Max Stafford's Kennel

Today, I spent the day driving my friend Iain MacIntosh around in the northern part of the Borders and into Midlothian carrying out a photo survey for a new publication. The Railways of Peebles Through Time, which is a joint project with WRHA Chairman Roy Perkins, will be published shortly by Amberley Publishing at £14.99 and will also be available for purchase through the Waverley Route Heritage Association.
The purpose of today’s trip was to document stations on the Peebles Loop.
One location that we visited was the former station at Eddleston which has recently been beautifully refurbished as shown above.

On the northbound trip we travelled via the A7 and from Galashiels northwards to the limit of our expedition at Eskbank, evidence of work on the Waverley Route was apparent. All along the line, the once ever present linear birch wood has been felled, the embankments are once again visible, free of four decades’ worth of unmanaged growth, bridges, tunnels and previously hidden vistas are all on view and everywhere, contractors signs have appeared. Construction machinery appears at structures enjoying rejuvenation and every few hundred metres, men in orange workwear go about the business of waking this wonderful railway from it’s forty odd years of enforced hibernation.
And finally it can be seen, stirring along thirty miles, from the erstwhile coalfields of Lothian, down the Gala Valley and seemingly to the very foot of the Eildons; our beloved line is back. The Waverley Spring is upon us.