[6][7] The NBR's Edinburgh-Berwick line was to be the starting point for the route which would run diagonally across the Southern Uplands to the Solway Plain and Carlisle, a distance of some 98 miles (158 km).

[12] Nevertheless, the concern brought with it a number of advantages: its proprietors had developed an efficient coal-marketing organisation which would greatly benefit its new owners, it consolidated the NBR's position in Edinburgh while also barring the rival Caledonian Railway from the Lothian Coalfields, and, perhaps most importantly, the E&DR pointed in the direction of Carlisle.

[6] Despite the manifest lack of traffic potential over the barren moorlands separating Hawick and Carlisle, reaching the Cumbrian county town was to be a hotly disputed affair with the NBR and the Caledonian Railway vying for control.

[20][22][23] The NBR put forward a rival scheme: the 43-mile (69 km) long double-track Border Union Railway which would run from Hawick down Liddesdale and through Newcastleton to the Solway Plain and Carlisle.

[41] From Hardengreen Junction near Dalkeith there began a 10-mile (16 km) climb at a gradient of 1 in 70 to reach Falahill, before meandering along the course of the Gala Water down to its confluence with the River Tweed, which accompanied the line for a few miles eastwards to Melrose and St Boswells, descending at typically 1 in 150.

[45] The route swung to the south-west at St Boswells towards the River Teviot and on to Hawick, where the valley of Slitrig Water provided easy going before the 10-mile (16 km) climb at 1 in 70 over the massed hills to Whitrope Summit.

[55][54][31][56] Although we have no idea how or by whom it was chosen, it was inspired by the Waverley Novels of Sir Walter Scott, who lived at Abbotsford House near the route of the line and had taken an active interest in early railways.

[69] In addition, no shipping company was prepared to start a service to Ireland from Silloth,[70] even though the port had assumed greater importance for the NBR as a result of the difficulties at Carlisle.

[74] However, in the wake of the Overend Gurney crisis and an offer by the L&NWR to grant running powers between Ingleton and Carlisle on reasonable conditions, the Midland began to have second thoughts, and requested the abandonment of its proposed scheme in 1869.

[89] A survey conducted in July 1963 on a peak Saturday Edinburgh-London service showed that fewer than 40 passengers were carried between Kettering and St Pancras, although the train had been standing room only as far as Leeds.

[99][100] At the time, the Waverley Route was running at an estimated annual loss of £113,000,[97] with an average operating cost per train mile for diesel-hauled freights of 12.390 shillings, one of the worst in Scotland.

[106] In the 1964 general election, the Unionist Party Member of Parliament for Roxburgh, Selkirk and Peebles, Charles Donaldson, whose constituency covered Hawick and who had voted for the Beeching report, saw his majority cut by the Liberal candidate, David Steel, who had opposed closure of the railway line.

[109] 508 objections to closure were lodged with the Transport Users' Consultative Committee (TUCC) in Edinburgh within the allotted six-week period, and a public hearing was held in Hawick on 16 and 17 November 1966.

[111] Arguments made against closure included the inadequacies of local roads and the damage which would be caused to the fabric of Borders life, whilst British Rail pointed to the falling patronage of the line and the increased car ownership in the area.

[115][116] Even to run a reduced service between Edinburgh and Hawick, on a single track with most stations closed and with the most stringent economies, a grant of about £250,000 per year would be required, representing 11d per passenger mile.

[118] Barbara Castle's intention to discontinue passenger services on the Waverley Route was opposed by Willie Ross and Anthony Crosland, President of the Board of Trade, who considered that it would call into question the Government's intention to support the economic development of the Borders region and make a mockery of the consultative arrangements for the closure of railway lines by ignoring the findings of the TUCC and rejecting the recommendations of the Scottish Economic Planning Council.

[121] On 8 April 1968, two days after the reshuffle, the Ministerial Committee on Environmental Planning (MCEP) met to hear the arguments for and against closure of the line; Marsh referred to statistics which showed that passenger numbers between Edinburgh and Hawick had dipped by 30% between 1964 and 1967, while car ownership had risen by 120% and the local population had decreased by 9.5%.

[124] The Waverley Route's fate was decided at a meeting of the MCEP on 21 May chaired by Peter Shore, Secretary of State for Economic Affairs, and attended by Willie Ross, Marsh, Tom Urwin, Ray Gunter, Dick Taverne and Ernest Fernyhough.

[131] A petition against closure, with 11,678 signatures presented to the Prime Minister in December 1968 by a Hawick housewife, Madge Elliot, accompanied by David Steel and the Earl of Dalkeith, MP for Edinburgh North, was to no avail.

[136][137][138] Saturday 4 January 1969 was the last busy day of operations on the line; British Rail ran a special train entitled Farewell to the Waverley Route hauled by Class 47 D1974 and carrying 411 passengers in nine coaches.

[140] Madge Elliot, a local housewife who had spearheaded the campaign to save the line, was warned by police not carry out her plan to hold a sit-in with protestors on the permanent way, and instead she distributed leaflets edged with the words "It's quicker by hearse".

[150][151] An attempt to reopen part of the line by the Border Union Railway Company (BUR), a private concern in which Tomorrow's World presenter Bob Symes was involved, failed due to lack of finance.

[157] Things began to go wrong in 1970 when a number of potential backers pulled out and the 1970 general election saw the appointment of a new Minister of Transport, John Peyton, who was unable or unwilling to understand the BUR's plans.

[160] Lothian Regional Council was offered the section between Millerhill and the southern Midlothian boundary for £7,000 in May 1975 but refused on account of the limited possibilities for reuse of the trackbed and the potential maintenance liability involved.

[183] However, although the yard flourished during its early years, changes in the national rail freight scene and the decline in the traditional Scottish industries resulted in it falling largely empty by the mid-1960s.

[190] Known as Dalkeith Coal engines, these were spartan machines without weather boards or sideboards to protect the crew against inclement conditions, although whistles were provided, one of which stood against the driver's ear.

[201][165][202] The Atlantics were intended to put an end to costly double-heading on the Waverley Route but suffered from teething problems which endured nearly two years, after which the class proved to be excellent performers, particularly after they were superheated in 1915.

[213] Although smaller than St Margarets, Carlisle Canal played a vital role in the operation of the Waverley Route and even with the line's decline post-nationalisation, there were still over 50 locomotives stabled there in the mid-1950s.

[218] Galashiels was constructed in the Scottish 'mansion' style incorporating high gables and long chimneys, while St Boswells had a substantial three-storey stone structure and was architecturally the most stylist of the intermediate stations.

[241] By 2002, the voluntary Waverley Route Heritage Association (WRHA) had obtained a lease from Forest Enterprise and laid a short section of track at Whitrope Siding, south of Hawick.