Waverley Route: The Life, Death and Rebirth of the Borders Railway

2012. First edition. 288pp. Colour and b&w illustrations. "The night of 5th / 6th January 1969 saw community protests at Newcastleton station deep in the Scottish Borders which blocked the passage of the very last train along the Waverley Route prior to its closure. What was so important about this railway that drove hundreds of citizens to break the law, led by a Church of Scotland minister? Why was the railway allowed to close? Who or what should we 'blame' for its loss? And more positively, how has it come about that, after an absence of 45 years, trains will once again serve the Scottish Borders in 2014-15? These are questions that have never before been researched and answered in detail. Waverley Route: the life, death and rebirth of the Borders Railway sets out to tell a story that says much about Britain's railways in the late 1960s, and about the opportunities created by devolution of power in the last years of the twentieth century to right one of the great wrongs of the old model of London-based transport policy. Illustrated with numerous period and current photos never before published." Book and unclipped dust jacket both in excellent condition with no inscriptions.…