Light at its end

This disused railway tunnel is at Torwoodlee, near what was once Kilnknowe Junction, just outside the town of Galashiels in the Scottish lowloands.

It is either on the very lands or very close to those of the estate where my great-great-grandfather was steward until his death in 1872. He was clever enough to be given compensation when the North British Railway needed to cut across the terrain for which he was responsible in 1849.

When he died his legacy to his two daughters and one illegitimate son (my ancestor) include shares in the railway company with a nominal value of 400 pounds. That is the equivalent of about 200 thousand pounds today... a tidy sum. It added up even then to eight times the annual salary of his son as one of the first polic officers in the city of Aberdeen.

The famous Waverley Line was closed in 1969. But now it is to re-open in 2015. It will primarily function as a tourist attraction, taking passsengers from Edinburgh to the very heart of the countryside associated with Sir Walter Scott. But it will also mean that commuting from Galashiels to the nation's capital will take only about fifty minutes.

Relevance? I once played with the idea of one day retiring to the land of my forebears but since I do not drive a car I was put off by the notion of travel by country bus. But, hey, now there will be trains again!

Okay, it will never happen. It would only make sense if I could afford to buy a place in Galashiels which might then be passed on when I no longer need it. But the small matter of the 100 thousand pounds I do not have (for a good sized two-bedroom flat) means that the idea will remain just that... the nostalgia fantasy of an aging ex-pat.

But the re-opening of the railway makes me unaccountably happy!