The infamous ‘Beeching Axe’ swept away virtually every Scottish branch line in the 1960s. Conventional wisdom viewed these losses as regrettable yet inevitable in an era of growing affluence and rising car ownership.

This ground-breaking study of Dr Beeching’s approach to closures has unearthed – from rarely or never previously referenced archive sources – strong evidence of a ‘stitch-up’, ignoring the scope for sensible economies and improvements which would have allowed a significant number of axed routes to survive and prosper. Acclaimed railway historian David Spaven traces the birth, life and eventual death of Scotland’s branch lines through the unique stories of how a dozen routes lost their trains in the 1960s: the lines to Ballachulish, Ballater, Callander, Crail, Crieff /Comrie, Fraserburgh, Kelso, Kilmacolm, Leven, Peebles, Peterhead and St Andrews.

He concludes by exploring a potential renaissance of branch lines, propelled by concerns over road congestion, vehicle pollution and the climate emergency.

• Cover
• Title
• Copyright
• Dedication
• Contents
• List of Maps, Illustrations and Tables
• Foreword
• Glossary and list of abbreviations
• Part One: The birth, life and death of Scotland’s branch lines
  • 1. Branch lines everywhere in the private sector era
  • 2. Blowing hot and cold – the public sector era before the Beeching Report
  • 3. Dr Beeching’s prescription – ‘conservative with regard to closures’
  • 4. The aftermath
• Part Two: A dozen closures dissected
  • 5. Introduction
  • 6. Kelso and Kilmacolm: book-ending the classic closure era
  • 7. A bus man knifes the railway: Peebles
  • 8. The wrong kind of train: Crieff / Comrie
  • 9. Two contrasting cases: Fraserburgh and Peterhead
  • 10. Cut the trunk and the branches wither: Crail, Leven and St Andrews
  • 11. The baby and the bathwater: Callander
  • 12. A right royal scandal: Ballater
  • 13. No strategic vision: Ballachulish
  • 14. What lessons can we learn?
  • 15. Branch line renaissance ahead?
• Notes
• Bibliography
• Appendix: passenger route closures since the 1923 Grouping
• Index