Riccarton Junction, in the county of Roxburghshire

Roxburghshire

Roxburghshire or the County of Roxburgh is a registration county of Scotland. It borders Dumfries to the west, Selkirk to the north-west, and Berwick to the north. To the south-east it borders Cumbria and Northumberland in England.It was named after the Royal Burgh of Roxburgh...

 in the Scottish Borders

Scottish Borders

The Scottish Borders is one of 32 local government council areas of Scotland. It is bordered by Dumfries and Galloway in the west, South Lanarkshire and West Lothian in the north west, City of Edinburgh, East Lothian, Midlothian to the north; and the non-metropolitan counties of Northumberland...

, was a railway village and station. In its heyday it had 118 residents and its own school, post office and grocery store. The station existed solely as an interchange between the Border Counties Railway

Border Counties Railway

The Border Counties Railway was a railway line in Northumberland, England, with a small section in Roxburghshire, in the Borders region of Scotland. The railway was incorporated in 1854; and was absorbed by the North British Railway on 13 August 1860...

 branch to Hexham

Hexham railway station

Hexham railway station serves the town of Hexham in Northumberland, England. It is located on the Tyne Valley Line which runs from Newcastle upon Tyne to Carlisle, and is managed by Northern Rail who provide most passenger train services.-History:...

 and the North British Railway

North British Railway

The North British Railway was a Scottish railway company that was absorbed into the London and North Eastern Railway at the Grouping in 1923.-History:...

's (NBR's) Border Union Railway

Border Union Railway

The Border Union Railway was a railway line in south of Scotland. It was authorised on 21 July 1859 and advertised as the Waverley Route by the promoters - the North British Railway...

 (also known as the Waverley Route).

History

The settlement of Riccarton, which adjoins the station, consisted, in 1959, of around thirty houses, with at least one member of each household working for British Railways, which had a civil engineer's depot near the station. Remarkably there was no road access until a forest track was built in 1963, all access until then being by rail. The isolated position of Riccarton and the need to provide for the villagers may have been one reason why the station remained open until the late 1960s, as by this time ordinary public traffic was virtually non-existent. The branch line from Riccarton Junction to Kielder and Hexham was closed 15 October 1956. The Waverley Route was closed on 6 January 1969.

Reuse

Track panels were laid by the Friends of Riccarton Junction, but these were lifted in 2010. The Waverley Route Heritage Association is constructing a heritage railway between Withrope Siding and Withrope tunnel, however, this is not connected to the track laid at Riccarton.

Former services

See also

• List of places in the Scottish Borders