The North British Railway was one of the two biggest of the five major Scottish railway companies prior to the 1923 Grouping. It was established in 1844, with the intention of linking with English railways at Berwick. The line opened in 1846, and from the outset the company followed a policy of expanding its geographical area, and competing with the Caledonian Railway in particular. In doing so it committed huge sums of money, and incurred shareholder disapproval that resulted in two chairmen leaving the company.
Nonetheless, the company successfully reached Carlisle, where it later made a partnership with the Midland Railway. It also linked from Edinburgh to Perth and Dundee, but for many years the journey involved a ferry crossing of the Forth and the Tay. Eventually the North British built the Tay Bridge, but the structure collapsed as a train was crossing in high wind. The company survived the setback and opened a second Tay Bridge, followed soon by the Forth Bridge, which together transformed the railway network north of Edinburgh.
Early on, mineral traffic became dominant and brought in much more revenue than the passenger services.
At the grouping of the railways in 1923, the North British Railway was the largest railway company in Scotland, and the fifth largest in the United Kingdom. In that year it became a constituent of the new London and North Eastern Railway.
First steps
Early railways in Scotland had been mainly involved with conveyance of minerals, chiefly coal and limestone in the earliest times, a short distance to a river or coastal harbour for onward transport. The opening of the Edinburgh and Glasgow Railway (E&GR) in 1842 showed that a longer distance general purpose railway could be commercially successful.
During the construction of the E&GR, the money market had eased somewhat and a rapid development of long-distance railways took place in England. Scottish promoters began to consider how central Scotland could be connected to the growing English network, and a government commission was established to determine the approved route. It was assumed for some time that only a single route was commercially viable. The commission, the Smith-Barlow Commission, deliberated for some time and presented an ambiguous report, and public opinion had moved on: numerous schemes for railways were proposed, not all of them practicable.
During this frenzy, a group of businesspeople formed the North British Railway Company to build a line from Edinburgh to Berwick (later named Berwick-on-Tweed) with a branch to Haddington. They got their authorising act of Parliament, the (7 & 8 Vict. c. lxvi). The Newcastle and Berwick Railway was building its line, and in time they would form part of a through chain of railways between Edinburgh and London.C J A Robertson, The Origins of the Scottish Railway System, 1722 – 1844, John Donald Publishers Ltd, Edinburgh, 1983, David Ross, The North British Railway: A History, Stenlake Publishing Limited, Catrine, 2014,
Early plans This had been a race against competing railways: the main competitor was the Caledonian Railway, which planned to build from both Edinburgh and Glasgow to Carlisle, there linking with English railways that were building northwards. However the Caledonian was unable to secure enough subscriptions to present a bill to Parliament in 1844 and held over to the following year.
The chairman of the North British Railway, John Learmonth, saw that capturing as much territory as possible for the North British was essential in the competitive struggle. He prepared plans to build a second main line from Edinburgh to Carlisle through Hawick, and also attempted to gain control of the Edinburgh and Perth Railway company, which was itself preparing plans for its line. In the 1845 session of Parliament Learmonth secured the (8 & 9 Vict. c. lxxxii) authorising numerous branch lines, mostly to forestall incursion by competitors. In addition, the first part of the line to Carlisle, the Edinburgh and Hawick Railway, was authorised by the Edinburgh and Hawick Railway Act 1845 (8 & 9 Vict. c. clxiii): it was nominally independent, but in fact the shares were all owned by Learmonth and other NBR directors. Also in the same session, the Caledonian Railway was authorised by the Caledonian Railway Act 1845 (8 & 9 Vict. c. clxii). The Caledonian was to prove a bitter rival. The Edinburgh and Perth Railway failed to get parliamentary authorisation.
The line to Hawick was to use the route of the obsolescent Edinburgh and Dalkeith Railway, a horse-operated line with a non-standard gauge of sleeper-block track, and a large sum had to be allocated to converting that line to main line standards.W A C Smith and Paul Anderson, An Illustrated History of Edinburgh's Railways, Irwell Press, Caernarfon, 1993, John Thomas revised J S Paterson, A Regional History of the Railways of Great Britain: Volume 6, Scotland, the Lowlands and the Borders, David and Charles, Newton Abbot, 1984,
Opening of the main line All these plans for expansion were committing huge sums of money even before the main line was ready. At last on 22 June 1846 the line to Berwick and Haddington was open to the public. There were five trains daily, with an additional ten short journeys between Edinburgh and Musselburgh. A Sunday service was operated, in the face of considerable opposition from those of a religious point of view.
At first the Newcastle and Berwick Railway was not ready, and passengers and goods to London had to be conveyed by road from Berwick to Newcastle. From 1 July 1847 it was open between Tweedmouth (opposite Berwick on the south side of the River Tweed) and Newcastle upon Tyne. The North British Railway was able to advertise a train service from Edinburgh to London, although passengers and goods needed to be conveyed by road across the Tweed at Berwick, and across the River Tyne at Newcastle: the two river bridges were still under construction. It was not until 1850 that the permanent bridges were inaugurated, by Queen Victoria, although some working over temporary structures had already taken place.A J Mullay, Rails Across the Border, Patrick Stephens Publishing, Wellingborough, 1990, George Dow, The First Railway Across the Border, published by the London and North Eastern Railway, 1946Thomas, NBR volume 1 page 48
The Edinburgh station The station at Edinburgh was located in a depression between the Old and New Towns; this had early been a disreputable and insanitary swamp called the Nor' Loch, although steps had been taken to provide ornamental gardens on part of the area. The North British Railway obtained a cramped site close to the North Bridge, and the Edinburgh and Glasgow Railway extended their line from their terminus at Haymarket to meet the NBR. The new station was operated jointly, and was simply called "the Edinburgh station" or "the North Bridge station". It also came to be referred to as "the General station", and much later it was named "Waverley station".Michael Meighan, Edinburgh Waverley Station Through Time, Amberley Publishing, Stroud, 2014,
A takeover offer from George Hudson The English railway entrepreneur George Hudson was expanding his portfolio of railways and in 1847 his York and Newcastle Railway and the Newcastle and Berwick Railway were close to completing the English portion of a route from London to Edinburgh. Hudson made an offer to purchase the North British Railway (through the medium of his own companies) for 8% on the NBR capital. Hudson's offer placed a high value on the NBR, but it was rejected by the North British Railway shareholders on the advice of their chairman.K Hoole, A Regional History of the Railways of Great Britain: volume 4: The North East, David and Charles, Dawlish, 1965
The Hawick line Parliament had declined to authorised the NBR line throughout to Carlisle, and for the time being Hawick was to be the southern terminus, although the plan to construct to Carlisle later was made manifest. As the Edinburgh end was to use the old Edinburgh and Dalkeith alignment, some connections between the NBR and that line had to be made, as well as the upgrading of the E&DR line, doubling the single line section beyond Dalkeith, and construction of a new viaduct over the River South Esk and Dalhousie.
After the NBR had formally purchased the Edinburgh and Hawick Railway, first openings took place in 1847 but it was not until 1 November 1849 that the line was open throughout to Hawick. For the time being Learmonth's objective of a line reaching Carlisle, which was later to become the Waverley Route, was on hold.Roy Perkins and Iain Macintosh, The Waverley Route Through Time, Amberley Publishing, Stroud, 2012, Thomas, NBR volume 1 page 41
Early branches The NBR obtained authority in the (9 & 10 Vict. c. lxxiv) and the (9 & 10 Vict. c. lxxiii) to build numerous branches off its main line and off the Hawick line. Not all of these were built, but in addition to the Haddington branch, which had opened contemporaneously with the main line, several were opened in the period to 1855. These were:
a branch to Musselburgh, formed by extending the E&DR Fisherrow branch across the River Esk; this opened on 16 July 1847; Fisherrow was reduced to goods status only, and the Musselburgh station on the main line was renamed Inveresk; a short mineral branch to Tranent, opened in 1849; the North Berwick branch from Drem, opened in 1850; the Dunse branch line, opened in 1849; Dunse was later spelt Duns;Roger Darsley and Dennis Lovett, St Boswells to Berwick via Duns: The Berwickshire Railway, Middleton Press, Midhurst, 2013, a branch to Kelso from St Boswells on the Hawick line, opened in 1850.Thomas, NBR volume 1, pages 37 to 43
Competition The Caledonian Railway had been able to offer a through rail service without change of train via Carstairs since March 1848. The fastest trains between Edinburgh and London on both routes then took a little over hours; the East Coast journey included the two transshipments, at the Tweed and the Tyne. and the cheaper steamship service between Leith and London still took the bulk of the passenger traffic.Thomas, NBR volume 1 page 43
Mineral traffic, in particular coal from the Lothian coalfield, was the largest source of revenue, although delivery to the West Coast harbours and the developing iron smelting industry in the Monklands was problematical.
The fall of Learmonth The chairman of the North British Railway was John Learmonth. From the outset he had seen that expansion of the North British Railway was the way forward, and with allies on the board he had invested heavily, both personally and through the company, in subscriptions to other railways. In some cases this was to extend the system profitably, but in many it was simply to keep rival lines, especially the Caledonian Railway, out. For some time shareholder opinion was with him, but over time disquiet took hold when the scale of the commitments was disclosed. In 1851, North British Railway £25 shares were trading at £6 (). At a shareholders meeting in 1851 it was pointed out that when the company's network had been 89 miles in extent revenue had been £39,304. Now the network was 146 miles and revenue was £39,967 (). Huge sums were being written off in failed ventures, while equally huge sums were being sought for new ones. Some shareholders remembered George Hudson's offer of 8% for the company in 1847, which had been refused. It was noted that the Caledonian Railway was equally determined to enlarge its system, but was doing so by leasing smaller companies, avoiding a large payment at the beginning.