Once Upon a Time in the North II
The 10.50 am through train from Newcastle to Hawick on its journey along IanoHoseason's Riccarton Junction route.
The train, in the hands of an N.B.R. Abbotsford 4-4-0 draws in to Saughtree station. There is no housing near by. Between Saughtree station and Larriston, halfway to Steele Road station on the Waverley line there are only around eighteen homes, mostly farms and those are mostly close by the Liddel Water towards Larriston. To the north and east of Saughtree station there is not a single house located within a mile of the station.
Running between Saughtree station and Riccarton. In the background above the loco the Waverley line can be seen.
The 10.50 am from Newcastle comes off the Border Counties line at Riccarton Junction, joining the Waverley line.
Waiting at Riccarton Junction's down platform as the 1.38 pm for Hawick, stopping at Shankend and Stobs en-route. Those two wayside stations only have three daily stopping trains in the down direction and four in the up direction.
Goods trains wait in both the down and up goods loops.
The 10.50 am from Newcastle gets away from Riccarton Junction with the 1.38 pm down stopping service for Hawick. An express between Carlisle and Edinburgh stops at Hawick at 2.28 pm, so passengers off the 10.50 am Newcastle train can reach Edinburgh by 3.54 pm. The journey time for a passenger travelling along N.B.R. metals between Bellingham, the largest settlement on the Border Counties line, and Edinburgh takes 3 hours 20 minutes to cover almost 91 miles. This is still over an hour and a half faster than going via Hexham, Newcastle and Berwick.