Scottish Region of British Railways
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History
The Second world war had devastated Scotland's railways due to the LMS and LNER rolling stock in Scotland being transferred to the major cities in Northern England in order to replace what had been destroyed by German air-raids. Only state intervention could provide the necessary re-supplying of rolling stock and save several unprofitable routes from closure, so the lines were nationalised in 1948, along with the rest of the railways and became Scottish region.
The network
Scottish region covered all of Scotland's railways along with a few commuter trains in Cumbria and northern Northumberland. This would be greatly reduced in the 1960's.
Its most important stations were:
- Glasgow Central and Queen Street in Glasgow city,
- Motherwell in North Lanarkshire,
- Waverley station and Haymarket in Edinburgh
- Stranraer and Castle Douglas(now closed) in Galloway,
- Dumfries in Dumfriesshire,
- Aberdeen central( passengers)and the now closed Waterloo Street (freight) in Aberdeenshire
- Perth in Perthshire, and Dundee city,
- Stirling in Stirlingshire,
- Inverness in Inverness-shire.
The Beeching cuts
Sadly, the under-used Highland station at Strathpeffer had already closed by 1955 and the nearby station at Achterneed followed suit in the 1960s. Castle Douglas, Peebles, Leadburn and Penicuik in the Scottish Lowlands, Grantown-on-Spey and Nethy Bridge stations in the Scottish Highlands were closed during the 1960s, despite heavy local protests, due to the lack of passengers and freight! Peterhead station become a freight only station in the 1960s and was closed all togeather in the 1970s. At about this time the freight station at Aberdeen Waterloo street was mooted for closure and had some tracks lifted, but its final closure was in the mid 1970s due to dwindling business. Beauly station near Inverness closed in the 1960s, but was re-opened in 2005
Inside the commuter-belt
The stations at Edinburgh Waverley, Edinburgh Haymarket, Glasgow Queen Street and Glasgow Central were improved and renovated in the 1980s and 1990s, but the 20 year old plan to re-build Penicuik station are still unfulfilled and a line had closed at Stirling station by the 1990s.
The Moffat branch
The Bettock to Moffat branch in southern Lanarkshire became a freight only line in the 1950s and closed in the 1960s. By that time, passenger trains had been withdrawn from Beattock as well, which continued as a freight station until the 1970s. It still has an active train stabling siding to this day and the partly demolished platform is still in situ leading to hope that the branch line may be restored as a summer tourist attraction.
Trains and rolling stock
Steam traction ended in the 1960s with the introduction of diesel trains in the Highlands and 25kV over-head electric cable powered rolling stock in the Scottish Central belt, Edinburgh, Glasgow and on all major express routes throughout the country. A mixture of trains were used in the Lowlands. New electric 'Blue trains' with air-assisted sliding doors, were introduced during the early 1950s and were a great success, until they were scrapped, along with diesel units in the 1990s. The 'Blue trains' were named after their unique shade of 'electric' blue livery when they were first introduced.
Major accidents
The Paisley Gilmour street crash of April 1979 killed 7.
The Invergowrie Rail crash of October 1979 claimed the lives of 5.
The Polmont accident of July 1984 killed 13.
The Bellgrove accident of March 1989 killed 2.
The Newton Accident of July 1991 killed 4.
Privatisation
The Scottish region became Scotrail and handed the Glasgow to Edinburgh via Carlisle, Haltwhistle and Newcastle-upon-Tyne line over to Northern Spirit.
Sources
The Ian Alan books-
- Some newspaper articles.
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