Location type

Junction

Name and dates

Kilnknowe Junction (1866-1962)

Opened on the Edinburgh and Hawick Railway (North British Railway).
Opened on the Galashiels, Innerleithen and Peebles Railway (North British Railway).

Description

This was the junction between the Edinburgh and Hawick Railway (North British Railway) and the Peebles loop (Galashiels, Innerleithen and Peebles Railway (North British Railway)).

The main line here was a double track. In its original layout the Peebles line diverged as a double track quickly reducing to a single track (with possibly sufficient length to hold a train on the westbound track without fouling the junction). This later became a single lead with a crossover. The Peebles line, just west of the junction, occupies the former course of the Gala Water which was diverted to the north with a large amount of material deposited to build the embankment of the railway on its former course.

A two arch bridge crosses over the site, the southern arch crossing the branch and northern the main line.

The signal box here (on the south side of the junction) was closed in 1937 to be replaced by a central new box at the north end of Galashiels [1st] station (although the base was retained presumably as a switch room).

The branch closed in 1962, lifted in July 1963, and main line in 1969, surviving until at least 1971.

The trackbed remained as an overgrown walking route until 2015 when the main line re-opened as a single track.

To the north, on the main line route, is Torwoodlee South Viaduct. To the south east both lines crossed Bridge No 95 to reach Galashiels.

Local

Catrail

Both the main line and Peebles line cut through the Catrail ditch, the main line twice and the Peebles line three times.

Tags

Junction

Aliases

Torwoodlee

External links

Canmore site record
NLS Collection OS map of 1892-1914
NLS Collection OS map of 1944-67
NLS Map
NLS Map
04/02/2023

Nearby stations Galashiels Galashiels [1st] Clovenfords Abbotsford Ferry [2nd] Abbotsford Ferry [1st] Bowland Tweedbank Angling Club Cottage Lindean Thornielee Melrose Stow Selkirk Newstead [Melrose] Earlston	Bridge No 95 Wheatlands Mill Comelybank Mill Galabank Mill Skin Works Siding Comelybank Works Torwoodlee South Viaduct Paterson^s No 2 Siding Ladhope Tunnel Torwoodlee Tunnel Paterson^s No 1 Siding Torwoodlee North Viaduct Tourist/other Buckholm Tower Torwoodlee House Galashiels North Signal Box
Location names in dark blue are on the same original line.