^{North British Railway Study Group Journal Nos. 60-79}
Key to all Issue Numbers

Issue No. 60 (September 1995)

NBR 0-6-0T No. 161 with passenger train at Wemyss Castle. front cover

Andrew Munro. The Railways of Wemyss. 4-12
The Thornton & Leven Railway opened in 1854. Coal mining was the main activity and was in the hands of the Wemyss family, notably Randolph Wemyss who sought to develop the export fascilities at Burntisland, Buckhaven and Methil and new and improved pits. He was also a model landlord and provided housing and an electric tramway which connected onto the Kirkcaldy system. The Wemyss Private Railway was a notable feature of railways in the area. The branch line to Michael Colliery was a relatvely late development to a very large colliery which was forced to close following a major underground fire on 9 September 1967.  

G.W.M. Sewell. Observations on the design of North British coaches - Part 10. Dining cars. 13-19
Reid designed six-wheel cars with compartment accommodation into which meals were served from a kitchen (diagram: elevation and plan); also the post WW2 Craven vehicles. Brief mention is made of the bought in vehicles

4-4-0T No. 1464. 19
Allocated to Kipps: date probably post-WW1

Bill Inglis-Taylor, 7mm news. 22-3.
Brake van and pulley wagon models

Michael Colliery. 24
Photograph: probably pre-1939

Letters Received. 25

Bouch bridge at Montrose. 26
Photograph from newspaper of contractor's train on Bouch viaduct at Montrose which was not santioned for opening. See also Issue 61 page 8 et seq

Video Review. 26

The Invergarry & Fort Augustus Railway. Bill Rear. 26
This is one of the best video tapes I have ever seen, which should be an object lesson to all railway researchers to show how in-depth research can underearth material from the most unlikely sources and present it in a fascinating manner. Considering the distance between Video 125 studios and Fort Augustus, the persistence and single- mindedness with which Peter Middleton pursued his objective and the finished product, he must be congratulated upon an excellent production, even more so when one considers that the line lost its regular passenger traffic in the early 'thirties, and survived on what residual freight traffic made use of the line. Included is some very rare footage on the line taken from 9.5mm (centre sprocket) black & white cine film stock taken by A.B McLcod, with a hand held camera, of a journey along the West Highland Line which included the short extract on the Fort Augustus branch. The problems encountered trying to extricate this footage from the British Film Institute were unbelievable. The BFf placed every obstacle they could to avoid releasing the material, not the least being an outrageous charge for a video master copy from the original film stock. which worked out about £100 a second. I am pleased that the Study Group played a significant part in ensuring that the footage was ultimately released. Indeed one of the 'perks' that resulted was that a copy of the whole film of the journey was obtained for the Study Group archives. However it must be remembered that the quality of this footage is not what one has come to expect on modem video recording.
The video deals with the background to the legislation and ultimate construction of the line. Details are given on the operational side, firstly under The Highland Railway control, and then by the North British and LNER. Black and white photographs of contemporary views are interspersed with recent views along the line, including some excellent aerial views taken from a helicopter. The commentary that accompanies the visual material is not obtrusive, and our own member John McGregor discusses the background history. Indeed John was vital to the production of the recording, a fact which is freely acknowledged by the makers Interviews include one with a member of the last train to work along the line is included as well as the recollections of passengers and others who used the line. This video is a 'must' for those who wish to recapture the atmosphere of this long-gone branch line. Peter Middleton and Video 125 have very kindly agreed to give £5.00 discount to Study Group Members, who should identify themselves, quoting their Membership number.

Book Reviews. 26

Riccartun Junction, Christopher Milligan,
Written by a former surfacernan at Riccarton, and tells his own life story. together with reminiscences of the the railway community, the families, experiences and hardships. in the railway village. Whilst this book has the railway theme throughout, it is more about the community and village life. There are some prints and some new information. For example, the Riccarton gang worked on both the east and west coast lines. Overall, a very interesting book.

The Scottish 4-4-0: its place in railway history. Tom Middlemas.
Tom Middlemass undertakes a major survey of Scotland's contribution to that which became the British staple express locomotive type for many years. To attempt this in a single volume was brave, but Mr Middlcmass has succeeded handsomely. This is not a book for modellers looking for drawings and extensive details of which locomotive had what changed and when, but few interested in the history of Scotland's railways will fail to recognise the depth of research undertaken and the eminently readable way in which a complex tissue of classes are presented. There is even a chapter devoted to post-grouping classes, both new and interlopers. The chapter on South of the Thames (or 'Sired in Scotland built in Ashford and Eastleigh') was, I thought at first an appendage to appease the English reader. Not so. Each of the Scottish railways has every qualifying class listed in chronological order with perforce only a few details but these are well chosen. Having read this book, r was left with the impression that just below the surface lurks another book Tales of the NB. (with apologies to the late David L Smith). One for any enthusiast I look forward to Tom Middlernasss next book. L.MS.

Euan Cameron. Announcing The development of the North British passenger locomotive in the Victorian era: drawings and commentary. 27
Prospectus for proposed book, profits from which to have gone to a Ugandan charity based in Gosforth: see Issue 61 for sample illustrations

Issue No. 61 (December 1996)

A down working between Stobs and Hawick. front cover

John Adams. North British Railway Reid third bogie brake coach model'. 4-6.
1 : 12 scale model which may have been displayed in a glass case at Waverley station was sold at Collectors Corner to a Canadian architect. The model came into the possession of the author of the article who brought it back to Glasgow and the Springburn Museum who had established that it had been built by David Barrie Mann. Photograph of model. Colour photographs see John C. Adams. Modellers Backtrack, 1992, 2, 120.

Euan Cameron. The development of the North British passenger locomotive in the Victorian era: drawings and commentary. 7.
See alos Issue 60 page 27 (sample illustratuions for proposed book)

Jim Greenhill, N.B. Railway 'One Man Bands' 1866. 8
Borders Regional Library of Rutherford's The Southern Counties Register and Directory of 1866. Hints at the demands placed upon station masters at that time when they were responsible for handling mail

John Rapley The South Esk Viaduct at Montrosc.  8; 9-11
See also Issue 60 page 26: original strucuture was very unsatisfactory. William, son of Thomas Bouch was the engineer and Gilkes supplied the ironwork: all had to be replaced by Arrol 

Ken Falconer Return to Edinburgh, 11-15.
Edinburgh & Dalkeith Railway opened in 1831. Edinburgh & Glasgow Railway opened to Haymarket in 1842 and extended through Princes Street Gardens to connect with the line from Berwick which hed been open for a few months. Canal Street station opened in 1847 and provided trains to Leith and Granton via Scotland Street Tunnel. The opening of the Edinburgh Suburban Railway in 1884 and the Forth Bridge in 1890 forced major redevelopment to provide four tracks through the City with Waverley becoming a huge island platform. The major train services are described including those over the Waverley route. The southward services have remained the premier attraction and used to be hauled by Pacifics. Colour light signalling came in the late 1930s. Author makes much of views from Jacob's Ladder for views of Waverley (KPJ has missed something there: it is only in the past fifteen years that he became aware of the variety of pedestrian exits at the eastern end when staying in the Willowbank area).

Ken Falconer. Barclay 0-4-0ST. N.B.R. No.1250. 16.
Probably WN 252 supplied to John Browns in 1883 and passed to J. Finlayson of Airdrie in 1914 for scrap, but WW1 demands led to it being acquired by the NBR gave it No. 927 who lent it to the Highland Railway. In 1921 it was returned to the NBR, worked briefly at Eastfield before being scrapped. Diagram.

G.W.M. Sewell. Observations on the design of North British coaches - Part 11. Saloons. 17-25.
Third class vehicles for day trips; first class for conveying rich and "important" people and their families en vacance; invalid saloons; the directors' saloon, six-wheel, eight wheel and bogie. Six diagrams (elevations and plans)

Bill Inglis-Taylor. 7mm news. 26

Book rerview. 26
Don Martin. The Monkland and Kirkintillock and associated railways. Strathkelvin District Libraries. 165pp.

Alan Simpson. Two extracts regarding the lifting of the Fort Augustus branch. 27
Scottish Region official notices relating to working of line during its dismantling by Motherwell Machinery & Scrap Co. in 1949.

No. 62411 Lady of Avenill (Scott class). 27.
location Haymarket shed: see Issue 81 page 29. 27

Issue No. 62 (March 1996)

Nos. 9870 and 9420 on 17.45 from Aberdeen in 1928. front cover

Obituary - Robin Barr 27th December 199i5. 3
Part owner and officer of PS Waverley

A.A. Maclean. Bogie composite invalid saloon, Diagram 152. 4-7,
Built in 1920.; rrelatively frequently exhibited prior to 1939. Eventually acquired by Scottish Railway Oreservation Society and extant.

Tom Mann. Waverley Station workings Part 1. June 1960. 8-16
Times and whether steam or diesel

G.W. Hewit. Boats and trains. 16-17
Experiments on the Forth & Clyde Canal to assess the haulage of  passenger carrying boas by locomotives in 1839.  John Macneill  supervised the tests and Lish and Robert and William Dodds were involved. The Monkland & Kirkintilloch locomotive Victoria was probably used. Speeds of 17 mile/h were attained and it was possible to tow several vessels. The wash against the banks of the canal was detrimental.

Scott 4-4-0 No. 425 Kettledrummie facing No. 425 Glen Gau. Harry Townley. 17
See Issue No. 81 page 29:  not Glen Gau as stated, but an Intermediate very proably No. 892: location is Haymarket

John McGregor. The Banavie branch. 18-19.
How the relatively simple Banavie branch built to link the West Highland Railway with the Caledonian Canal at the top of the Neptune Staircase flight of locks was the cause of difficulties when the Mallaig Extension was being promoted.

Alan Simpson. Coal mining statistics (East & Mid Lothian 1920). 20-2.
Taken from the HMSO annual publication List of Mines: extracts for Haddingtonshire an Edinburghshire. Data includes numbers employed above ground and underground. Some of the companies also owned mines in Lanarkshire and these are listed

Alan Simpson. Braeside Halt. 22
Charlestown branch: timetable for 1922 shows poassenger services

Bill Inglis-Taylor. 7mm news. 23-5
Kit for D class 0-6-0T Class J83 and for a 10-ton  hand crane: latter includes several diagram.

George Heathcote. The Scotland Street Tunnel. 26.
See also earlier article in Issue 15 page 29. Exploration when tunnel was used for mushroom cultivation and participants warned about presence of rats

Issue No. 63 (June 1996)

From the Chairman I Comment.

Bill Rear. Edinburgh to Berwick in 1847. 4-6
Timetable for September 1847 reproduced. Includes fares and  trains on Haddington and "Hawick" [Dalkeith] branches 

G.W. Hewit. The first locomotives on the North British Railway. 7-13
On Thursday l8 June 1846, four engines coupled together drew a train of twelve carriages out of North Bridge Station, the station that in later years would be called Waverley, taking the guests of the North British Railway Company on a trip to mark the opening of their railway linking Berwick and Edinburgh. However it would take more than a year before the Newcastle & Berwick Railway completed the link from Newcastle to Tweedmouth that, apart from the then unbridged Tyne and Tweed, marked the completion of the East Coast main line between Edinburgh and London'. The first train was followed by another of twenty two carriages hauled by five locomotives. Both stopped at Dunbar where the first train picked up a further twel ve carriages. The two trains then travelled on to Berwick-upon-Tweed and then back to Dunbar where the 700 guests of the Company dined in the heat of that summers day. Thus the North British Railway opened for business and from this humble beginning it grew to be the largest railway company in Scotland and, by 1923 when it was merged into the London & North Eastern Railway, it dominated the Borders, Lothian and Fife, reached into the West Highlands and spanned the two large East coast estuaries.
Many newspapers marked this significant step in the railway system of Great Britain with detailed reports, however none mentioned anything about the locomotives themselves. To find out about them, we must look elsewhere. The discovery in the Newcastle upon Tyne Library by our esteemed secretary, Mr W Marshall Shaw, of a pack of drawings depicting the last engine of the NBRs first batch of engines, No. 26, and the discovery of the notes that go with them, gives us a new insight into these locomotives.
HISTORY
On 21 August 1844, the NBR Board of Directors was advised by their engineer, John Millar of the noted Scottish railway consultants of Grainger and Millar, of an offer for twenty-six locomotives from the Newcastle-upon-Tyne company of R&W Hawthorn to be the motive power for the opening of the line. Grainger and Millar had been the engineering advisors to a number of Scottish railway compa- nies, although the two partners, Thomas Grainger and John Millar, always worked on separate projects. Millar was the engineer on, amongst others, the Edinburgh & Northern and the Edinburgh & Glasgow Railways both of whom had orders either accepted or recently fulfilled by Hawthorns" Millar probably chose this manufacturer rather any of the myriad of Scottish companies as the size of the order was beyond the capacity of these more local concerns. The offer was for an 0-4-2 type of engine which was or would be in service with both the other lines by whom he was retained however the E&GR engines were of an earlier design. Hawthorns quoted a fixed price of £1,650 for each locomotive and tender, a low price because of the depressed state of the economy at this time. It was to be paid in four equal tranches of £10,725 and the first payment was made on the 4 April 1845 and this payment appeared in the half yearly shareholders report in 31 July 1845. The Directors sanctioned another payment equal to the first on 27 August 1845 and another was paid on the 4 February 1846. However after then, the increasingly perilous state of the NBR's financial position meant that payments became smaller and more sporadic. The ordering of more R&W Hawthorn engines also confuses the payment schedules but obviously the problems compounded and, by 11 May 1846, a list of shareholders included Robert Hawthorn, Engineer, Newcastle. He had 70 Shares numbered 691-760 and valued at £875. The acceptance of shares in lieu of payments became a feature of the financial dealings that both R&W Hawthorns and Hawthorns of Leith were to have with the Scottish railway companies, whether this was a sound business practice is open to question.
Unfortunately, a fire at the Hawthorns works in 1852 resulted in the loss of some of the records up to this point. This, combined with the practice of swapping engines ordered by one company to another with a higher priority, means that it is virtually impossible now to reconstruct the early deliveries with accuracy.
The NBR order was for sixteen passenger engines and ten goods engines, the passenger engines having 5ft and the similar goods engines having 4ft 6in diameter coupled wheels. These sizes are broadly confirmed by the Cowlairs 1867 list although by this time several of both types had been substantially rebuilt. One reconstructed Hawthorn list shows the following orders for the NBR:

Works numbers 382-387 were completed well before the NBR needed them and, in a period where there was a great demand for locomotives, they were reallocated to a number ofcompanies. Of the next batch, works number 400 was sent to a railway contractor. This engine may have been the one referred to in the NBR Minute Book by a note dated l Oth February 1846 stating that"As to the engine wanted at Berwick, instructions were given to desire Messrs Hawthorn & Co. to forward a Locomotive as soon as possible to Berwick'.
Works number 402 and 406 were sent to other railway companies making works numbers 397 to 399,401,405,407 and 408 as the most likely identities of the first seven NBR engines. Works numbers 409 to 418 are assumed to have been assigned to the goods engines and the Newcastle drawing shows the works number 418 on NBR No. 26 which may serve to confirm this analysis. However a note on the Hawthorn Order book records thattwo engines of this batch, 416 and 417, were sent to the E&GR and two new locomotives built to replace them. These are marked in the list as works numbers 513 and 514³ . No 418 is also noted as being redirected, it may have been replaced by No 510. Some sources claim that two 0-4-2's that were originally destined for the Midland Railway went to the NBR
However, in all tills substituting one engine for another, there is a mass of evidence showing that this happened before the engine was manufactured and erected rather than than after. Although the orders for NBR and ENR 0-4-2 engines, which had different specifications, were mixed, NBR specification engines went to the NBR and ENR engines went to the ENR. TIle table gives the delivery and replacement dates along with a the renumberings which the engines underwent. The works numbers listed are a best guess for the reasons listed above.

a Sold to Jas. Gow for £550.
b Allocated but not carried.
c Sold to the Hull & Holderness Railway, later became NER No. 416.
At the Half Yearly Directors' Meeting on 17th February 1846, the Chairman, John Leannouth, reported that "The Locomotive engines, Carriages and Other plant are in an ad- vanced state of preparation. Several of the former are already delivered and a large number of Carriages are ready to be so." The Evening Courant newspaper reported in May 1845 that the first engine had been delivered and the balance of the engines would arrive in this and the following year although newspa- per may have been mistaken into thinking that the engine seen was the first as the other engines delivered up to this date were at work on the E&GR. At least five" of the first engines delivered to the NBR were hired out to the E&GR who had a severe shortage of locomotives and had been censured by a Judge the year before for their lack of engines
In July 1857, Hurst wrote to the Locomotive Committee listing "the Nos. of such engines I think could be best spared in the meantime and most profitably replaced by others better adapted to the work at which they are currently employed." The Hawthorn engines he listed were (all had 14 inch cylinders and cost £1650):

Although the Locomotive Committee agreed to recommend to the Board of Directors the replacement of all these engines at the earliest opportunity, no record of the Board's reaction to the list survives and there is little correlation to the numbers listed and the subsequent fate of the locomotives⁵.
Even by the early 1850s, the design defects of these engines were causing problems in the operation of the railway and some were sent outto contractors to be repaired as the NBR' s small workshop at St Margarets was swamped. NBR Nos. 8, 10 and 12 went to R Stephensons & Co. for heavy repairs, so heavy that they are marked as rebuilds in the Cowlairs 1867 list and returned to service in December 1855, November 1855 and February 1856 respectively. NBR Nos. 21 and 26 were sent to the GNR at Doncaster in 1855 and Nos. 18 and 23 went to R&W Hawthoms for similar services, both returning to traffic in October 1855.
Rebuilding
As will be explained in the technical section, extensive rebuilding of these locomotives was needed to give these engines an economic life. Details of all the known rebuilds of these locomotives is given in the following (all were at  St Margarets unless stated otherwise):
No. 10 rebuilt with new boiler by R. Stephenson & Co. in 1855
No. 7 rebuilt as an 0-4-2T in February 1856 but appears in the 1867 Cowlairs list with no indication that it was a tank engine, however this is not the only engine that we know is a tank and is not marked in this list.
No. 12 rebuilt as 2-2-2 wheelbase 7ft 6in + 7ft 6in by R. Stephenson & Co. in February 1856 
No. 15 rebuilt as 2-2-2 with 3ft 6in, 5ft 6in, 3ft 6in wheels. wheelbase 7ft 5in + 7ft 8in, and 14 x 21in cylinders in 1856
No. 24 converted to coal burning. in March 1856 
No. 5 rebuilt with 7ft 2in + 7ft 2in wheelbase in 1858
No. 24 rebuilt as 2-2-2 with 3ft 7in, 5ft 6in, 3ft 7in wheels. wheelbase 7ft 5in + 7ft 5in, cylinders 14½ x 21in in 1859 or June 1858
Nos, 17, 18 and 19 possibly rebuilt with 5ft driving wheels. (No. 19 with a wheelbase 7' 1" + 7' 1")
No. 23 rebuilt with 5ft driving wheels. in 1865
No. 24 re4built with 14½ x 21in cylinders and new boiler in January 1868
Nos. 19 in December 1868 and 21 in May 1869 rebuilt as 0-6-0 saddle tanks. at Cowlairs
In February 1869, NBR No. 17 which was completely stripped down at Cowlairs and many parts of it were used in what was regarded by the NBR as a new engine. It emerged as an 0-6-0 tender locomotive with 4ft 6in coupled wheels, 16½' x 24 in cylinders and a Wheatley boiler. In this guise it lasted until December 1914 having been renumbered 17a in 1890, 818 in 1895 and 1018 in 1901.
Cylinders and Valves
'The size ofthe pistons have been coy red before, the pistons had two cast iron rings for packing whi h wer adju table by a movable wedge that could force the rings into a tight fit to th cylinder.
111e valves were mounted between the cylinder and were actuated from eccentrics on the leading driving wheel axle. The valve, at least on BR No. 26 as depicted in the Newcastle drawings, were Hawthorn parent expansion type. TIle builders plate confirms this, saying "Hawthorn Patent Expansion Valve 1843 (9691/ 7 April 1843). D K Clark is critical of this design, saying "The experience of this valve on the North British Railway where it has been extensively employed, has shown that the lower valve, always in motion, generally wore itself out of contact with the upper, to the extent of 1/16 inch the course of a year or two, which was certainly sufficient to neutralise any attempt at economical expansion working. In but one locomotive on that railway, a 6-foot wheel express, under the care of a first class driver, the valves remained in tolerably good order for three years, at the end of which period they had parted about 1/32:n inch," In 1848, the E&GR bought six 2-2-2s from Hawthorn which were fitted with this design of valves and Paton, the Locomotive Superintendent, reported that they were heavy on coke and he replaced the motion and valves with a link motion as soon as possible.
By the end of 1873 all of these engines that had not been rebuilt had been sold or scrapped. Their short lives reflected their aim to be modern at the time, but pushed the design to its limits. In that light they gave good service, their bad name stemmed more from the inabiliity of the NBR board to appoint, respect and fund competent Locomotive Superintendents than their inherent faults.
Acknowledgements
I would like to thank both Marshall Shaw and Dr Ewan Cameron for their comments on the draft of this docwnent, however the opinions are my own. I am also indebted to Mr D Martin of the Kirkitilloch Library for the access to the McEwan Collection and permission to use the photograph of No. 17.
Sources
The Minutes of the Board of Directors of the NBR
The Minutes of theLocomotive Committee of the NBR
List of Locamotives, Cowlairs 1867
The Locomotives of the North British Railway E Craven
The Locomotives of the Edinburgh & Glasgow Railway E Craven
The Locomotives of the Edinburgh, Perth & Dundee Railway E Craven
The R&W Hawthorn Order Book (Two Versions)
The Papers of J F McEwan
Engineer and Machinists Assistant Scott 1844
Railway Machinery D K CIark 1850
Locomotives of the Great Northern Railway VoL 1N Groves RCTS
Reports to the Board of Trade on the Accidents on the Railways
Notes
The Newcastle to Berwick link was opened for traffic on 1 July 1847, the High bevel Bridge over the Tyne at Newcastle began operating on 15 August 1849 and the Royal Border Bridge over the Tweed at Berwick opened to freight passage on 20 July 1850 and for passenger traffic on 29 August 1851.
There is sometimes confusion between R&W Hawthorn at Newcastle and Hawthorns of Leith: the E&NR once paid the wrong company! The Leith based company, Hawthorns of Leith, was set up in 1846 by R&W Hawthorns of Newcastle to erect locomotives from parts supplied by the Newcastle facility. The company was, until the mid 1850s, a wholly owned subsidiary of R & W Hawthorns, All references to Hawthorns in this article refer to the Newcastle-upon-Tyne factory.
The NBR eventually took these engines into it's inventory when the E&GR and the NBR amalgamated in 1865. In the E&GR they were called "Tregold" and "Panbour" respectively, being numbered '27 and 28 in 1849 when numbering was adopted on the E&GR. They became NBR Nos. 257 and 258.
NBR Nos. 1-4 and No. 7_
Also on this list was NBR No. 55, the Crampton locomotive. Marked as in "good" condition and worth £1,000 out of the £2,800 paid for her only seven years before, she survived, albeit heavily rebuilt on four occasions, until 1901.
The diameter over the ranges was 3ft 2in, the diameter at the contact of the rail was 3ft which may account for the different diameters in various records. The Cowlairs l867 list gives 3ft.
Bury engines amongst others had a lever that only gave a 5:1 magnification which resulted in a wider valve. These wider valves gave a better performance in relieving the excess pressure than the Hawthorn design.
At this time there were two types of feed pump in common usage, the short action pumps were driven by eccentrics on the axles, the long action pumps being driven from the crosshead.
The Patent was No. 9691 and dated 7 April 1843

Bruce Murray. North British Railway Locomotives Nos. 17-26. 14-15
Diagrams drawn by Bruce Murray in April 1996 to show how Nos. 17 to 26 appeared when built in 1846 by R. & W. Hawthorn of Newcastle: side, front & rear elevations and plan

Bill Rear. Waverley to Marshall Meadows. 16.
Schematic side-strips showing gradient profiles and track layouts following a style adopted by LMS and presumably applied by new Scottish Region

The Locomotive. Centenary of the Edinburgh· Berwick Line, N.B.R.
Locomotive Mag., 15 August 1946.

Archie Noble. Working on the railroad. 18-19.
Originally published in Borders Family History Society Magazine: deaths and injuries endured by workforce engaged on constructing the Galashiels section of Borders main line

LNER Scottish Area Main Line Passenger Engine Workings 1947

Tom Mann. Waverley Station workings Part Il. 24

G.W.M. Sewell. Observations on the design of North British coaches, Part 12A.

Book Review. 32
Don Martin. The Monkland & Kirkintilloch and associated railways. Strathkelvin District Libraries and Museums. 1995. 132 pp.
As remarked in another recently published book on Scottish Railways, Sassenachs and others will look in vain for the Monklands area on any normal map of Scotland, yet this large, extensive industrial area occupies the greater part of the Scottish Central belt between Glasgow and Edinburgh, lying north of the M.8 Motorway and south of the Forth & Clyde Canal. It was an area rich in minerals: Coal, Canoel Coal, Iron Ore, Fireclay and Limestone, and the extraction, processing and transporting of these materials was to prove a lucrative source of traffic for the Monklands Railway and subsequently the North British Railway and its successors. But while the railways form the basis of this book, the author has conducted extensive research into all aspects of the area and the industries it supported, and gives a detailed, lucid and comprehensive account of its development, from the early days of horse drawn tramways, through the boom years of the Industrial Revolution and the subsequent decline in latter years, the inevitable machinations of the politics of building and extending the railway, and the social, economic and hwnanitarian side of things.
Originally worked by horse power, the Monkland & Kirkintilloch Railway was one of the earliest of Scottish Railways, the first to operate successfully by using the steam locomotive, and the first to design its own locomotives, which were built by a Glasgow firm, Murdoch & Aitken, the first Scottish built locomotives. The M.& K.R. worked closely with its neighbours, the Slanannan and the Ballochney Railways, eventually amalgamating with them in 1848, the combined company being knownas the Monklands Railway. In 1865, the Monkland Railway amalgamated briefly with its neighbour, the Edinburgh & Glasgow Railway only months before the combined railways became part of the North British Railway and contributing some 130 locomotives, of 'many types in various conditions of repair, to the enlarged N.B.R.
The author, Don Martin, has spent many years painstakingly researching every aspect of these lines and published a small booklet on the subject as long ago as 1976, since when considerably more information has cone to light and is now presented in the book under review. The fact that some 271 reference sources are quoted indicates the depth of research carried out.
Understandably, there is a paucity of photographs of the early days of the development of the Monkland Railway, although four locomotives are depicted, albeit in N.B.R. days, but the reviewer would have preferred to have seen the likes of an Ordnance Survey map used in preference to the sketch maps featured, to define the areas geographically. These reservations apart, the reviewer has no hesitation in recorrunending this work to all who are interested in Scottish Railways development and history, and in particular those that became an integral part of the North British Railway. And at this price, well worth adding to your library shelf, for future reference, particularly as it is hoped to publish shortly, in your Joumal, full details of the locomotive stock of the Monklands Railway. W.M.S.

Modern Transport. Edinburgh as a Railway Centre (1938)

Gordon Hewit. How Long .... ? 38-9.

Issue No. 64 (September 1996)

Livery register

Part 1 Introduction
Production of the Register
Note to modellers
Part 2 Locomotive Liveries
Introduction
Section 1 Pre N. B. R. (Constituent Companies)
Section 2 Robert Thomton 1846-1851
Section 3 William Smith 1851-1854
Section 4 Hon. E. G. Petrie 1854·1855
Section 5 Wllliam Hurst 1855-1867
Section 6 Thomas Wheatley 1867- 1875
Section 7 Dougld Drummond 1875 - 1882
Section 8 Matthew Holmes 1882 - 1903
Section 9 William Paton Reid 1903-1919
Section 10 WaIter Chalmers 1919 -1923
Section 11 Early L.N.E.R. period

Appendix A Control Numerals
Appendix B Buffer Beam Numerals
Appendix C Lettering
Appendix D Numberplates

Part 3 Passenger Rolling Stock
Section 1 Carriages and Coaching Stock

Appendix A Passenger lettering and numbers

Part 4 Freight Rolling Stock (Including Passenger Rated Rolling Stock)
Section 1 Wagons

Appendix A Wagon lettering
Appendix B Other lettering applied to wagons.
Appendix C Wagon numberplates and other plates

Part 5 Structures

Part 6 Steamers

Part 7 General

Appendix A Paints and Pigments

Appendix B Liveries and Photographs

Appendix C Who Determined Liveries?
What was the role of the Locomotive Superintendent in the decision to adopt or alter a livery? It is customary to describe the liveries of all railways, not just the N. B.R., by the name of the Locomotive Superintendent in office at the time of it's adoption, as if the decision as to the livery was his alone. Reading most books on railways, one gathers the impression that the Locomotive Superintendent had a sudden inspiration and just walked round to the paint shop foreman and instructed him that henceforth all locomotives were to be painted purple with green stripes and yellow spots. It was far otherwise. The decision as to the Company livery rested with the Directors, and only they — or in some cases maybe the Locomotive Committee — could authorise changes of livery. That these changes frequently occurred on the change of the Locomotive Superintendent is largely coincidental. It may have been that the new man, wishing to exhibit his zeal in the interests of his new employers, suggested to the Board, along with other ideas for cutting the cost of running his department, proposals for a new livery which would be cheaper to apply and keep clean, or perhaps one which would attract more favourable response from would be passengers. On the other hand, the advent of a new man may have given those members of the Board who favoured a change, an opportunity to initiate such change which they could not bring about whilst he previous incumbent, who was probably unwilling to burden himself with the extra work that a change would have entailed, and would not have made his engines run any better, had the confidence of the majority of the members of the Board, "March" umber is a case in point. For the first five years of his incumbency, he continued with the yellow livery, but would have liked one which was harder wearing and cheaper to keep clean. As it happened, a minority of the Directors had wanted the same thing, and, eventually the matter was raised during the spring meeting of the Locomotive Committee in 1905. At whose instance it is not recorded, but more than likely one of the dissident Directors had discovered, maybe in conversation with Marsh, that they could now count on the support of the Locomotive Superintendent. Many things could arise out of casual conversation. The upshot was that Marsh was asked for his suggestions and proposed that the green used for goods engines should be applied to the passenger engines and that the goods engines be umber. After examining locomotives in 13 different liveries, of which 7 were in some shade of green, mostly the then goods green, 3 in umber and 3 in black, the Directors selected umber for the passenger engines and black for the goods engines. Umber was one of Marsh's proposals, but not for the class of engines he had wanted. Whether the Directors chose to reject Marsh's preference for green because that preferred the liveries selected, or merely to demonstrate in whose hands the decision lay, is unlikely to be recorded in the Minute Book. The same is true of "Midland Red". The initiative came not from Johnson, but from the Board. For many years the Directors (and the travelling public) disliked the disharmony between the green then used for locomotives and the red then used for the carriages, Johnson's only suggestion, which was tried, was to lighten the green, but this was no improvement. For his part, Johnson very likely thought that he had enough to do providing and keeping running the engines which could cope with the traffic demands, without having the added worry of the colour they might be painted. The idea of painting both engines and carriages red came from the Directors, and Johnson was instructed to try out the idea in varying shades. The details of the experimental /~ liveries were very likely worked out by the drawing office in consultation with the paint shop personnel, but, of course, aI/ of these were responsible to Johnson, who would have had to approve their proposals. The final selection was made, not by Johnson, but by the Directors after they had considered the comments which had been canvassed from the passengers. An early example of "improving the public image".

Appendix D Defmition and sources of colours.

Acknowledgements

There are a few diagrams: notably side elevations of the 1846 first, second and third class carriages and some of the styles used for numerals and letters on locomotives and rolling stock. March umber is presumably a typo

Issue No. 65 (December 1996)

The Devon Valley Railway. 4
This railway was authorised in 1858 to connect the Tillycoultry station of the Stirling and Dunfermline Railway with the Fife and Kinross Railway at Hopefield.
The first sod of the railway was cut by Mrs. Adam of Blairadam on Saturday 4th August 1860 in a field to the south of Rumbling Bridge. The weather was claimed to be fine and about 1400 spectators viewed the event. The first portion (Kinross to Rumbling Bridge) opened on 1 May 1863 with W.P. Adam of Blairadam presiding, and the line ultimately amalgamated with the North British Railway from 1 January 1875.
It was noted in the LNER Magazine for January 1928 that the parents of Miss E. McLellan, the crossing keeper were the first to occupy the cottage at Tullibole Level Crossing, between Balado and Crook of Devon, her mother being the first crossing keeper. A sister had charge of the gates for a year after her mother died,  but since then, Miss McLellan had been in charge. She had at that time held the post for some 48 years and claimed to be the longest serving member of the staff of the Devon Valley Railway still employed on the line .

Celebrities and the Union Canal. 4.
The Union Canal was originally independent, opening to traffic in 1822, and in time amalgamated with the Edinburgh & Glasgow Railway before passing into North British Railway control in 1865. During its construction, one of many Irish labourers employed was a Mr. William Burke, who latterly became the principal partner of the erstwhile flourishing firm of Messrs Burke and Hare, whose ferocious murders and ghoulish bodysnatching trade startled the country until the rather sudden demise of the former in 1829.
In later years, the canal was responsible for the demise of George Meikle Kemp, the designer of the 180 feet high Scott Monument. Kemp, described by some as a young 'country joiner' and a 'self taught architect' is believed to have lost his footing in a' fog when returning from a visit to a building contractor on 6 March 1844, slipped in and was drowned.

Alan Dunbar and Sandy Maclean. Problems with the Halbeath and Townhill Tramways. 5-6.
Railway or tramway projected in 1781 and opened in 1783 to connect Halbeath Colliery with Inverkeithing Harbour. Owned by the English brothers Lloyd who resided in Amsterdam. It was originally laid with timber, but this was replaced by iron rails in about 1811. In 1841 a junction was made at Guttergates for a branch to Townhill Collieries. In 1845 agreement had to be reached with the Edinburgh and Perth Railway for a crossing of the two lines, but eventually expensive litigation ensued. Coal ceased to be shipped at Inverkeithing in 1867..

Slamannan Railway lines. 6
Authorised in 1835 to construct a railway from Arbuckle on the Ballochney Railway to Causewayend on the Union Canal. The 4ft 6in gauge line opened on 5 August 1840. It was converted to standard gauge in 1847 and eventually became a part of the Edinburgh & Glasgow Railway.

Motive power depot layouts (1951). 7
Polmont: plan.

SIgnalling plan - Corstorphine. 8

Signalling aspects. 9
Photographs with extended captuons of NBR slotting mechanism for dual controlled arms, and of NBR version of Stevens Mechanical Ground Signal.

Polmont engine shed  buildings. 10.
Three photographs from 1962/3..

Sandy Maclean. Polmont engine shed  (1915-1964). 11-15
Only accessible by rail; not by road and on foot from the Union Canal.. Locomotive water did not come from the canal, but from the local authority at Buckieburn. Lists locomotive typoes allocated there and the location of  sub-depots at Kinneil near Bo'ness (the main one) and at Falkirk Grahamstown, Falkirk High and Causewayend.

Polmont depot memories. 15.
Joseph Allison, Chief Clerk at Polmont retired in 1962. He started work at Bo'ness Junction (Manuel) and moved to Polmont in 1916.

Polmont locomotives. 16
Photographs of Y9 No, 68104 with J88 No. 68359; J37 No. 64551 (with original NBR safety valves, and No. 68104 with depot tool van proceeding at speed to derailment.

The North British Railway and the Great War. 17-19
The East Coast was considered vulnerable to invasion and an armoured train patrolled it and on occasion the Firth of Clyde. Staff on the armoured train andon railway telegraph systems were members of the Railway Staff Corps so that should they have to encounter the enemy they would be regarded as soldiers. Traffic was extensive to the many training centres located on the NBR system. Navl traffic was heavy especially from Rosyth and from Port Edgar on the southern shore of the Firth of Forth.  Between 21ay 1917 and 30 April 1919 naval leave specials between Tturso and Euston traversed the NBR route between Perth and Carlisle which required double-heading on the Waverley route.Very heavy naval leave traffic was conveyed in December 1918 when the entire Grand Fleet was granted twelve days leave. The NBR Ambulance Train transgressed certain military requirements. Hammocks rather than fixed beds, and it was not acceptable for travel over the South Eastern & Chatham to Dover. It spent most of its time operating between Port Edgar and Wemyss Bay.

Burntisland works and locomotive shed. 20.
Plan

Richard Hollingworth. Burntisland and communications. 21-24
Burntisland developed as the ferry terminal for steamer services to Granton. The first railway proposal envisaged a line to Dunfermline using existing wagonways, but agreement with the Burgh  could not be obtained, but the Edinburgh and Northern Railway was more successful in obtaining an Act for lines to Perth and to Tayport. A locomotive roundhouse was constructed at Burntisland and some locomotives were built there.Edinburgh, Perth & Dundee Railway, Brief notes on Driver Peter Isles who was attracted from the Dundee & Arbroath Railway to serve at Burntisland. He was the last to cross the old Tay Bridge (and survive) and drove the first northbound train over the Forth Bridge. On 14 April 1914 ther was a serious collision between an express freight train being shunted and a sleeper express. Coal exports were shifted to Methil and the locomotive depot was diminished in importance due to the opening of a new depot at Thornton Junction. See addenda in 66 p. 39.

Burntisland railway photo album. 25
Station at Burntisland Pier; facade of impressive Burntiisland passenger station; cast iron urinal in dock area.

The East of Fife Railway (1965). 26
Photographs of Kilconquhar (platform, barow and signal box); St. Monance and Anstruther

A.G. Dunbar. A note on the East of Fife Railway. 27
The section from Leven to Anstruther was authorised in 1861 and reached St Andrews in 1887. It was closed in 1966.

A North British personality. 28
Driver George Wilkie of Burntisland lived to be 100: he was interviewed fot the British Railways Magazine by The Chiel, presumably Norman McKillop. He had driven Drummond 0-6-0 No. 555 and remembered Driver Mitchell and Fireman John Marshall, lost in the Tay Bridge disatster and Sir Thomas Bouch coming off the ferry on 28 December 1879.

Sandy Maclean. NBR close coupled stock proposals. 29-30
In 1912 consideration was given to the intoduction of close coupled sets for branch lines and bogie, six-wheel and four wheel configurations were considered. The compartment widths were generous compared with those actually emplyed on Great Nortern and Great Eastern rolling stock. Gas lighting waas proposed. The proposals remained unfulfilled.

'the new gas light' (from the Railway Times, 24 May 1879). 30
Pintsch system using oil gas developed as a by-product of shale oil processing and employed by the Metropolitan and Great Eastern Railways.

Coaching cavalcade. 31
Page missing from scanned copy

Wagon photo-call, 32
Polmont Depot Tool Van DE971516 converted from TKL 31724 in 1946; square NBR tar tank wagon operated by Scottish Tar Distillers in Polmont Yard; Scottish Fish Meal Marketing Co. steel open wagon registered by LMS, but on Roughcastle branch.

Sandy Maclean. Goods wagon miscellany. 33-36
Vehicle type requirements: coal could require end, side or hopper dsicharge or combinations of these. Coke demanded high capacity. Some loads demanded ventilation, refrigeration or protection from mishandling. Statistics of vehicle types. Operating restrictions included adequate braking. Goods marshalling yards. Wagon workshops and agreement with private wagon builders, such as Hurst Nelson, to repair wagons after WW1. . Couplings and buffers. Spring buffers mandatory from 1911/14. Axleboxes and springs. Liveries. Quatrefoil illiteracy mark. Wagon diagram books. North British followed a loose-leaf format.  Southern Scottish Area (LNER) Wagon Diagram Book. In 1936 Hollerith Punch Card system introduced

North British Variorem (2). 37-8

"Old Hurnpty". 37
No. 444: 0-6-0ST built as an 0-6-0 tender engine in 1873and convertedvto saddle tank in 1889. New boiler in 1897. Renumbered as 1271 in 1915 an withdrawn in October 1921. Based at Dunfermline.

An LNER Exhibition. 37
At Waverley on Sunday 1 July 1928. Complete Flying Scotsman and Queen of Scots trains exhibited. Funds raised for Edinburgh Royal Infirmary. J. Calder, General Manager Scotland presided at opening.

Sleeper treatment plants. 37
Creosoting performed at Ladybank, Granton and Bo'ness. LNER closed Granton and Ladybank in 1928, and concentrated activity at Bo'ness.

The North British route to Euston. 37
Opened to Berwick on 22 June 1848. Travel to London involved departure for Berwick at 21.00; overnight travel by coach to Newcastle (by Union via Alnwick or Quicksilver via Wooler);  Entrainment at Newcastle at 07.30 and eventual arrival at Euston at 19.45. 

Ode to the dear departed "Dandy". 38
Poem  of 1914 lamenting end of Dandy car on Port Carlisle branch

Charleston and Dunfermline Railway  (The Charleston Private Railway). 38
The Charleston Railway and Harbour Act of 1859 was designed to authorise the Charleston Harbour and Railway Company to acquire and purchase the Charleston Railway and Harbour. The authorised share capital was to be in 7200 shares of £10 each, and Schedule B of the Act noted the following items of rolling stock: 4 locomotives and 1 tender; 2 passenger carriages; 223 coal wagons; 2 coal trucks; 35 goods wagons; 1 covered van.
The history of the Charleston Railway is shrouded in mystery and very little of their original documentation seems to. have survived. Unless these are in private hands, or obscure collections, it is improbable that much more will come to light. One other source may be the local Fife (or even the Edinburgh) press for the area, but this could be the only surviving source available although it would indeed be a labour of love for any researcher, bearing in m ind that the newspapers of the time did not carry headlines as they do today .

The horse box. 38
An item in the Accounts of the Edinburgh and Northern Railway notes that the cost of the upkeep for the horse at Granton for a period of six months was £40, but the man who looked after the horse only received the sum of £27 for the same period. Was it really preferable to be a horse on the Edinburgh and Northern?

Sunday service. 38
In the Caledonian and Dumbartonshire Junction Railway Minutes for 1851, it is mentioned that the "coach and light tank engine is authorised to run on Sunday mornings to convey worshippers only from the Vale of Leven to the Episcopal Church at Dumbarton." One is left to wonder just how a 'worshipper' was determined.

Privilege travel no more. 38
When William Paton, the former Locomotive Superintendent of the Edinburgh and Glasgow Railway retired, he was granted a pension of £170 per annum and a free pass over the system, the latter normally a privilege granted only to Directors. When the North British took over the line in 1865, one of their first actions was to cancel Mr. Paton's free pass - rather mean to say the least.

The tail lamp (miscellaneous photographs). 39
The photographs and captions are out of synch (but are listed in photograph order): LNER wagon plate: Doncaster 724985 (caption records that 700000 series normally allocated to former North British Railway vehicles); No. 46222 Princess Alice at former North British depot; N2 0-6-2T No. 4739 entering St. Boswells with two Gresley vehicles: brake thiird and composite lavatory non-gangwayed coaches;  three compartment brake third originally 1651, then LNER 31651 at Craigentinny Sidings in 1930s. See also note in Issue 67 page 24 (bottom).

Issue No. 66 (March 1997)

Variorum

Never On Sundays. 4
At the half yearly meetings of the Edinburgh, Perth and Dundee Railway, (among other railways) for many years either a Mr. Blackadder or a Mr. Heriot (or both) fulminated against the running of Sunday trains. They even got the length of moving that the E.P.D.R. Company's Officers should not work on Sundays "in order to be fit to attend to the Company's business on Monday". Nothing appears to have been said, however, about the lower ranks not working on the Sabbath!

Serendipity. 4
A note in the North British Railway Minute Books for 19 January 1849 notes that W.H. Playfair was paid £414 for the designing and superintending the layout of West Princes Street Gardens. This is the area between the Haymarket and Mound Tunnels, through which ran the double track main line of the Edinburgh and Glasgow Railway, the site of which the Princes Street Proprietors wished to conceal as far as possible. William Henry Playfair was one of the most notable architects of the period, and at one time produced a design covering the construction of an extension of the new town from the east end of Princes Street down to Leith in 1814. Unfortunately, Edinburgh was then almost bankrupt, and the scheme was moribund. Playfair went on the design (inter alia) the neo-classical Royal Institution (1826) and National Gallery of Scotland (1859), both of which nestle at the foot of the Mound, the latter straddling the Mound Tunnels and dominating the western skyline above Waverley Station .

Well Played, Sir! 4
The Edinburgh Suburban and South Side Junction Railway Company passes through the playing fields of George Watsons College at Myreside in Edinburgh in a deep cutting, and although no doubt many celebrated tries have been scored at the higher elevation by famous players over the years, probably none can equate with the 'touch down' of a humble L.N.E.R. engine driver some years back. As his goods train was travelling downhill on a breezy Saturday afternoon, a high kick sent the ball hurtling over the edge of the rocky cutting and it finally bounced among the coals on the low sided tender of a passing goods locomotive. Accurately timing his effort, and with startling precision, the driver pounced and gained possession. The groundsman, no doubt, searched high and low for the ball, but --- well the youthful son of an engine driver is reputed to have become a good drop-kicker.

Ravenswood. The Kirkcaldy Harbour Branch. 5-12
Incorporated as part of the Edinburgh & Northern Railway but not constructed until about 1849/50. It was sharply curved and steeply (about 1 in 20) graded. Horse ttraction was used at first, but between 1850 and 1903 rope haulage was used. Steam classes employed included Class G 0-4-0ST (LNER Y9); Class F 0-6-0T (LNER J88) and former GER class J69. Two Y9 locomotives ended up in the harbour: one in the 1900s and No. 68311 on 12 November 1954. Several private sidings led off the branch including one to an electricity generating station and a flour mill. Includes map and plans.

"Coachmaker John". 13
John Learmouth: first chairman of Edinbugh & Berwick Railway and manipulator of supply of coaches to it and other Edinburgh-based railways.

St. Boswells locomotive shed diagram. 14

Spotlight on St Boswells. 15-16
Railway opened to Newton St. Boswells in 1849; and closed as part of Beeching/Wilson demolition of transport links to the Borders

C. Hamilton Ellis. The North British Railway in the Pre-Group era. 25
From Rly Mag., 1940 (January Issue).Standards of travel in pre-grouping Scotland varied, like the scenery. A Caledonian express and a North British local were nearly as different as aspects of Coatbridge and Dalmally. The North British was the largest Scottish line, and the first that many visitors from the south encountered, for it tapped both the North Eastern and the Midland.
As boys, we were brought up to believe that all railways north of the Thames were immeasurably superior to those in the southern counties, with the possible exception of the London & South Western, and my first journey north from St. Pancras tended to confirm this belief. The specious "Pullman" — this name stuck for years — duly set me down at Hawick, and then swept proudly on its way. Then something came loafing along in its wake. A pea-soup coloured engine rather like an antiquated caricature of a London & South Western Drurnrnond type, but with half a dozen purple-red bumpers in tow. Into one of these r was abruptly propelled. For all my familiarity with a wayward branch of the South Eastern and Chatharn, I had never before encountered anything in the world of trains that looked, felt and smelled quite like this specimen. As it trundled along through the green Border valleys, I reflected on the incessant hinting of all my dear families that everything in Scotland was nobler, more romantic, etc., etc., than anything in England. In short, I was fair scunnered.
After a while, I became very fond of both Scotland and the N.B.R., but my liking for the latter at anyrate was due as much to its vagaries as to any good points it might possess. Of course, the show feature of the North British was the Forth Bridge, though its ownership was only a joint one with the other East Coast companies and with the Midland. Picture books and post cards led the youth ful admirer to believe that the Forth Bridge was provided solely for the benefit of the great East Coast expresses, hauled by splendiferous Atlantics with sonorous names. But when I was taken for my first ride across the Forth bridge, the engine was an ancient 4-4-0 with a tall chimney and a Stirling cab, and the shocking old carriages had a smell even more sinister than that of the local from Hawick. It seemed very undignified for the Forth Bridge to be accommodating such a disreputable train, but I was learning already that the North British was like that.
Most of the North British stations remained unchanged for decades. There was Lochailort, one of the prettiest railway stations in existence; Glasgow Queen Street, one of the grimmest; Dundee Tay Bridge, one of the meanest looking; and Edinburgh Waverley, one of the largest in the country. It is still the same old Waverley, with its aspect of slightly shabby splendour, and its booking hall with the vast mosaic pavement bearing the N.B.R. coat of arms, many feet across, in each corner (Now alas no more - Ed.). The stair to the street level still terminates in a world famous corner, where a perpetual wind behaves robustly with hats and unkindly with skirts.
Travellers on the N.B.R. could see some queer things on Saturday nights and other festive occasions, but the wildest journey I ever made was on the Mallaig line. There had been a Highland Gathering at Fort William. Torrents of rain had swamped it out, and the drowned company had adjourned to various bars for refreshment and entertainment before train time. When environment and poverty enforce teetotalism on the viri le Highlandman for long periods, he makes up for lost time on these occasions. For carrying the revellers back to their mountain fastness, the company thoughtfully provided about ten old coaches in varying states of disrepair. One compartment had a hole in the side big enough for you to put your fist through and shake it at the scenery outside. Some funny things happened on that journey. Inevitably, the engine (Glen Ogle) stalled on the bank up to Beasdale. A door opened. A man with a smile of vacant happiness stepped out on air, registered mild surprise as he fell, and landed, not in his native Arisaig, but in a very wet ditch. While he was being rescued, the engine took the front half of the train up to Beasdale and went back for the rest. It was all very picturesque, and doubtless, very Celtic.
There were some odd specimens among the North British carriages, though in fairness, I must add that I only saw that one example with the hole in the side, and that the best stock was very good as far as it went. There were many bogie and some six-wheel coaches with very narrow side corridors, and no end gangways. Apart from the fact that passengers on the move had to adopt a sort of single line working. they were comfortable and convenient vehicles for the period. As far as carriages were concerned, the N .B.R. gave a visitor the impression of excellent intentions partly carried out. The company had one of the first, if not the first British sleeping car in 1873. Twenty years after, the Chairman stated that a proposal for third class sleepers was being "favourably considered" but this remained simply a good intention. Possibly the Great Northern and the North Eastern had something to say about it. The best of the older main line coaches were the West High land saloon bogies, with centre corridors and only a limited number of side doors. During the 'nineties, thanks to these, passengers to the remote north west enjoyed the best of comforts while those to other places were being bumped along in what was inevitably a non corridor six-wheeler.
There was another old type of bogie carriage, which also seemed to belong more particularly to the West Highland line, a composite brake with the guard's compartment in the middle, and half compartments at each encl. The Caledonian had some very similar coaches. Evidently the designer had been told that they were to have lavatories, but were sti 11 to hold the regulation five passengers a side in the third class, for the lavatory doors were padded. and had hinged seats in front of them. With a well filled train on a long journey, it was a most awkward arrangement, which might have been invented to suit the peculiar sense of humour of King Louis Xl. On the N.B., these carriages were still running at the end of 1922, and the L.N.E.R. continued to tolerate them for several years.

North Queensferry Tunnel, 26
Based on articvle in LNER Magazine 1927.

A fatal big bang. 26
On 1 September 1882 No. 465, a Drummond 0-6-0 leaving Dunbar southwards suffered a boiler exposion in which both enginemen were killed. Major Generl C.S. Hutchinson could not find the casue

Early North British Railway carriages: the physical factors. W.E. Boyd. 27
Passengers were spared travel in open trucks, or in fourth class.

The first railway across the Border (or was it?), 28
Was Berwick a separate entity, or a part of Scotland when the railway reached it from Edinburgh

Roof lamp barrow (2 wheel): SSA Barrow Diagram 10. 29

Kipps 1896. 30
Plan of locomotive depot and repair shops; also wagon repair shop

The Port Carlisle Railway: some retrospective views. 31.
From Rly Mag., 1943:, 89:  reminiscences by Edwin S. Towill and George F. Tomlinson

Captain of the booking hall. 32
Captain William Donaldson, Crimean War veteran who lost a leg during the battle of Balaclava, was employed at Waverley as Cab Traffic Regulator. His nickname was Captain Pin.

North British Railway War Relief Fund. 32
Fund established during WW1 to relieve hardship caused by death or injury inflicted during active service.

Coaching days memories. 32
Alexander McNab of Cupar in Fefe was awarded a silver medallion by the Directors of the Edinburgh and Northern Railway in recognition of his coaching services between Newport and Pettycur, near Kinghorn where ferries across the Tay and Forth operated.

Signalling - the first fixed types, 33-4.
Based on D.K. Clark's Railway engineering [presumably Railway machinry] and E.D. Chattaway Railways: their capital and dividends (Ottley 445).

Early North British Railway mechanical signals (1866). 35
Illustrations taken from the North British Railway Rule Book of 1866.

The North British Railway's clerestory controversy. 36-7.
In 1905 the General Manager, W.F. Jackson, and Locomotive Superintendent, W.P. Reid, discussed introducing clerestory coaches (diagram of proposal reproduced). Reid considered greater expense, difficulty of keeping watertight and greater weight.

Railways of Central Fife - map (1946). 38

Leiters Page

Burntisland and communications. Richard Hollingworth. 39
Amplifies points in the article which appeared in Journal 65 of December 1996). In the sketch plan of Burntisland Works and Shed, item 3 is not the Shedmaster's House, but in fact the local slaughterhouse. I do not think 'Shedmaster ' was used by the NB who preferred 'Locomotive Foreman'. The Rating Roll of 1908 for Burntisland shows a Mr. Taylor and a Mr. Cummings, both senior officials at the Roundhouse, as living in the Railway (or more properly at that time - Burntisland Harbour Commission) houses at the Lammerlaws, accessed via the level crossing shown at the top right hand of the sketch. Item 18 is Burntisland East Signal Box, renamed Junction by the LNER and far from being removed in 1935 continued in use until eliminated under the Edinburgh Signalling Centre Scheme on 10 December 1979. (Both errors conceeded - ED)
The stationary engine at the Roundhouse, (the local term to describe the whole complex of running shed and workshops) lasted until the end of wagon repairing at Burntisland. Indeed, apart from the actual roundhouse structure, the LNER kept all the buildings on the site. A grid of short sidings for wagon repairs, served by a traverser fed from the line through the water tank building, was laid down on this site by the LNER. In BR days, Burntisland was almost entirely devoted to repair of wooden mineral wagons.
The term No. 1 dock is a misnomer for the first dock. When the larger East Dock was opened in 1901, the original dock became the West Dock. Locally, the two docks were always referred to as the 'Old' and the 'New' Docks and recent research has shown that the West Dock had four coal hoists, the fourth being just to the south of the Hydraulic Engine House and appears to have been removed prior to the First World War. As it was very close to the corner of the dock it could have been used only by very small vessels.
Burntisland Junction Signal Box was situated at the north end of the Up platform at Burntisland Station, but separated from the main lines by the double track approach to the West Dock. When it closed, the block section was not to the Newbiggin Signal Box, which opened in 1901, as this had already been closed on 27 May 1915 when its replacement, about a quarter mile further north, at the Aluminium Works was opened. Strictly speaking, this later box might have been called Colinswell, which was the name for the Aluminium Works Sidings. It closed at the same time as Bumtisland Junction on 10 December 1979.
The first Newbiggin Box opened on 14 August 1901, adjacent to Carron Siding, where limestone from the Carron Company's Newbiggin Mine and sandstone from Newbigging and Dalachy Quarries were delivered to the rail-side by rope-worked narrow gauge inclines. Note the different spellings used by the NBR and local folk. It is more likely that it was built to split the Burntisland and Aberdour section, rather than deal with the siding traffic. Around this time, to increase line capacity, Dalgetty opened between Inverkeithing and Aberdour (on 26 September 1900) and Lochmuir, between Markinch and Falkland Road (on 20 March 1901). Latterly the sidings were controlled by Annett's key. At the Aluminium Works, alumina was the product: to produce this refined oxide of aluminium, the bauxite ore, railed in from Burntisland Docks, was heated in a coal fire furnace and slaked with caustic soda. This was all brought in by rail. From the late 1920s most of the alumina was consigned to the Lochaber Works at Fort William via Glasgow and the West Highland. The Kinlochleven traffic was sent via Stirling and the Callander & Oban to the railhead at Ballachulish.
The Fort William alumina was carried in specially constructed covered hopper wagons built by the LNER, known colloquially as 'Bulks'. These were gradually replaced by BR 'Covhops'. As they were very heavy wben loaded and not vacuum braked, they would be shared out among the overnight Lochaber bound 'ghosts' on the West Highland. The destination of the connecting service from Burntisland to the Glasgow area depended on where the West Highland trains were made up, and although this was Sighthill in LNER times, it was latterly Cadder Yard between Lenzie and Bishopbriggs. At one point, around 1960, Yoker was used.
In 1948, and until the end of the imported bauxite traffic around 1979, the Aluminium Works traffic was handled by a Thornton trip train, known as 'The Bammie'. It was two-shifted and the second shift was 'Control Orders' after leaving Burntisland. The early evening train to Glasgow, with the Fort William traffic, had a Thornton engine which usually arrived with either guard's van only or a lift of coal from the Frances Colliery at Dysart for the Aluminium Works furnaces.
Until the Hump yard at Thornton came into use in 1956, Burntisland yard was involved in the sorting of main line as well as local traffic. As well as the regular alumina flow, Glasgow traffic was dealt with, both coal and goods, and the East Coast and Midland traffic was also sorted before forwarding to Portobello and Niddrie. The last shunting pilot was withdrawn in 1972.
There is still a lot of railway interest to see around Burntisland. The E & NR terminal building is a 'listed' structure and stands in remarkably good condition, although sadly, the Railway Staff Association Club which occupied part of the original platform side building has recently sold its last pint. Equally sadly, the former Control Office building, also 'listed' and last used in February 1970, stands half demolished following an abortive attempt to clear it. One berth at the East Dock is still rail served, albeit in a round-about route, and part of this connection is still laid with NB pattern track. Most remarkably, the radiating engine pits of the Roundhouse can still be discerned quite clearly on the surface of the car park that now occupies its site.

St. Margarets - 1946. 66/40.
"A totally evocative portrait of the old roundhouse: vacuum braked and steam heat fitted  J83 0-6-0T; Y9 0-4-0ST No. 10094 (with J72 chimney and "Kipps" on front buffer beam) and steam brake fitted J83. Running foreman with homburg,

Issue Number 67 (June 1997)

No. 363 Thomas Wheatley 0-6-0 built in 1869 by Dubs & Co. front cover
See also comments by Jim Greenhill on numbers and classes

Sandy Maclean. Joint station arrangements 1918. 5-9
Aberdeen Joint Station (owned Caledonian and Great North of Scotland Railways; NBR presence granted through Scottish North Eastern Railway Amagamtion Act of 1866); Alloa (Caledonian Railway ran its passenger trains into NBR station); Anstruther (Anstruther  and St. Andrews Railway) NBR used free from charge; Bellgrove (North British and City Union Joint) NBR 2/3 and City Union 1/3 costs; Berwick (NBR) North Eastern Railway used station for passenger rated traffic and paid NBR £550 per annum; Blairgowrie (Caledonian Railway) NBR had its own agents and cartage contractors at station; Brechin (Caledonian Railway) NBR exercised running powers and had its own agents, clerks and porters. See also letter concerning Paisley Canal in Issue 76 page 39 from Jim Greenhill.

Terrible railway disaster. 10
Report in The Scotsman, 20 January 1905 on fatal accident near Cudworth to a night train from Leeds (03.05) to London (consisting of through coaches, including sleeping cars, from Edinburgh, Glasgow and Stranraer running into the rear of 02.25 Leeds to Sheffield mail train in  fog (KPJ: most of this information came from the Board of Trade official report by Major Pringle via the Railway Archive website as The Scotsman report is rather vague). The Scotsman report begins with the non-arrival of the overnight train from St. Pancras which had been delayed by colliding with one of the vehicles of the wrecked trains. The main cause of the accident was excessive speed in fog by the up express. The Scotsman concentrated on the human side of the casualties: twin brothers from Perth (Alasdair Ian Kinloch and Adrian Murray Kinloch) who were en route to Bradfield College in Berkshire and James Watson who was a North British guard on the up express,

The first 50 years of Thornton Junction locomotive sheds. 13.
Based on an article by J. Allen. In 1880 locomotive facilities at Thornton consisted of a coaling shed, a coaling stage. Therre was a turntable, but no pit—enginemen had to crawl under their engines to lubricate them, etc.

J.M. Brown. Relieving duties in the wilds. 17
Relief signnalman at Fort William pre-1919: had to expect to relieve for station masters of to clean carriages. Had to be self sufficient and required to look after animals at some places

Is this a record? 17.
Page 502 of the London and North Eastern Railway Magazine shows the up non-stop Flying Scotsman on Croxdale Viaduct over the River Wear with the second vehicle being the NBR Invalid Saloon

Special train traffic. 17
In 1930 the LNER ran 14 specials at the end of the herring season (late November) for fishworkers from Yarmouth and Lowestoft back to their homes

Robert D. Campbell. Mystery stones in the Ediburgh and Glasgow. 23-4
The Martyr's Stone (illustrated on page 22) is/was near the top of Cowlairs Incline in the Townhead area of Glasgow and has been disturbed by constructing the Monkland Canal, the railway and the nioxious motorway. It may relate to the Covenantor Martyrs commemorated nearby in the Martry's School and Martyr Street. The LNER Magazine for September 1924 conidered it might mark the plague of 1867. The Ogre of Gogar (illustrated on page 22) was located at the station which closed in 1930 and may have been carved when the station was built in about 1845: in 1991 it had taken up residence in Corstorphine. See also Jim Greenhill's observations.

Communication. 24
Illustrated London News 14 November 1857 suggested a small window in every compartment to enable communication

Answers! 24 (bottom)
Further details for pix on page 39 of Issue 65: wagon plate produced at Doncaster which failed to record Cowlairs except via number; and Princess Alice was too large for Dalry Road and had to repair to Haymarket.

"Kettledrummie". Falkirk (Callendar) Tunnel. 31
When completed the tunnel was open to the public for a fee before being used by trains. Skeletons were found during construction and these may have been soldiers from the Battle of Falkirk in 1746. Failure of the tunnel in 1980 led to the sudden closure on 10 March 1980 and repair of the lining and the installation of slab track. It reopened on 8 December 1980 with Type 43/7 push & pull operation.

Bogie brake third (4 compartment) carriage NBR Carriage Diagram 161. 32-4. diagram (side & end elevations)
Originally had intended to order mixture of three and five compartment carriages, buit settled for four compartment type and order placed with Hurst Nelson & Co. in 1919, but deliverd in 1920. General Arrangement Drawing 1768C dated 16 December 1920. One vehicle was lost to enemy action at Norwich during WW2, but otherwise class remained intact until 1954.

Sandy Maclean. North British carriages 1844-1849: history and financial considerations. 35-7.
No record of the vehicles taken over from the Edinburgh and Dalkeith Railway. Notes that John Learmouth, Chairman of the North British, owned a coach building business in Princes Street., but the initial orders were  placed with Russell & Macnee whose workshops were at Haymarket. James Tod  & Sons supplied the couplings. On 11 July 1844 contract placed with Fox Henderson for ten luggage vans with buffers. Further orders were placed with Russell & Macnee in July 1846 for a variety of passenger vehicles defined by classes. The sums involved arre listed (including those for vehicles on the Hawick branch). The data are tabulated. See also letter from Jim Greenhill in Issue 76 page 39

Issue Number 68 (September 1997)

Four coupled tender engines. 4
Photographs of 0-4-2 No. 247 which based on a William Simpson & Co. locomotive of 1851 supplied to the Stirling & Dunfermline Railway and claimed to be rebuilt in 1866 and 1875 with a Cowlairs work-plate dated 1873; and 0-4-0 No. 1011 which eventually became LNER stock.

67611. The  Milngavie branch. 5-9.
Act passed 1861; opened to passenger traffic in 1863 from Westerton Junction. Stations at Westerton, Hillfoot, Burnside and Milngavie described. Also brief notes on Bennie Railplane experiment site and on branches to Burnbrae Dye Works and to Ellangowan for paper works.

The Devon Valley Railway. 9.

10 ton empty cask wagon. 11
Diagram (side & end elevations)

G.W.M. Sewell. A fatal accident at Rothbury, February 1897. 13-15.
Accident on 13 February 1897 involving a return excursion from Newcastle worked by the NBR from Scotsgap by 4-4-0T driven by William Burrow, some of the coaches derailed on the approach to Rothbury which led to three deaths and ten serious injuries. Excessive speed may have been involved.

Messrs Russell, Macnee & Coy., coachbuilders of Edinburgh. 16
Premises in Princes Street where the early carriages of the North British, Edinburg & Glasgow and Edinburgh & Northern Railways were built.

The final summer. 17
Abstracted from Railway Magazine July and August 1922 issues.: includes through workings, such  as Edinburgh to Aberfoyle via the Forth Bridge and to Scarborough and Southampton.

Interesting train working arrangements. 17
Abstracted from Railway Magazine September 1922 issue: Caledonian and North British tank engines working a freight train on the Arbroath to Dundee line; and how NBR rolling stock reached Penzance from Aberdeen.

Victorian and Edwardian steam. 19
Upper: photograph of West Highland bogie 4-4-0 No. 695 with a platform with seating above buffer beam to accommodate engineers during line inspections; lower photograph: Class A 0-6-2T No. 391 at Polmont.

"Ravenswood". Queen Street Tunnel. 23-4.
Marshall was the contractor to cut through Bells Hill, a distance of 1200 yards. It is on a steep incline (average 1 in 45, but 1 in 41 at the Cowlairs end. It passes close to the Forth & Clyde Canal. The tunnel was lit by gas lamps and before trains started the public was admitted to inspect it on 1 January 1842 for a fee.

John Rapley. The two Forth Railway Bridges 1865-1881. 25-7.
Thomas Bouch's design for the Forth Bridge involved  a semi-rigid supension system with tower consstructed on the same principe as the supports for the Tay Bridge, but 600 feet high. The deck was to carry two tracks. There was a great deal of silt at the crossing point and it was envisaged that green beech would be dropped onto the bed of the Firth and brick piers erected on top. Fortunately, little work was actually done due to shortage of finance and the collapse of the Tay Bridge halted work. Robert H. Bow and Allan D. Stewart probably performed the calculations for the structure. William Arrol and Jofn Waddell were also involved. Recommends Roland Paxton's 100 yeras of the Forth Bridge <KPJ outwith Norfolk Ruritarian Library>

Diversions and bridges. 27
Anniesland Road Bridge rebuilt at request of Glasgow City Council in latter part of 1927: estimated cost £30,000.

The steamer now standing. 27
Derailment of two freight trains on steep gradient between Inverkeithing and North Queensferry led to replacement ferry service between Granton and Burntisland on 19 March 1940.

Sandy Maclean. North British carriage liveries. 28-9
Original livery described as light claret. A lithograph which hung in the foyer of 23 Waterloo Place showed a dark red colour. In the interests of economy in 1853 this was changed to oak colour and in 1875 this was changed to teak, but at the end of the nineteenth century reverted to dark red described as crimson or carriage lake. The ends of brake vehicle, including composites were painted vermillion. East Coast Joint Stock continued to retain the teak finish. The class numbers were painted on thirds, but placed on metal plates on firsts.

Carmyllie Light Railway. 35-7.

Issue Number 69 (December 1997)

C16 4-4-2T No. 67496 on banks of River North Esk with afternoon Polton to Edinburgh Waverley train: leading carriage No. M3203 Midland & Glasgow and South Western Railway vestibuled clerestory coach on 27 July 1951. front cover

The Polton branch. 5-21.
Developed from an artcle by C. Hamilton Ellis in Railway Magazine, 1937 August.  It would seem that a considerable amount has been added, notably the Ordnance Survey maps, the later history and some of the photographs. There is a diagram (elevation) of Polton station and track layouts for Polton and other stations. Photographs include G9 0-4-4T No. 9334 at Polton on 8 October 1927; C16 4-4-2T No. 9450 at Polton on 4 July 1945; Broomeknowe station in LNER period and Lasswade station.

Roger Pedrick. History of the local railways  of Fife. Par1. The railways brought a coal boom.. 20

People page. 24
Carlisle memories.
Photograph taken in 1934 of one of the depot's A3 class Pacifics with staff in front. Willie Kay, with bowler hat, was on loan from St. Margerts at time. Charlie Meacher noted that Kay came from a railway family, but it was not close
From the Control Log
On 25 August 1972 man observed on freight by signalman at Usan. Police met train at Arbroath  here it was found that man had bought ticket at Montrose and told that his would be next train to stop, but this happened to be a freight!

Sandy Maclean. Blantyre Junction and engine shed. 26
Junction where the branches to the collieries at Auchenraith and Blantyre left the Glasgow to Bothwell, Hamilton and Coatbridge Railway. The engine shed was located at Burnbank but closed in 1933 due to subsidence and fall in traffic

Sandy Maclean. Scotland Street Tunnel and incline. 28-30
See also Issue 15 page 29. More on the method of haulage by rope up the incline and descent with brake vehicles and sprags in the case of freight down the incline. Originally steam locomotives had been intended. Fears of building collapse had been expressed by property owners, but these were avoided, but four men were drowned by an ingress of water near Dublin Street in 1844. the contract was let to J. Barr & Co and to Paterson under the direct supervision of G. Buchanan under Thomas Grainger the Company's engineer. Ross & Mitchell designed and constructed the facade at tthe entrance to the tunnel. For a time after closure to traffic it was used for mushroom cultivation. This lasted from 1887 to 1917. The tunnel was associated with a Fenian plot to assassinate a visiting politician.

G.W.M. Sewell. Observations on the design of North British coaches. 32-4.
Mianly materials employed: timbers: English oak for its structural strength, American white oak; Stettin oak; teak — tended to be left unpainted due to oil within wood; mahogany; and other timbers, mainly used for decoration, steels; roofing materials and textiles.

Teribus. 34
Origin of name in Hawick

Sandy Maclean. The other North British 'Kirk' and surrounds. 38-9.
The North British Railway purchased Trinity College Church and Trinity Hospital to allow for the expansion of what was to become Edinburgh Waverley. The church was founded by Mary of Gueldres, widow of King James II (of Scotland) and her possible remains were found when the church was demolished and were moved to the Royal Vault at Holyrood.

Issue Number 70 (March 1998)

No. 9400 The Dugal Cratur leaves Waverley on a train for Glasgow. front cover

Locomotive cab details. 2
NBR S class: LNER J37

Editorial. 3
Differences between Scottish English and English English could cause accidents as with the expression "through the road" which in Scotland implied backing a  train onto the other line to eable a faster one to overtake.

The Cowlairs Collision. 4
On 30 January 1942. the 16.00 express from Edinburgh to Glasgow (the train that was involved in the Castlecary accident of l Oth December 1937). collided at a speed of 35 m.p.h. with a light engine just outside Cowlairs East Junction signal box. The engine had come out of a siding and had to go through a crossover to back on to a troop train. the engine of which had moved forward. Twelve passengers and the two drivers lost their lives. The signalman had not seen the engine leave the siding in response to the disc shunting signal. His windows were painted blue except for four observation openings at each end. in accordance with normal air raid precautions arrangements of the period. and this greatly restricted his view. He looked from the middle of the box through the end opening towards the siding and saw a second engine there. but jumped to the conclusion that it was the other one. unable for some reason to obey the disc. He reset the siding points. accepted the express and lowered all signals. Alarmed by the shouting of men who saw the danger, he at length observed the waiting engine. too late to do anything. The fireman should have gone into the box immediately in accordance with the rules. but failed to do so. The former Caledonian Railway line overbridge unfortunately prevented the men on the express seeing the obstruction until the last few moments. and they had no chance of avoiding the accident.
Casualties were probably increased by the leading coach being marshaled with the brake compartment to the rear. contrary to instructions. although apparently it had run like this for the previous ten days. A similar situation had led to casualties at Castlecary a few years beforehand. but the lesson had not apparently been adequately learned. or perhaps wartime staffing and operating problems may have been a factor. (The Railway Magazine)

Sandy Maclean. The Edinburgh Station - the early years. 5-10

Waverley Statiqn approaches in 1860. 11
Photograph of east end of Waverly site with Calton Jail behind.

Single line West Highland platforms. 12
Glen Falloch platform constructed to serve hydro-electric site and Whistlefield Station (photographs)

The West Highland Railway and the Loch Sloy Power Scheme. 13
From Railway Magazine: LNER works includeed a diversion and halts at Faslane Junction (to pick up and set down prisoner-of-war labour) and at Inveruglas and Glen Falloch

G.W.M. Sewell. Observations on the designs of North British coaches. 14-19

History of the local railways olf Fife. Part 1. The railways brought a coal boom. 20
From the Dunfermline Press, but re-written by Roger Pedrick.

Cartage. 20
Notice sent out on 25 December 1925 intimating that J. & P. Cameron, Cartage Contractors will be abolished from 1 January 1926 and be replaced by Railway Company Cartage under Walter Whitelaw, Cartage Manager.

Signalling layout plan: Innerleithen. 21
LNER diagram

C.H. Ellis. Border ballads. 22-3
NBR south of the border in Northumberland and Cumberland: one must assume that author of this and next was Hamilton Ellis!

C.H. Ellis. Border Counties line - 1936 style. 23
Railway Observer article?

Dust and manure barrow diagram. 24
Two-wheel "vehicle" with lid presumably suited to one man/lad power

"Ashbury" third class carriage drawings. 25
Four-wheel vehicles downgraded from second class

Glasgow Queen Street Station in 1900. 26-8
James Calder, General Manager "author". From Railway Magazine 1901, 8, 145

What the Papers said about E & G traffic in 1837. 28
Glasgow Herald 8 October 1837 recorded lack of trade and intercourse between Glasgow and Edinburgh

The West George Street area in the 1960s. 29
Queen Street station photograph

Dunbar Station in the Post War era. 30
27 March 1946: platform view photograph

Coaching survivor. 31
Six-wheel third class coach built at Cowlairs as No. 1487 in 1899 at Craigntinny Carriage Sidings in late 1930s as LNER No. 31487 (photograph)

Edinburgh and Dalkieth Railway carriages. 32
Description, no diagrams

The Port Carlisle "Dandy" carriage drawings. 33.

"Kenilworth". The 1956 Scottish Region Television Train. 34-
On 24 September 1956 trains at 08.50 and 09.20 left Glasgow Queen Street for Oban via Arrochar; thereafter ran excursions inckuding at least one to Blackpool

Edinburgh Suburban Circle Stations. 38
Survey performed by Napier College in March 1986 on state of former station infrastructure: Gorgie East, Craiglockhart, Morningside Road, Blackford Hill, Newington, Cameron Toll, Niddrie/Bingham, Jewel, Portobello, Meadowbank and Abbeyhill.

Bearsden and West Wemyss Stations. 39
Bearsden prior to doubling of line (photographs)

Two Edinburgh Suburban stations in the early diesel age. 40
Multiple units at Corstorphine and at Musselburgh

Issue No. 71 (Summer 1998)

0-6-0 No. 4475 on Thornton Junction shed on 6 April 1947. front cover

0-4-2 No. 1060 at unknown location. 2
Former Edinburgh & Glasgow Railway No.91; renumbered 319 by NBR and placed on duplicate list in 1903.

Sandy Maclean. Musselburgh line junctions. 4-11.

Robert D. Campbell. From Cow Loan to Queen Street Station. 13-15.
Originally published in J. Rly Canal Hist. Soc., 1993, 31 (!56). Examines the many claims that the approach to the Glasgow terminus of the Edinburgh & Glasgow Railway was originally to cross the Forth & Clyde Canal by a bidge and terminate at a higher level, but through the purchase of Crawford Mansion from James Ewing it was possible to bring the railway to a lower level and employ a rope-worked incline to take trains to and from Cowlairs. For a time the canal owners, notably the Union Canal attempted to defeat the railway legislation

Gorton school house. 16
Photograph taken on 5 May 1952 of body from six-wheel third class compartment coach No. 766 from the Great North of Scotland Railway built in 1893 and serving as an educational establishment for railway staff's children at Gortan

Sandy McLean. L.N.E.R. (S.S.A.) carriage building programme 1923. The non-vestibuled vehicles. 20-9
Essentiallly North British designs (elevations & plans) of stock required from 1920 including stock for through coaches and block sets for suburban services

W. Rhind Brown. Apposite aphorisms. 30-1
From Railway & Travel Monthly, 1912, 5, (28)

David Stirling. The rise of the NB. 32-4.
An examination of the financial status of the North British Railway and its relationshiip with the Caledonian Railway. In the 1860s the profitable Monkland and Edinburgh Railways had been absorbed—the latter at the cost of granting many running powers, but had also become involved in the highly marginal Border Union and Border Counties lines, Under the Chairmanship of John Stirling the financial affairs of the company were turned round. Reference is made to the means adopted by the Great Central Railway as set out in a Backtrack article by Emblin and others. Notes how John Walker encouraged cooperation with the Caledonian, yet table shows how the NBR improved its share of certain traffic under the pooling arrangements. Concludes by noting that immediately prior  to the Grouping the NBR was in better financial health than the Caledonian

Anniesland station in May 1954. 34
View of both platforms, footbridge and gas lighting.

[Roger Pedrick]. History of the local railways - Fife. Part 2. The railway system was a family affair. 36
Ex-Dunfermline Provost John Alllan was the son and grandson of railwaymen. His father was born in 1850 and joined the railway at Alloa as a porter when aged in his twenties. His maternal grandfather, James Ellis, was a waggon shop foreman at Burntisland in 1848. His brother James was a driver at Burntisland and later shed foreman at Perth and Thornton.
John Allan was born in 1882 and began work aged 11½ in 1894 firing a stream crane for the contractor for Methil Docks, Sir John Jackson. In 1897 he became an engine cleaner at Thornton Junction on constant night-shift work. In 1899 he passed out as a fireman, and in November 1906 a driver. In 1920 he became a locomotive inspector stationed at Thornton. In 1937 he was promoted to chief inspector in charege of the LNER Scottish Area. He retired in 1946. He was Provost of Dunfermline and his memories are encapsulated in this series.

Merlin gets its crest. 39
A4 Pacific No. 588 Merlin, in black livery being presented with its crest at the Royal Navy Air Station at Donibristle, known as H.M.S. Merlin from its Commanding Officer Captain C.A.N. Chatwin on 3 March 1946

Issue No. 72 (June 1999)

Y9 No. 8106 inside Kipps motive power depot in July 1049 (Archie Noble). front cover
Contents listing on page 2 states NBR 2-4-0 No. 237

John McGregor. 'Might have beens' north of Glasgow. 3-4
Mainly Glasgow North Western, aspiration of NBR to access Oban and line to Drymen

George A. Davidson. Big goods engines on the N.B.R. 5-6.
A table compares the leading dimensions of the NBR J35/4 of 1906; J37 of 1914; the LNER J38 (solely employed on the former NBR) and J39—all 0-6-0 with the massive Q7 0-8-0 tested on the NBR  and the later 2-8-0 types: O4 used in small numbers and subject to strict limits and the later O6 (Stanier 8F) and O7 Riddles Austerity. The coal owners were ultra-Conservative and demanded light locomotives on their tracks and resisted the use of high capacity wagons, especially those with bogies and power brakes: this policy persisted into nationalisation

M. Waters. Goods and mineral traffic. The North British Railway. 7-17.

Alan Simpson. The Devon Valley Line. 18-33
Alloa to Kinross Junction via Dollar, Crook of Devon and Rumbling Bridge. Timetables for October 1904. Map of collieries. Traffic; gradient profile. See also communication from David Lindsay correcting opening dates.

A. Macfarlane. The Aberdeen Road and the N.B. Atllantics. 34-6
Friendship of W.P. Reid with J.G. Robinson of the Great Central Railway led to the Atlantic design with a large boiler with Belpaire firebox and outside cylinders. The locomotives were built by the North British Locomotive Co. The drivers had to report their experience with the class and rear end oscillation was a common complaint: another was the forward view from the cab

'The Ile Inspector'. The Load Book. 39-40
Maximum loads of engines book which came into force in 1913

Issue No. 73 (Summer 1999)

Corrour about 1913. front cover

Allan D. Rodgers. The Montrose & Bervie Branch. 3-30
See also John Rapley on (76) p. 39

Alan Sirnpson. Some further notes on the East Fife Central Line. 31-9.

4-4-0T No. 1464. 35
Allocated to Kipps: date probably post-WW1

Callum MacRaild. Fort William notes. 40-1

By the West Highland Railway to the Land of Romance & Beauty. 42-4
Rly & Travel Monthly 1913, July

Fredrick Stoton. The Invergarry & Fort Augustus Railway. 44-6
Railway Magazine 1908

J. Hay. The Eyemouth Railway. 46-8

Circular - Engineers & Contractors Operations, Sunday 24th November 1907. 49-50

Roger Pedrick. History of the local railways - Part 3. Conditions at the turn of the century. 51
From the Dunfermline Press, but re-written. Memoirs of Provost Allan who qualified as a driver in 1908. Working hours, pay. Superheaters reduced coal consumption and eased the fireman's work. How they slept in brake vans at Cowlairs when working lodging turns.

Circular - Opening of the Tay Bridge 1878 . 52-3
NBR official notices recording how traffic was to be worked over the sing track bridge from 29 May 1878.

Alan Simpson. The Kincardine & Dunfermline Railway - some notes. 54-7

Circular - Journey of His Imperial Majesty the Czar. 58-60
21 September 1896 timetable for journey by Czar of Russia from Leith to Aberdeen via Forth and Tay Bridges

Issue No. 74 (Autumn 1999)

J35 No.  64488 at Lochty. Huw Davies. front cover
See letteri in Issue 81 from Peter Westwater stating location as Larrgoward. Further communication from Gordon Moses on renovated coach body

Class J39 No. 64917 stands at Eyernouth at the head of a mixed train to Burnrnouth on 20 September 1960. photo: K.M. Falconer. 2

A. Simpson. The Leslie Railway: a Fife branch line. 3-10.
F. Voisey in Issue 76 p. 40 notes failure to mention Auchmoty Tunnel. Page 5: Illustrations: 0-6-0 No. 551 at Dysart:. See letteri in Issue 81 from Peter Westwater location Burntisland.

D.M.E. Lindsay. Gunpowder vans: extracts from the Rules and Regulations North British Railway dated 1914. 15-16
See also letter from Keith Fenwick in Issue 76 page 39. F. Voisey in Issue 76 p. 40 notes

Alan Simpson. The Kirkcaldy District Railway - further notes.  18-24.

Roger Pedrick. History of the local railways. Part 4 - : Rival trains raced for record times. 29-

A. Simpson. Railway sidings in the Kirkcaldy Area - around 1921. 31-8
See also letter from James L. Wood in (76) page 39

Alistair F. Nisbet. Staffing arrangements on the NBR. 37-8

Alan Simpson. The Stirling and Dunfermline Railway - some notes. 39-44.

NBR Class C No. 439 (of Carlisle (Canal) on special working. A.G. Ellis. 60 (rear cover)
See also letter from Charlie Meacher on page 40 of Issue 76

Issue No. 75 (Winter 1999)

Class J36 No.9475 on tank wagons train. front cover

PS Prince George probably on Loch Lomond. 2

D. Yuill. North British steamers - introduction. 3-4.
^{Illustration: PS Lucy Ashton}

D. Yuill. North British Shipping .Part I - Silloth section. 5-7.
See alo SS Kittiwake in Issue 76 p. 29

D.M.E. Lindsay. List of Companies which became part of the NBR. 8-10
Long list: dates of auuthorisation and where relevant absorption into NBR, and joint lines: includes Charlestown & Dunfermline Railway! see below.

Alan Simpson. From Ladybank to Mawcarse Junction. 11-18
Built by Fife & Kinross Railway under Act of 16 July 1855. Opened 20 August 1858; amalgamated with Edinburgh, Perth & Dundee Railway in 1862. Intermediate stations at Auchtermuchty, Strathmiglo and at Gateside. Owned two locomotives: Hawthorn of Leith Loch Leven Castle and Falkland Castle; numbered 161 and 162 by NBR and used as sttaion pilots at Perth, Burntisland and Tayport. Lost passenger service on 5 June 1950, Glenfarg route opening reduced its utility. Closed completly in 1964. Map, station plans and photograph of Ladybank Junction in LMER period..

Ed. Nicholl. The Charleston to Dunfermline Railway. 18-20
Lieutenant Tyler report to Board of Trade in June 1853 on the proposed introduction of a passenger service on an existing colliery railway serving the Lord Elgin colliery near Dunfermline. Photographs of Charleston (text also uses Charlestown) and of Dunfermline Lower with D30 No. 62431 with two coaches.

A. Macfarlane. Freight loadings L.N.E.R. 1925.  21-22
From information contained within Scottish Records Office files
With the formation of the Big Four in 1923 the operations of the L.N.E.R's areas were brought together for scrutiny and analyses. It was soon discovered that in the Southern area certain districts were having problems with freight and especially mineral trains. The problems with the mineral traffic was not only with the trains themselves but their knock on effect on faster and "More important trains" and the "high coal consumption against which there are no train miles" In March 1925 a sub-committee was formed to look into the reasons for the Southern area's poor performance and see if the locomotives were overloaded. The committee wasted little time in travelling on freight trains in Scotland, the North East and Southern areas.
In each case the train detaiIs were recorded along with how the locomotive was worked, noting if the locomotive had anything left in reserve. Even with the amalgamation some 2 years before it is evident that each area still held on to their own locomotive classification. Author tried to bring all the classes to their L.N.E.R classification and give the locomotive's tractive effort as a base line. The committee started in the southern area. In the Scottish area, of the 5 trains which came under the scrutiny of the committee, none gave problems to the Operating Department and they all ran as booked.
Sc. 1 Thornton Yard to Aberdeen Driver. R Mayor maintained time. The locomotive was in full gear in places and only one injector was required to maintain boiler level. Little trouble was had with the 815 ton load.
Sc. 2 and Sc. 3 Grangemouth to Polrnont. Both "ran the class load to booked time".
Sc. 4 10-10 to Crianlarich. The S class with Driver Scobie was "Master of the load" and locomotive had reasonable reserve
Sc. 5 Thornton Yard to Dundee. Driver J Barnes maintained booked lime by using 45/50% cut off. The locomotive had power in reserve.

The North East area was next to come under the watchful eyes of the committee members. Only 3 trains were recorded as each worked to booked time and locomotives were not being worked to the limit, I feel the Committee had proved the point and further observation would not prove anything.

NE. I  Fencehouse - Newport. Driver A Westwater on a run lasting I hr. 05 minutes in fine weather the T1 worked its 31 wagon load in full regulator and 45/50% cut off with ease, and plenty power in reserve.
NE. 2 Fryston to Neville Hill. Driver Sharp, with No. 2280 and 36 had no problems keeping to booked time using 60/65% cut off for the whole of the trip.
NE. 3 Tyne Dock to Consett. Driver J Knox used 60% cut off for most of the journey to South Pelaw where his T3 was assisted by another T3 No 632 for the assault of the 1/50 to Consett. Both locos were worked at 60% on the bank and the pair had reasonable reserves of power.

The Southern area was looked at more carefully than the other two due to the history of poor time keeping and to make sure the observed workings were not a unusual occurrence.
S.l Shella to Annesley 5¼ miles. Driver Gregory "slipped to a stand due to excessive loading" Note S.I marked as 6' class?"?
S. 2 Sheffield to Hazelhead the train left Sheffield with full regulator and 65/70% cut off. The second injector was required to maintain water level. The train's speed fell until it was just moving in full gear and full regulator and would have come to a stand if it had not been put in to a loop to allow more important traffic to pass. While in the loop the boiler level and pressure was brought back to 160 Ibs. and a full glass. It was "impossible to run to booked time" and 53 minutes were lost.
S. 3 Worksop to Guide Bridge. Driver E Taylor's A8 lifted 41 wagons and a brake from Sheffield with the regulator fully out and 60/70% cut off. 28 minutes later at Oughty Bridge the pressure had fallen to 155 Ibs. and the second injector was in use keeping the water level at 2¼". At Warrencleffe, 12 minutes later, the regulator had to be eased because the water was getting too low. Deepcar came in another 9 minutes the reverser over to 70% and the 2nd injector being used, put on and off, to maintain a safe water level. By Thurgoland the pressure was falling to 140 Ibs. and 2" in the glass, full gear was needed to keep going. At Willey Bridge, I hr 15 after leaving, things were getting bad 1¼" in the glass and a pressure of only 125 Ibs. The train finally came to a stand in full gear and full regulator at Penistone. A booked time of 53 minutes had taken I hr 23 a loss of 30 mins. The report says the locomotive was "Harshly used" and "could not maintain water or steam even under favourable conditions."
S. 4 Wath to Annesley 2 miles 260 yds. The A8 left on full regulator and full gear. During the run the cut off was reduced to 60/70%. In this short distance 9 minuets were lost due to the load.
S. 5 Shella to Annesley Driver Marsland. The 9H left with the regulator out to the stop and the cut off at 65/70%. At Staveley the reverser had been put over to full. The second injector was in use and the water level was falling to 2½". On reaching Normanton, with both injectors on, the water level was falling. The booked time for the run was not maintained.
S. 6 Shella to Annesley Driver Marsland. On leaving, the boiler was full and the pressure was at maximum, on reaching • Staveley the 2nd. injector was in use and the train slipped to a stand losing 30 minutes on the 5¼ mile run.
S. 7 Concentration Sidings to Woodford Driver Sudbury. With full regulator and full gear the 9T with 34 on slowed to walking pace and it "only needed 1 slip and the train would have come to a stand". The locomotive had "no reserve for unfavourable conditions".

Of the 3 areas investigated only the Southern did not run as booked. More importantly the locomotives of the Southern area were using every lb. of effort and still not keeping to time. The recommendation from the 6 man committee were "We recommend that the loading of mineral engines in the Southern Area be revised so as to enable drivers not only to maintain booked times, but to leave them some reserve power for unfavourable conditions, which is essential to economic working". This report must have been what all the drivers had been saying about the loadings and timings of these trains for some time. The Please Explain Poor time keeping against some of the drivers in this area would have been convincingly squashed.
Calculation of load
Southern Great Central
1 wagon = 1 - no matter what. 3 at 20 tons + =5
"A mere count of wagons ignoring the various capacities is to risk over loading .... with its disastrous results"
Scottish .NB
1 = 1 at 12 tons, 3 at 8 tons = 2, 4 at 10 tons = 3
N.E allowance for each wagon's capacity

Alan Simpson. The Auchmuty Branch. 23-8
Lasted into 1990s and served paper mills

Jeff Hurst. Accident at Boness Junction January 27th 1874. 29-34
A former Edinburgh & Glasgow Railway 2-4-0 running tender-first of the Edinburgh to Glasgow line rann into a freight being shunted across the line. The driver, Robert Allan and 17 passengers were killed. Fireman Sutherland jumperd off and was injured, as were 28 passengers. Colonel Yolllan investigated and blamed both the signalman and the driver

Alistair F. Nisbet. Three NBR Items from The Fifeshire Journal and The Weekly News. 35-6
The headline for the first item from The Fifeshire Journal for 22 December 1864 related to an incident at the train ferry terminal on 14 December when the girder loaded with wagons became submerged in darkness and at high tide due to a failure  of the mechanism. "A rowdy dowdy in a train" was the headline on 5 November 1898 and related to a brawl taking place on a train near Dunbar on an Edinburgh to Newcastle express and the removal of  those involved at Berwick. The final item refered to a fatal accident at Whytemire Junction on 15 May 1879 when Driver Henderson from Dundee was killed when driving an express which ran into empty coal wagons which werre being moved without authority

Roger  Pedrick. History of the local railways. Part 5. War-time cow held up Winston Churchill. 37.
John Allan was in charge of Winston Churchill's train (20.55 from King's Cross to Perth on 3 August 1941). This was hauled by A4 No. 4488 Union of South Africa and had crossed the Forth Bridge in total black-out, but was halted on the Fife side due to a cow on the line which had to be persuaded back into its field before the special could proceed.

Alan Simpson. Robert Young Pickering. 38-9.
Landed proprietor; b. 1841, Yorkshire, s. of John Pickering, railway wagon builder and Elizabeth Young; m. (1) Ellen Caldwell Anderson; 1 s., 1 d.; (2) 1910, Isabel Edith Jardine; nu issue; M D, R Y Picketing & Co. Lid, Railway Carriage and Wagon Builders; d. 30/1/1932, Conheath, Dumfriesshire: g/v estate. £2,597-1s-11p.
R Y Picketing was born in 1841, apparently of a Yorkshire family which moved to Scotland at a unknown date. He married his first wife - Ellen Caldwell Anderson - prior to 1888, having one son and one daughter by her. On the death of his first wife in 1909, he married lsabel Edith Jardine in 1910. He died on his estate at Conheath. Dumfriesshire on 30 January 1932, aged 90, survived by his second wife. No information has been found on his education and training but he appears to have entered his father's railway wagon building and repair firm. securing full control in 1878. Converted to a limited company in 1888, this finn was his major business involvement until his enforced retiral as managing director in 19l1. His father's wagon firm was small and poorly managed when Robert assumed control in 1878. The firm then began to expand more rapidly. In addition to the original Wishaw base, a second depot was completed at Rawyards, Airdrie. while workmen also ompleted light repairs at other locations. Activities included both wagon repair and wagon hire but, increasingly, the building of new wagons became the major element in turnover. Construction was based at Wishaw but financing this expansion was a serious problem for Pickering by the later 1880s. His short-term solution was loans from friends and a mortgage over the Wishaw property but, to secure extra capital from outwith his own resources, Picketing converted the firm into a limited company in 1888 with himself as managing director.
On the formation of the new company, Pickering was paid £4,000 in cash and £4,000 in ordinary shares (this being half of the nominal capital). Pickering also took up 100 £10 shares for his wife but the main sources of new finance were John Wilson (q.v.) (the Lanarkshire coalmaster and wagon uwncr). J Kennedy (timber merchant) and J Mitchell (banker). Rapid growth in profit» and employment ensued with the paid-up capital rising from £6.900 in 1888 (all in ordinary shares) to £18,000 in 1897 and £70,000 in 1906 (£10.000 being in preference shares). About half of this capital increase was financed from the ploughback of distributed dividends bur Wilson, Kennedy and Mitchell took up new shares to a greater extent than Pickering. By 1900. Wilson had taken over from Pickering as the major shareholder.
From 1901, the firm was affected by a slackemng of home orders and keener competitive conditions. Though partly offset by the extension of repair facilities 10 new depots in Fife and near Sheffield and also by increases in foreign orders (notably from South Africa and India), a loss of £5,628 in 1909 was followed by an even more serious loss of £ 13.980 in 1910. In 1911. Pickering was relieved of his position as managing director and this ended his involvement with the company.
As well as the general recession in profitability, other factors lay behind this sudden withdrawal. The high profits of 1895 to 1910 had increased Pickering's income greatly. He gained both as holder of around one-quarter or the ordinary shares and as managing director allowed an extra £25 a year for every 1% dividend over 8%, Pickering used these high income years to become owner of (he: Braxfield estate at Lanark circa 1895, moving on to the still larger Conheath estate in Dumfriesshire in 1900. One suspects that he was spending heavily on these estates and. possibly, also on unfortunate investments. Al any rate, the purchase of Conheath coincided with his sale or 473 ordinary £10 shares to John Wilson (now Sir John) and his wife. Pickerings future dividend income was therefore reduced at a time when poor trading conditions and changes in company policy (from distributing profits to retaining an element for 'reserves) were about to reduce both dividends and the portion of his salary related [0 dividend payments above 8%.
Picketing's income was now reduced despite an increased level of personal expenditure and he moved into a high level of debt. In an effort to retrieve his financial position. he sought — with only limited success — to renegotiate the basis of his salary and bonus as managing director. He secured the appointment of his son as company secretary in 1904 hut the board was obviously becoming suspicious of his real worth In the company. According to the board minutes. Pickering began to take funds which ought properly to have come to the cornpany while he used the company to repair his own wagons without paying Ior the work. By 1911, he owed the company at least £3,500 while, to meet payment, due to it. the Royal Bank of Scotland also intimated to the board that it wished Picketing's entire shareholding in the company transferred to ir. Not surprisingly, Pickering ceased to be managing director while his son (who had been on leave of absence due to illness) was also told that his services as company secretary were no longer required. The board refused to sanction the actual share transfer to the Royal Bank until the debt due by Pickering to the company was settled. This was not done until August, 1913 but Pickering's effective. involvement with the company was over by April 1911.
These clouds gathered over Pickering when he had just turned 60. It remains to consider the role which he had in building up the firm from the 1880s to 1900. He certainly appreciated the need for more capital to expand the firm in the generally buoyant market conditions of the later nineteenth century which included marked growth in the volume of rail freight movement. Having taken the decision to set up the limited company of 1888, however, Pickering was pushed into even more rapid expansion. The board minutes suggest that it was Dugald Drummond, Locomotive Superintendent of the Caledonian Railway, who was the main initiator of a near quintupling of wagon sales between 1888 in 1891. Drumrnond had little confidence in Pickering's technical ability but an enlarged and modernised firm could assist future wagon supplies and create more competitive conditions. Drummond was able to secure the appointment of his own nominee, a Mr. Robb, as works manager. Pickering remained as managing director but, due to his technical weakness and his inability to supply extra capital for Robb's re-equipment programme, the bonus element was deleted from ills salary. Robb's triumph was short-lived. By 1891, the directors were alarmed at the low profits arising from ills 'expensive style of management'. Pickering's bonus element was restored from the beginning of 1894 and James Steel was brought in as works manager. Thereafter, Steel seems to have maintained the technical efficiency of the production side (gaining the benefit of some of Robb's innovations) but Pickering was a capable organiser of the marketing side, seeing opportunities for the extension of repairing activities into Fife and England, overseeing wagon hire and moving into export sales with a London office. The Centenary Brochure records Pickering as being much more businesslike than his father. 'He didn't miss much and he forgot nothing .
Very little is known of Pickering's private life. He moved from living in the Kelvinside district of Glasgow to the status of a landed gentleman. He became more interested in books in his later years and also, of course, re-married when almost 70 years old. His severe financial losses, culminating in 1911, gave him little option other than to withdraw into a non-business world even if he had still had some inclinations towards business activity. On his death, the gross value of ills moveable estate was £2,597 and he owned unburdened heritage valued at £9,000.
Despite Pickering's apparent fluctuating success, his firm did become the largest wagon-building company in Scotland. It did develop from wood into steel technology but a proposed merger with Hurst Nelson & Co. Ltd, another Motherwell firm in 1894, fell through. The firm's share of the British market remained relatively small. Competition was too strong to permit large inroads south of the border while overseas orders grew far more slowly than equivalent orders for locomotives to the North British Locomotive Company. Employment only rose to around 500 and no major excursions were made into such new fields as passenger carriage building and tramway equipment.
SOURCES Unpublished SRO: SC 15/4/65, Inventory SC 15/47/9, Will UGD 1 19/1 and 19/2, Company Minutes from 1888 UGD 12 211 22/2, Register of Company Members and Share Transfers
Published
R. Y. Pickering and Co. Ltd, 1864-1964, A Commemorative leaflet D12 18/24

Newburgh signalbox. 17 May 1921. (photograph). 39

Issue No. 76 (Spring 2000)

North British Railway cattle wagon. front cover
Presumed to be manufacturers photograph. Number 2435. Diagrams 17 and 104. Brakes one siide only. Instanter couplings

PS Solway at Grimsby.. 2

D. Yuill.  North British Shipping Part  2.- Forth and Tay Sections. 3-6
Development of railway/ferry services across the Forth from Edinbugh via Leith and Granto to Burntisland where the Duke of Buccleugh and  John Gladstone (father of William Ewart) had financial interests in the Edinburgh Northern Railway,, The development by Thomas Bouch of the Floating Ferry to convey freight or train ferry and Leviathan are mentioned. The NBR acquired a controlling interest in the Galloway Steam Packet Company which operated pleasure sailings on the Firth of Forth.

John McGregor. The origins of the Invergarry & Fort Augustus Railway. 7-11
Author argues that Oban was the initial goal for the Glasgow & North Western Railway, but the Caledonian Railway blocked this aspiration by rejecting running powers.

North British Railway Company Railway Clearing House "Light" coal class received (form). 12

David Blevins. Railway accident statistics on the North British Railway. 13-19
Includes many minor incidents, such as air pump failures

North British Railway Way-Bill for Carriages etc. Methil. 20

North British Railway-Operating Instructions for Incline between Cowlairs and Glasgow Queen Street. 21-2
Notes made by C.J.B. Sanderson from original document.

H. A. Valance. The Waverley Route. 23-6.
from Railway Magazine January 1952

Alan Simpson. From Ladybank Junction to Perth. 27-30
Opened July 1848. Closed to passenger  traffic on 19 September 1955, but remained open for freight. A major rock fall at Clachard Craig Quarry blocked the line in 1967, but this was cleared. The line reopened to passenger traffic on 6 October 1976 as partial recompense for the closure of the Glenfarg route from Edinburgh to Perth and Inverness. The line is single track. There is a full bibliography and a timetable for 1904

SS Kittiwake at Silloth. 29

Alan Simpson. The Newburgh and North Fife Railway.  31-6.
Incorporated 6 Augustt 1897. It did not open until January 1909 and closed to passenger traffic on 12 February 1951 (bus competition had been severe) and to freight partly in 1960 and totally in 1964. The line ran 13 miles from Glenburnie Junction on the Ladybank to Pert line to St. Fort Junction near the Tay Bridge and there were stations at Lindores, Luthrie and Kilmany. It served a rich agricultural area and there were hopes that residential traffic would serve Dundee. Motive power and train services are considered, The article notes what was still visible and ther is a proper bibliography

Roger Pedrick. History of the local railways. Par1 4. Transformation of the locomotive.. 37
Until the coming of the diesel it must have seemed to many an avid train-spotter that locomotive engines never died but were subject merely to transformation. Steam locomotives were remarkably long lived. The reason for this were the high quality of the workmanship great strength of the frames, which appeared to be immune to fatigue stresses.
At the turn of the century the North British Railway Company ordinary and local trains were being worked in great part by an army of ancient 2-4-0 engines which, with efficient standard boilers and new cylinders on their original sturdy frames seemed likely never to wear out. Many were ready for the scrap heap by the 1850s, but a start was made with the rebuilding of a favoured few. It should also be said that an incredibly diverse assortment of locomotives had come to the North British from the old Edinburgh, Perth & Dundee Railway, from smaller constituents in both Fife and Central Scotland. One of the twenty seven engines which came from the Monkland had been purchased by that company in 1856 from the Stirling & Dunfermline Railway, having been ordered for that company by Alexander Allan of the Scottish Central Railway. As an example of this longevity, let us consider the life history of a famous steam locomotive that was to haul many a passenger train in Fife in its old age. Crarnpton No 55, painted in Royal Stuart tartan for its honoured task of pulling the royal train which brought Queen Victoria to Edinburnh on her first railway journey, was rebuilt in 1853, as a seven feet 2-2-2. In 1867 Wheatley of Cowlairs took her in hand she reappeared in the form of Jenny Lind with double frames and a domeless boiler. Her beautiful tartan coat was gone, but in its place was one of bright chrome green, banded in black with white lines.
After thirty years more of work she re-entered Cowlairs for a further drastic overhauI and the provision of real cab. She received a third, or possibly a fourth chimney, a massive muzzle loader, and a new four wheel tender. In this, her final form, No 55 ran until 1907.
She had been duplicated as 55A in 1894, and renumbered 809 in 1895 and 1009 in 1901. In the 'eighties [1880s] she worked Ladybank Junction & Perth via Burntisland Ferry. Sometime after the opening of the Forth Bridge she operated on the Stirling & Dunfermline line, which was a happy hunting ground for amateurs in search of old engines. A sister engine, No 808 renumbered 1008, was stationed at Dunfermline.
The engine which plunged in the storm-lashed waters of the Tay with a train-load of some eighty passengers in the Tay Bridge Disaster of 1879 was recovered from the river and put back into service at Thornton and Perth. She was No 224, and was built by Wheatley at Cowlairs in 1871.
Four inside-cylinder, double framed 0-4-2 engines of the old Stirling & Dunfermline Railway deserve notice. Nos 60 and 61 were built by Simpson of Dundee in 1853, having been ordered by the Scottish Central Railway, as agents, in the previous year. Nos 62 and 63 were similar engines, built by Hawthorns of Leith. The Simpson engines had 15in x 21in cylinders the Hawthorns 16in x 24in. Coupled wheels were five feet in diameter. They became the North British Railway's Nos 247-250 lasted for many years.
No 60, which became the North British No 247 after being rebuilt in 1885, was renumbered No 872 in 1895. and No 1072 in 1901. She was scrapped in 1907. The sister engine, No. 248 was rebuilt by Wheatley in 1873, was withdrawn in 1896.
The Edinburgh, Perth & Dundee Railway had rather a job-lot of engines. Some were built by outside firms, few were made in the workshops which the company had set up in Burntisland. An express engine, built at Burntisland in 1861, became NBR No 147. In 1860 Mr N icholson built at Burntisland an 0-4-0 engine, NBR No 151 and in the next few years, four 0-6-0 goods engines with 16in x 24in cylinders five foot coupled wheels, which became NBR Nos 145, 150, 159 and 160. Of Nicholsori's five foot goods engines of the Edinburgh, Perth &. Dundee Railway, old No 159 lasted a long time, although she was never radically rebuilt. Wheatley gave her a plain chimney, which she ,kept to the end. Holmes put his usual pair of safety valve columns on top of her big dome, where once had been valves loaded by spring balances. Her working life ended in 1896. The Edinburgh, Perth & Dundee Railway in its independent days had many of its engines rebuilt or given general overhauls by Alexander Allan of the Scottish Central Railway, Burnt island having its limitations.
When in 1867 Cowlairs was made the principal locomotive works of the Norrh British Railway, and all new constructions by the NBR were allotted to it, Thomas Wheatley, as locomotive superintendent, began to try and achieve some sort of standardisation. For ordinary passenger service, he rebuilt the Neilson 90 class. He also built eight 6 foot 2-4-0 locomotives with 16in x 22in cylinders and similar boilers; these were numbered 418, 419 and 424-429. Like the four-twenties, they later received Holmes boilers with 140 pounds pressure, and 17in x 24in cylinders, and were the last of the Wheatley passenger engines to remain in service. Several of them were used latterly on the Stirling & Dunfermline line. All of the eight engines, except Nos 419 and 427, were taken over by the LNER in 1923. In 1914, WP.Reid decided that they were worth rebuilding a second time. In 1914 Nos 418 and 419 received duplicate Nos 1239 and 1240. Nos 424-429 became Nos 1245 to 1249 and 1256. All these ancients were to be seen in action at Dunfermline and Thornton.
In the second Wembley Exhibition year, 1925, No 1247 (old No 426) was reported to have turned up in London at Hornsey shed, a long way from Dunfermline. Wheatley favoured saddle tanks, starting with the conversion of a few old Hawthorn-type goods engines. One was Edinburgh & Northern Railway No. 36, NBR No, 146. Wheatley rebuilt her in 1870, retaining four-coupled wheels. She spent her working life in and about Burntisland until 1875, when she went to the Wigtownshire Railway.
[Reproduced by the kind permission of The Dunfermline Press. Arricfe re-written by Roger Pedrick.]

Letters received. 39-40

KPJ: as this an index/precis the letters have had to be forced into a more formal style

[Arbroath & Montrose]. John Rapley
Writer had a series of copies of letters written by the Resident Engineer on the Arbroath & Montrose, to Thomas Bouch at the Edinburgh office. He does not have the replies but adds " ... it should be possible to combine a short history of the line with an idea of the trials and tribulations of a Resident Engineer around 1879". He also adds "Secondly, the Bilston Glen Viaduct at Loanhead, south of Edinburgh. is (was at the time of writing) in the course of restoration. This was the largest span bridge on the NB. I exclude the Forth Bridge since they (the NB) never owned it. ..... It really does deserve an article". He then stated that he intended to chat with Jeff Hurst: see (100), 23.

[Dinnikier Foundry]. James L. Wood
Re page 34 of issue number 74 the reference to the siding which served Dinnikier Foundry. Douglas & Grant was on of the leading Scottish builders of stationary steam engines. These were used to drive textile mills and other factories throughout Scotland and some textile mill engines were also exported. The engines also powered rice mills which Douglas & Grant exported to the Far East. What is almost certainly the last Douglas & Grant engine in Britain is now on display in the new Museum of Scotland. From time to time it is run on compressed air. It is a small single cylinder engine of about 60 hp, with Corliss oscillating valves. This was an American development which Robert Douglas pioneered in Britain. Installed at the weaving mill of Wilson Brothers of Alva in 1923, it ran until 1979 by which time the mill was owned by Glentana Mills Ltd. I have not heard of any survivors overseas but given the number of engines exported by the firm it would not be surprising if one or two of them remained".

Gunpowder Traffic. Keith Fenwick
Item 6: The term "Head Guard" was used on trains with more than one guard. This was true of both passenger trains before continuous brakes, when a train could often have at least two guards, if not more. Obviously, one had to have overall control, the job of the others being to apply brakes in their own caniages. The same would apply to goods trains, although this was not very common. Even in BR days, one brake van for a long string of unbraked wagons sufficed.
Item 9: I agree that railway were unlikely to have battery lamps at that time - the rule basically meant that no lights at all were to be taken close to the wagon. Loading and unloading was only permitted during daylight. The carriage of explosives and dangerous goods by railway was well regulated. The Explosives Act, 1875, together with Orders in Council and Rules made thereunder, provide an elaborate code for the manufacture, storkage, sale and conveyance of explosive substances. General rules were included in the Act and specific Rules were made under the auspices of the Railway Clearing House and were applicable to all members of the RCH. These Rules were more general to the specific rules and regulations quoted by Mr Lindsay and covered the whole process of carrying this class of traffic.
Further details can be found in some of the contemporary legal text books, e.g. The Law of Transport by Rail by Alan Leslie, Sweet & Maxwell, 1928; Hedges Law of Railways, 7th Edition, Sweet & Maxwell, 1889.

[Front cover Issue 74] Gordon Moses
Re highlighting on the coach body shown on front cover. It is the first time I have noticed that the coach body being used as an office has, shall we say, been renovated. All other examples I have seen in photographs, have just been placed in position as built and left. The question is then - was this an isolated case? if so why? I suspect the answer is to do with finance but that is just my financial training".

1918 Joint Station Arrangements. Jim Greenhill
Page 67/8. lim states that, assuming the "Paisley" referred to is in fact "Paisley Canal", LNER staff were still working there when his, friend, Tom Frier, started his railway career there in the mid 1920's despite it then being LNER owned.

The Martyr's Stone (Page 67/23). Jim Greenhill. .
Re R.D. Carnpbell's researches into this matter: the Martyr's Stone was for a while incorporated into the nearby motorway arches, but public reaction to this site caused it to be again uprooted, and it was placed in a wall at the Martyr's Church, St. Mungo Avenue, about ¼ mile west of its original location, in September 1987. So far as is known, it remains there to this day.

N.B.R. Carriages 1844-49. (Page 67/35) Jim Greenhill
Re colours of the carriage stock of the period at the 1996 AGM, he briefly showed a coloured reproduction of a painting by C Hamilton ElIis which he later presented to the Group Archivist for safekeeping. (He did, and this was duly entered, catalogued and stored). The painting in question was one of several featured in a book possibly The Great Age of Steam - but his reproduction was part of a presentation commemorative set issued by the Sunday Times Magazine some years before. It featured the controversial "Tartan Crampton Engine" No. 55 on a train of early four wheel carriages passing an old pattern vane signal. The engine is elaborately adorned in a Royal Stuart Tartan on the boiler barrel, valances, horn plates and tender sides, and bears a large Thistle motif on the smokebox door, while the Second Class Carriage shown is depicted in an overall Maroon/Claret livery with possibly Red lining-out, and lettered in Gold or Yellow, unlike the description given in our livery Register, which averred that the upper panels were Black, this latter description being borne out by a lithograph black &white reproduction depicted in George Dow's First Railway Across the Border book, an L.N.E.R. production to celebrate the N.B.R. Centenary. It is also so described by the late James Watson in his series of articles in the H.M.R.S. Magazine Vol.9, NO.3 for July- September, 1976. While it is known that No. 55 was the official N.B.R. Royal Engine. at the time there is no official record of the engine being painted out in its Tartan livery which would have been a nightmare for the foreman painter to apply bearing in mind the external convolutions of the Crampton"s construction and theory is that the newspaper reporter who so graphically described it in his report of the Royal visit actually missed seeing the train and relied on the description given him by a possibly mischievous minded "witness", out to earn a laugh at the reporters expense. Unless Hamilton Ellis had other proof positive, it would appear that he too was misled by the reporters graphic description and used his artist's licence in portraying it as he thought it my have appeared in his painting. The painting, however, shows a large black- backed seagull perched on the wall in the foreground, watching the train pass by, so perhaps Ellis appreciated he was being "gulled". I wonder!

Journal 67 - Front Cover. Jim Greenhill. 40
In the description of the locomotive shown on the front cover, No.363, built by Dubs &Co. in March 1869. is described as later being renumbered as 1112 in 1911, but it actually became No.1148 in October 1912. It survived to become LNER property and was allocated Nos.10148 and 9957 but never actually carried these numbers, being withdrawn in December 1924 as L.N.E.R. Class J.31, not as Class J.34 as described.

Photo of Class S No. 459 in Journal No. 74. Charlie Meacher
Re N.B.R. Class C (Class S - Ed) No. 459 on  the back page of Journal No. 74, noted more than was pointed out in the caption. These versatile engines were usually referred to a "Superheaters" simply because that was what they were. Behind the chimney can be seen the superheater header which delivered wet steam to the superheater in the smokebox, then passed it along a series of elements within boiler length smoke tubes, before returning as superheated steam to the header and controlled by the driver's regulator to the cylinders and pistons. Just above the right front sand box in the picture can be seen the anti-vacuum valve, or "snifter valve" as it was called, because this valve "sniffed" when the driver opened the steam regulator, thus barring the admission of air to the system. The headboard was not likely to be unpainted as stated. It was usual for the fireman to reverse the headboard to blank, where it was safe in the brackets rather than under the coal as sometimes happened. The first "S" Class 0-6-0 was completed at Cowlairs in 1914 with 5 ft. driving wheels, a boiler pressure ofl65 psi. and a tractive effort of 24,211 lbs. These superheaters regularly applied themselves, be it a passenger train or a coal train, the tender hand brake being ideal for the latter on falling gradients.
While driving on shed one afternoon at SI. Margarets, the indomitable gaffer, Bob McKay, heaved his heavy body across the track towards me bawling out "Here, Charlie, the Control's been on telling me the Elizabethan is limping through Portobello. Tak' yer' mate and grab that superheater in No. 1 and on tae the front of the big yin when it stops at the home signal". Looking up to the signalman in his elevated position, I could see he was agitated and seemed to be looking out for the famous non-stop about to stop on his doorstep. The superheater had been prepared for another job and was ready to leave the shed when the Elizabethan Class A4 groaned to a halt nearby. There was no delay with the shed signal coming off and we were out with the "superheater" and into the tunnel below the signalbox, then backwards to couple on with a fully alert Bob McKay supervising. As my fireman emerged from between the locos, he grabbed the Elizabethan headboard and transferred it to the superheater. Then, with an exchange of engine whistles, we tackled the steep incline to Waverley. Nos. 10 and 11 platforms were crowded as people awaited the arrival of the much delayed Elizabethan and it was a good feeling for two "64A" men, more used with coal train working.

Auchmuty Tunnel.  F Voisey
wrote: and . Just two very brief notes with reference to Journal No. 74. 1. In A Simpson's article on the Leslie Branch, I could not see any reference to the Auchmuty Tunnel, one which, according to my records, existed, presumably on the main branch or the Auchrnuty Mills Branch. It was a mere 18 yards long.

Enclosed Lights.  F Voisey
DME Lindsay queries the existence of any enclosed type of light in 1914. I used to possess a Great Western hand lamp (paraftin) and this was certainly enclosed in the sense that the flame was shielded by the lamp casing, as opposed to say the open flame of a candle. I

Issue No. 77 (Summer 2000)

0-6-0 No..415  on up local in Princes Street Gardens. front cover

4-4-0 No. 231 on harbour wall at Fort William. 2

D. Yuill. North British Railway steamers Part 3 - Firth of Clyde Sections. 3-8.
Full fleet list. In the 1930s the LNER had doubts about maintaining its fleet and entered into negotiations with the LMS which came to nothing. In both WW1 and WW2 there were losses of vessels See also letter in Issue 61 page 31 by Robert D. Campbell..

Alan Simpson. Clackmannanshirc Pits in 1920. 9-10.
The Alloa Coal Co. had collieries in Alloa, Tillicoultry and Clackmannan and at Bannockburn in Stirlingshire: all except the last were served by the NBR. Home Office statistics for numbers employed below and above ground. Gradient profiles for approach railways.

Cecil J. Allen. British locomotive practice and performance. Railway Magazine - January 1923. 11-15.
Performance by superheated Atlantics southbound from Aberdeen to Edinburgh with a heavy load and on the Waverley Route to Carlisle.

Alan Simpson. Single Lines on the North British Railway.n 16-18.
List of single line routes divided by Divisions and then by name of line and then by extent of sigle line (e.g. Anstruther to St. Andrews) isssued by the General Mansager's Office on 24 May 1909. No further data, such as mileage recorded)

G.W.M. Sewell. The N.B.R. steam motor carriage. 19-22
Proposal by Reid in 1906: it would have been veryb similar to the unsatisfactory Great North of Scotland car which incorporated an Andrew Barclay engine

Alan Simpson and Roger Pedrick. The Alva branch line: a Clackmannanshire branch line. 22-6.
Local line promoted in Alva by textile manufacturers (who used water power from local Ochill glen). Act obtained on 22 July 1861. Route began at Cambus Junction. Taken over by Edinburgh & Glasgow Railway in 1864. Traffic on line included that from Glenochil Distillery, latterly a yeast factory, and from Glenochil Colliery, both in Menstrie. No mention of closure factory in Menstrie (visited by KPJ in 1946, probably all traffic was brought by road: but passsenger traffic still in hands of Sentinel railcar).#

Alan Simpson. From Ladybank Junction to Perth. 27-8.
Alva branch: gradient profile and Working Timetable June 1900.

Two Alloa Coal Company wagons. 29.
Photographs of six plank wagons with side and end doors: one with dumb buffers; the other with spring: latter lettered Bannockburn and Wallsend Navigation.

Parcel waybill from Dalmeny Station 1916. 30

Richard Davidson. Early Scottish outside frame mineral wagons.  31-9.
General arrangement drawings for 7-ton wagons operated by the North British and Caledonian Railways in the 1860s: intended to construct model wagons.

Bracket Signal at Fort William 1938. 40

Issue No. 78 (Autumn 2000)

0-4-4T No. 355 with wagon of locomotive coal in Edinburgh Waverley beneathy Calton Jail in early LNER period. front cover

North British Railway 0-6·0 No. l. 2
Photograph

D. Yuill. North British Railway steamers Part 4 - Loch Lomond Section. 3-6.
Photographs include PS The Queen shown ice-bound on Loch Lomond. PS Balmaha and PS Empress are also shown in normal conditions

Alan Simpson. The 1902 Railway Year Book - North British Railway. 7-10

From the L.N.E.R. Magazine for January 1919 (page 53). 11
Forth Goods Station Newcastle, Yard master Rayfield. 535 sidings (23 miles)

William Paton Reid. 11
Who was Who: born 8 September 1854; died 2 February 1932. Residence: Carsaig, 6 Wykeham Road, Scotstounhill, Glasgow

D.M.E. Lindsay. Two items of North British Railway interest. 11
Working on: stations of Scutland showing opening and closing dares and company that opened them; opening dates of routes and stations; closing dates of routes and stations; and eventually hope to produce a route by route list showing stations and sidings with opening and closing dates.
Fourth class on the Edinburgh & Glasgow Railway
It appears that The Edinburgh & Glasgow Railway was among the first of the Railway companies to offer four classes of travel to its passengers albeit the fourth class was only offered on the all stations trains.
An extract from a Murray's Timetable of April 1845 shows that three trains each way between Edinburgh and Glasgow offered 'fourth class accommodation'. These three trains left Edinburgh at 07.00, 13.30 and 17.00 and arrived at Glasgow at 09.30. 16.15 and 19.15 respectively, having stopped at Gogar, Ratho, Winchburgh. Linlithgow, Polrnont, Falkirk, Castlecary, Croy, Kirkintilloch (Lenzie) Bishopbriggs.
I have no doubt other intermediate stations were also called ut but my recollections of the 'Murrays timetable was that they covered main stations only and suburban stations with a frequent service served by various routes were shown under the station name and not on a route basis. i.e. Hayrnarket. The timings of the trains from Glasgow tu Edinburgh were identical to those shown from Edinburgh with same timings. Of interest was the fact that the 13.30 train was also shown as a goods train which explains why it took longer to reach the respective terminus's .. Unfortunately the article does not say when the fourth class was abandoned. Perhaps some one out there has this information and could advise the group. Source Railway Magazine.

North British Railway  Desirable factory sites. 12
Pictorial advertising poster signed J. Calder; thus post 1918

Alan Macfarlane. We want insulated fish vans!!. 13-14.
London Fish Traders Association request in 1923 for fish off West West Highland line  

Alan Macfarlane. Fish workings. 15
Fish from Berwick (salmon) during BR period; from Eyemouth and from Mallaig for London fish market: complaints about quality from Northb British and LNER periods. See also letter from John McGregor in Number 82 page 31,.

Traffic control at Bumtisland  - Scottish Region. 16-17.
From Railway Magazine January 1952: includes a  map.

Alan Simpson. The North British Railway and the Union Canal. 18-19.
Acquired in 1865; gradual decline in traffic. Closure of link to Forth & Clyde Canal in Falkirk in 1933. Water used by distilleries in Linlithgow and in Edinburgh; and by North British Rubber Co. and at St. Margarets engine shed where fish caused problems. For NBR Rowing Club see Issue 83 page 31.

Alan Simpson. The Bennochy Road level crossing. 22-3.
Kirkcaldy

Miscellaneous short items. 24-36

David M.E. Lindsay. Changing signalbox names. 24
Brunstane Park Junction opened in 1815 but bcame Niddrie North in 1925. Corstorphine Junction became Saughton Junction when the Corstorphine branch opened; and Bridgeton station became Chryston in 1907.

A. Simpson. A mixed bag or a selection of traders wagons. 24

Alan Simpson. Traffic on the Inverbervie branch. 24
Train to Birnie Road siding once per week

Alan Simpson. The Directors of the NBR 1913. 27-8.
An interesting example of social and economic history in the era before WW1. is encountered in the list of directors of the N B R in the account for of the year ended 31 st December 1913, The list of directors of Scotland's largest railway company, and also one of the largest businesses ever controlled from Scotland was as follows. William Whitelaw; Earl of Dalkeith; Henry Torrance Anstruther; Charles Carlow; Alexander Bruce Gilroy; Alexander Reith Grey; John Howard; John Inglis, LLD; Andrew Kirkwood McCosh; Henry Maciver; Sir John M Stirling Maxwell, Bart LLD; Alexander Simpson; Harry George Younger. The business background of many is given briefly

W. Rhind Brown, South Leith old passenger station. 28
Notes from Railway Mag., of May 1930 based on LNER Magazine for March 1930: George Findlay noted that South Leith was originally served by horse-drawn trains on Dalkeith Railway which opened in 1831.

A. Simpson. Memorial in Auchtertool Parish Church. 28.
Johnn Grieve killed on railway on 20 February 1907: memorial window

Ghost trains of the West Highlands. Railway Magazine January 1938. 29
02.15 from Glasgow Sighthill to Fort William carried freight and newspapers. Corresponding 00.32 from Callendar to Oban was a mixed train.

Pertinent paragraphs. Railway Magazine January 1923. End of the North British dispute. 29
With Ministry of Transport on dividend psayments

Alan Simpson. Loch-A-Vuie Platform. 29
Between  Glenfinnan and Lochailort: LNER Working Timetable 1947 instructions

A. Simpson. The Black Devon Viaduct. 33
On former N.B.R. route from Kincardine Junction to Dunfermline (The Stirling & Dunfennline Railway). The route is now abandoned, but the solum of the track bed still exists and on 2 January 1995, he inspected one of the main structures: an impressive stone structure of four semi-circular arches which took the railway across the valley of the river Black Devon (a tributary of the Firth of Forth).

Alan Simpson. Charlestown Branch: notes of a railway ramble in January 1995. 33
Sunday, 29 January 1995 The branch to the Charlestown leaves the Dunfermline to Kincardine line at Elbowend Junction. At this point, there is a ground frame and a colour light signal. The track of the Charlestown branch was still in place, but it was noted that there had not apparently been any traffic for some time, as the rails were rusted. However, at least the track bed was tidy and free of vegetation. The branch, which is a single track, runs due south, bordered on both sides by fields. It shortly afterwards enters a shallow cutting and then bends to the right (westwards) with check rails on the western set of rails. The line crosses the A985 Rosyrh Kincardine road to on a single span girder bridge. There is also, a bit farther on, a semi-circular brick arch bridge on which the line crosses over a now abandoned road. The branch now heads in a westerly direction parallel to the A985 road (although a short distance back from it) and comes to a level crossing, with white painted wooden gates and a red 'target' It then continues west, under a farm access bridge and over another gated level crossing. It then comes to a bridge taking the minor pub- lic road to Charlestown across the railway and then heads south again, through a cutting. Once through this views of the River Forth and the pier of Crombie Royal Naval Armaments Depot can be seen on the right-hand side. The line then curves eastwards and comes to a set of trailing points. At this location a track set back westwards to serve at the Crornbie base. The "main line" continues eastwards for a short distance until it terminates at a buffer stop fashioned out of old rails. The only reason he suspected that the Charlestown branch is retained is for strategic purposes, to serve the Armaments Base.

The new Locomotive Superintendent ot the North British Railway. Railway Magazine - Bill Lynn. 33
[KPJ: presumably Volume 14 or 15]. In the last issue of the RAILWAY MAGAZINE we chronicled the appointment of Mr. W.P. Reid as Locomotive Superintendent of the North British Railway. We are now enabled to publish his portrait, with some additional information of his career.
Mr. Reid is a Glasgow man. and has risen from the ranks. During his apprenticeship he attended Science and Art Classes. and gained First Class certificates in most of the subjects. He began his railway career at Cowlairs Works in May, 1879. where his conduct and abilities soon attracted the attention of the late Mr. Matthew Holmes. then Locomotive Superintendent of the North British Ra.lway, who promoted him to be Charge of the Locomotive Depot at Balloch in 1883. Further promotion followed. viz., to Dunfermline in 1889, to Dundee in 1891, and to the St. Margarets Sheds at Edinburgh on May l st., 1900. Mr. Reid was now in charge of the second largest depot on the North British Railway. and when the Directors considered it advisable to appoint an Outdoor Assistant Locomotive Superintendent. the merits of Mr. Reid immediately caused their choice to fall upon him. Frank, energetic. and capable, he is popular with the staff. It may be stated that Mr. Reid is the youngest of six brothers who have all risen to responsible positions. One of the brothers. Mr. G. W. Reid, was for ten years Chief Locomotive Superintendent of the Natal Government Railways. South Africa, and during the Boer war rendered valuable assistance to the military authorities in connection with the Locomotive Department. for which he received the thanks of Lord. Kitchener.

Alan Simpson. Lines in the Tayport area. 37-9
Map shows the former railw ay from Wormit past Tentsmuir to Leuchars Junction: it carried commuter traffic until the openinng of the Tay Road Bridge.

Bill Rear. Comment. 40
Concluding remarks by Editor who had to resign due to health problems, and was critical of the lack of literary support from members. He also outlined the working methods required to produce printed copy via Mackay (Design & Print) Ltd of Port Glasgow

Issue Number 79 (Winter 2000)

Roger Pedrick. History of the local railways: first train ferry in the world. 3-4.
Thomas Bouch vessels on Granton to Burntisland route. Rewritten from article in Dunfermline Press.

Bill Rear. The West Highland Line: Eastfield engine diagrams September 1962. 5-12.

Alex K. Bowman. Expresses of the North British Railway Edinburgh-Aberdeen main line. 13-17
Extracted from The Railway Magazine 1912 January

The Northern Belle. 18-32
Partly from The Railway Magazine and an LNER publication: includes timetables, map and itineries for the land cruise train. On page there is a photograph of Nos. 9221 Glen Orchy and 9248 Glen Shiel at Glenfinnan. on The Northern Belle