Peebles Railway
The Peebles Railway was a railway company that built a line connecting the town of Peebles in Peeblesshire, Scotland, with Edinburgh. It opened on 4 July 1855, and it worked its own trains.
The friendly North British Railway later promoted a line, at first identified as the Galashiels, Innerleithen and Peebles Railway, from Peebles to Galashiels, making a connection with the Peebles Railway there, and also with the Caledonian Railway which had its own line at Peebles. The GI&PR line was built by the North British Railway and opened on 1 October 1864.
In 1860 the Peebles Railway company leased its line to the North British Railway, which operated the Galashiels and Edinburgh sections as a continuous through route.
Road transport of goods and passengers provided fierce competition in the 1950s and the line closed in 1962. No railway use is now made of the former lines.
History
Before the Peebles railway
In the eighteenth century Peebles had become an important manufacturing town, chiefly for woollen weaving and also the preparation of cotton and linen products, and also brewing. Its location on the banks of the Upper River Tweed put it on the communication routes of the area, constrained by the hills north and south surrounding Windlestraw Law and Dollar Law respectively.When the turnpikes were introduced, Peebles was within five hours of Edinburgh by post-chaise. In 1807 Thomas Telford was commissioned to design a double-track waggonway connecting Glasgow and Berwick, a distance of, running through Carluke, Peebles and Melrose. The waggonway would have been horse-operated, and was intended to form an outlet for iron products and lime to the borders area, and agricultural products, in particular grain, to the industrial towns of central Scotland.
The mountainous terrain of the route would have required steep gradients which would have been challenging for horse traction, and the estimated cost of construction was £365,000, a huge amount at that time, and the scheme was dropped.
A second waggonway scheme was proposed in 1821, this time designed by Robert Stevenson, on an alternative route but it too was considered too ambitious to be practicable.
In 1838 the Edinburgh and Glasgow Railway was authorised by the Edinburgh and Glasgow Railway Act 1838. Although local railways had been operating in Scotland, this was a major advance, connecting the two great cities. As the construction progressed, public opinion became active over making a connection between central Scotland and the merging English railway network. The controversy became very heated, and a great number of schemes were put forward, including some that would run through Peebles. Not all of the schemes were realistic, and in time they reduced to what became the North British Railway line between Edinburgh and Berwick, the Caledonian Railway between Edinburgh and Glasgow and Carlisle through the valley of the River Annan, and what became the Glasgow and South Western Railway via Kilmarnock and Dumfries. These great companies were all authorised by Parliament in the middle years of the 1840s.
The Caledonian Railway proposed the Caledonian Extension Railway in 1845, to run eastward from the Lanark area through Biggar and Stobo to Peebles, continuing through Galashiels to Kelso; this would have cost £1,500,000, the same as the Caledonian Railway itself from Edinburgh and Glasgow to Carlisle. However the proposal was rejected in Parliament.
In 1845 too, the North British Railway suggested a Peebles branch from Galashiels on the line that it was then building, which became the Waverley Route. The townspeople of Peebles did not think an eastward line to Galashiels was their highest priority. Supporters of an independent railway to Edinburgh had also been active, and on 23 June 1845 a meeting was held in Edinburgh. It was told that a line had been designed leaving the Edinburgh and Hawick Railway near the later Niddrie station.
In the 1846 parliamentary session, the Edinburgh and Peebles Bill failed standing orders, and the North British Peebles branch was withdrawn by its proposers: neither line would proceed.
The Peebles Railway
As the Scottish railway network developed in the following years, the cost of transporting goods to and from towns connected to a line fell dramatically; and Peebles, and other towns not connected, felt at a marked disadvantage in the cost of the necessities of living, and in moving its manufactures to markets, and this heightened the feeling that Peebles must have a railway line. John Bathgate was the principal promoter of the Peebles Railway.In April 1852 a meeting was held, at which a revised version of the failed Edinburgh and Peebles scheme was tabled. The engineer Thomas Bouch was engaged. The line would run through Penicuik and join the Hawick line at Eskbank, near Dalkeith, shortening the length of new construction, and the line could be built for £80,000. There was considerable enthusiasm locally and in London for the line and numerous persons registered for shares, although in the event many of them did not proceed with the commitment they had made. Enthusiasm took hold of the provisional committee too, for they sought tenders for the construction of the line and accepted one.
There remained the issue of actually obtaining the act of Parliament incorporating the company, but this went through without great difficulty, as the , and on 8 July 1853 the Peebles Railway was authorised, with capital of £70,000.
Getting the line ready
The directors put in hand the construction of the line, under Bouch's supervision, and the share subscriptions were coming in satisfactorily. They considered the working of the line, and talked to the North British Railway but found their financial terms unacceptable. They went to some lengths to explore the possibility of getting an independent contractor to work the line, but this proved fruitless, and the company decided to work the line itself. They set about procuring the rolling stock, and planning the workforce, for operating and for track and rolling stock maintenance, that would be required.On 2 April 1855 the line was ready enough for the steam locomotive Soho to be brought to Peebles, but this seems to have been a demonstration run, for it was not until 29 May that passenger coaches and goods wagons were brought to Peebles.
The line was considered ready for inspection by the Board of Trade inspecting officer, and Captain H. W. Tyler visited on 28 June. The inspection was thought to have gone well, but the formal approval received from the Board of Trade stipulated working by one engine only, and that sidings were required to shunt goods trains before passenger trains were started. The company had issued printed bye-laws and regulations, but these referred to disciplinary matters and not to operating rules; the company had two locomotives and appear not to have given thought to signalling arrangements. While considering what was to be done, the company started operating within the BoT requirements, and on 4 July 1855 the train service started. This apparently involved the construction of a passing loop at Penicuik.
Relations with the contractor for constructing the line appear to have deteriorated in the final months, and after opening it was stated in a general shareholders' meeting that there was an outstanding debt of £5,600, but that the board would not pursue for damages.
The line in operation
Three trains operated in each direction daily, except Sundays. Leaving Edinburgh the Peebles coaches were attached at the rear of an NBR Hawick train, and detached at Eskbank. There the Peebles Railway locomotive coupled to the detached portion and took the train on to Peebles. The physical junction was at Hardengreen. The locomotives ran tender first from Eskbank to Peebles.The trains were an instant success, carryings being beyond what could have been anticipated, and the first full week brought in receipts of £99, climbing a month later to £166. The stations were Peebles, Eddleston, Leadburn, Penicuik, Roslin and Hawthornden, but at the last minute it was agreed to provide a station at Bonnyrigg, and this was opened a month after the opening of the line itself.
In 1856 the North British Railway operated seven trains each way daily except Sundays, of which four were passenger trains. One of these was a "fast passenger" service leaving Peebles at 08:50 and taking 65 minutes, returning at 16:20 and also taking 65 minutes.
Soon after the opening one of the locomotives, St Ronans, became defective, "because it could not negotiate the curves on the track". Although the company owned two locomotives and was only allowed to use one at a time, nonetheless it found it necessary to hire in a replacement. The other locomotive was named Tweed. The locomotive fleet was soon augmented but the details are unclear. The carriage stock was also required to be increased, but these acquisitions were straining the capital resources of the company and deferment of payment was practised.
The electric telegraph was installed on the line, giving Peebles telegraph communication with Edinburgh for the first time, from 1858.
Additional capital
An act of Parliament, the , was obtained on 27 June 1857 authorising the issue of an additional £27,000 in shares; improvements and rectification of some deficiencies in the original construction of the line needed attention.In 1859 it was decided to install turntables at Peebles and Hardengreen Junction, as the tender-first running was said to cause excessive wear on the locomotives and the track. The North British Railway had to install the Hardengreen turntable and this seems to have been delayed, being ready in 1860.
The track had been laid with the cheapest materials at the advice of the engineer Thomas Bouch, and already in 1858 it was giving trouble, being in need of major renewal. The routine maintenance was carried out by platelayers with the assistance of a labourer, each responsible for about two miles of route. In August 1860 all the wooden bridges on the line were tarred and repainted.