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Archaeology Notes

Event ID 783274

Category Descriptive Accounts

Type Archaeology Notes

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/783274

NY59NW 17.01 5394 9771

This station was situated at the junction of the Edinburgh-Carlisle main line (the 'Waverley Route') of the former North British Rly with that company's Northumberland branch through Kielder and Plashetts to Bellingham and the Tyne valley. It was opened as Riccarton Station by the Border Union Rly on 2 July 1862, was renamed Riccarton Junction Station by the North British Rly on 1 January 1905, and closed to regular passenger traffic on 6 January 1969.

The station is famous in railway history for its exposed position high in the border hills and for its role in provising banking engines for the ascent to Whitrope summit [Whitrope Tunnel; NT 5267 0066 to NT 5223 0170; NT50SW 11]. Without road access, the station formed an operating and maintenance facility of considerable importance with a substantial and self-contained supporting community, about which much folklore has gathered.

Information from RCAHMS (RJCM), 16 March 1999.

J Thomas 1971; J Thomas 1981; R V J Butt 1995.

Riccarton Juntion is situated on level ground NW of Fawhope Knowe and immediately E of Leysburnfoot famrsteading (formerly Fawhopeknowe farmsteading, depicted on the 1st edition of the OS 6-inch map (Roxburghshire, 1863, sheet xliii).

The junction station consisted on an island platform with pitched slated roof buildings and brick chimneys, including the Co-operative store and village pub.

There was also an engine shed with turntable (NY59NW 17.08), sidings and two signal boxes, N and S. The land immediately to the W was made up by the deposition of ash and spent ballast over a period of approximately a hundred years. Much of this waste materiaL has been removed over the last forty years, but some is still extant.

The buildings including the two signal boxes have been removed and only the remains of the platforms can be found in dense undergrowth.

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