulty.

[10]At this stage the Royal Border Bridge crossing the River Tweed and connecting Berwick and Tweedmouth had not yet opened; it did so on 29 July 1850, to goods trains only at first.

Sprouston was regarded as a permanent terminus, and all facilities including an engine shed and turntable were provided there.

The Y&NBR stations at Carham and Sprouston and 3½ miles of track in their vicinity "were the only conquests ever made by an English company on Scottish soil".

The plans took shape and at a shareholders' meeting on 9 February 1846 a large collection of branches were approved, including a group from the Hawick line to Kelso, Jedburgh, Selkirk and Peebles, with share capital of £770,000.

[note 3][8][11][9][12][13][14][15] In building a portion of line beyond Kelso, the North British Railway clearly had expectations of running through to Berwick.

For a short time in 1854 a through passenger service was operated, but relations between the NBR and the North Eastern Railway (successor to the YN&BR) became strained over negotiations for through running between Berwick and Edinburgh, and from the Border Counties Railway to Newcastle upon Tyne, and as a result of the antagonism the service at Kelso was stopped from running through.

Punctuality leaving Tweedmouth was heavily dependent on the timekeeping of main line trains from the south, and for local passengers from Kelso westward this made the service hopelessly unreliable.

It was never heavily used, and the Alnwick line closed to passengers in September 1930, but goods trains continued to serve Wooler until 29 July 1965.

However in 1921 the North British acquired a petrol shunting locomotive of extremely short wheelbase, such that the driver sat athwart the vehicle.

This replaced the horse shunting and reduced the annual cost from £1,180 to £904, although the company spent £121 on easing the curves in addition.

The combined management of the railways west and east of Kelso did not result in any improved co-ordination of the passenger services through the town.

[7] In 1938 the passenger train service was under unified command under the LNER, but there was still limited evidence of co-ordination of the two lines at Kelso.

However there was a Sunday through train from Newcastle to Edinburgh via Tweedmouth, Kelso and St Boswells, with a buffet car.

It left Newcastle at 10:30 a.m. and called at Morpeth, Alnmouth, Tweedmouth 11:58 - 12:05, Norham, Coldstream, Kelso 12:39, St Boswells 1:04 to 1:09 p.m., Melrose, Galashiels, Portobello, and arrived at Edinburgh at 2:15 p.m.

The return journey left Edinburgh at 5:45 p.m., Portobello, Galashiels, Melrose, St Boswells 6:58, Kelso 7:20, Coldstream, Norham, Tweedmouth 8:00 to 8.07, Alnmouth, Morpeth and arrived at Newcastle 8:57.

During the autumn of 1948, the Borders area and the east coast of Berwickshire experienced exceptional rainfall, which reached a peak on 12 August 1948.

This resulted in the breaching of the main line between Berwick and Dunbar in several places, as well as the Jedburgh branch.

British Railways estimate that they will save £7,744 in a year as a result of economies which are to be introduced on the Berwick to St Boswells Branch line.

Five stations—Velvet Hall, Twizell, Sunilaws, Sprouston and Carham are to be closed, and the number of trains each day will be slashed by half ...

The British Railways authorities had considered the withdrawal of all trains running between St Boswells and Berwick ... but because of the heavy parcels traffic, consisting mainly of fresh meat, game and poultry, it was decided not to enforce a complete closure ...It was reported that revenue from Sunilaws in a year amounted to £217, Twizell £66, and Velvet Hall £125, and the number of passengers travelling daily in an October census were four, six and two respectively.

[23]The stations between Kelso and St Boswells were not affected at that stage, but the skeleton service continued to lose money.

In the final years of passenger operation, trains consisted of a BR Standard 2MT locomotive (from Hawick shed) and a single brake composite coach.

The viaduct was legitimately used as a footpath, but it had to be closed during the works, and the alternative walking route for schoolchildren in Heiton attending Roxburgh school was unreasonably long and circuitous.