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BR North Of The Border By L A Nixon & PJ Robinson DJ
BR North Of The Border By L A Nixon & PJ Robinson Dust Jacket 1983 112 Pages
Of the five regions of British Rail it is the Scottish which serves the largest geographical area and includes the greatest diversity of scenery. The highest mountains, the largest expanses of inland water, the longest coastline are tempered by the extremes of Scottish weather. The relatively mild climate of the south-west contrasts markedly the rigours of the Grampian winter and the gales of the Far North. Demographic variations are equally varied, ranging from the sparsely populated north-west to the industrialised conurbations of the Central Lowlands. Not surprisingly these factors combined to mould a somewhat unique railway development, and a century later, to influence rationalisation. In compiling this album we offer a present day reflection of this amazing variety.
The overwhelming impression gained in selecting the pictures and in writing the captions, is of sadness at the way our unique railway heritage has been largely lost. Although the transfer of both freight and passenger traffic from rail to road and has been gradual, there seems to have been little attempt by politicians and professional railwaymen alike to reverse, or even check, this trend. The expansion of the trunk road network at the expense of the railways is now irreversible, particularly when employment statistics are considered. Today hundreds of thousands of people derive employment from road transport whereas only about 160,000 are employed by British Rail. On rational economic and ecological grounds rail borne traffic is both cheaper and healthier than road haulage. More importantly there is no comparison on humanitarian grounds between the safety record of the railways and the tragic slaughter which is phlegmatically tolerated on the road system.
North of the Border the reduction in rail traffic has already lost forever such arteries as the Port Road, the Waverley route and the superbly aligned Stanley Junction to Kinnaber Junction line, along with countless rural branches. Other lines are now 'basic' railways with vandalised unstaffed stations and worn out rolling stock. Scottish railway eccentricities such as the annual seed potato traffic to Eastern England and whisky trains to and from the distilleries of Speyside are lost to the roads forever.
However the electrified Glasgow suburban system, the West Coast main line to Carlisle, the highly popular Edinburgh to Glasgow push-pull Mk 3 stock services and the introduction of HSTs through to Aberdeen offer Scots the very best of modern rail operation and design. On the freight side both Freightliners and Speedlink air-braked services carry significant traffic to and from the industrial centres and merry-go-round coal operations feed the Forth-Clyde valley power stations.
Fortunately it is still possible to take a relaxed view of the beautiful Scottish scenery through the carriage window on routes such as those to Kyle, Stranracr, Oban and the Far North. Hopefully Scots will adopt the same grit and determination to retain these services as was evident in the successful lobby to save Ravenscraig.
We have concentrated on showing Scotland's railways to advantage which has resulted in a larger proportion of pictures in
scenic rather than industrial locations. We hope that readers will agree that this slight imbalance makes for a more attractive album of railways North of the Border.
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