Author : A. Hajducki & A. Simpson ISBN : 9780853614951 Cover : paperback Price : £9.95
The Lauder Light Railway was one of the many rural lines promoted under the auspices of the Light Railways Act 1896. Opened only a few months after the end of Queen Victoria’s long reign, the diminutive trains on this little-known by-way made their way laboriously up and down the gradients between Fountainhall, Oxton and Lauder for barely 30 years before the passenger service succumbed to bus competition, while the remaining goods service dwindled away to a mere skeleton before being finally laid to rest in the month which saw the inauguration of the first transatlantic jet service. Lauder is just one of the historic Border towns and villages which slow traffic up on the spectacular A68 high road to Edinburgh – few will now be aware that once upon a time farmers and schoolchildren, sheep and potatoes, could travel in the wee train pulled by ‘Maggie Lauder’ as she puffed her way up and down through the rolling green hills and quiet valleys.