Scotland’s Railways

Explore Scotland’s Railways

Scotland’s RailwaysMapping our railway heritage

Railway lines and their stories

Follow the railway.
Meet the places.

Explore the lines that crossed Scotland, the journeys they made possible and the communities whose lives were shaped by them.

Steam train at St Boswells station in 1961Edinburgh to Carlisle

Explorer available

The Waverley Route

Follow the railway south from Edinburgh through the Borders hills and towns to Carlisle.

23 stations46 mapped places164 timetable calls

Travel through its landscapes, meet the people and industries it served, discover its locomotives and stations, and see how closure and the Borders Railway changed the story.

Explore the Waverley Route →
Black Five No. 45455 at Dumfries with the Carlisle to Stranraer Harbour express on 11 August 1960Port Road working · 1960
Black Five No. 45455 at Dumfries with the 2.25 pm Carlisle–Stranraer Harbour express, 11 August 1960. Ben Brooksbank / Geograph · CC BY-SA 2.0 ↗

Explorer available · more stories to come

The Port Road

Cross Galloway from Dumfries to the railway and steamer connections at Stranraer Harbour.

23 station records27 places and junctions123 timetable calls

Follow passenger trains, boat connections and goods traffic through market towns, farming country and railway communities. Connected chapters also lead to Portpatrick, Kirkcudbright and the Whithorn–Garlieston network.

Explore the Port Road →
Callander's later station around 1900, with trains for Oban and DunblaneCallander station · about 1900
Operating-era context at Callander’s second station, about 1900: an Oban train stands at the down platform and a Dunblane train in the bay. This is the later 1870 station, not the original 1858 terminus. Unknown contemporary photographer, via Wikimedia Commons · Public domain ↗

Explorer available · new chapters being added

Dunblane, Doune and Callander Railway

Follow the railway west from Dunblane through Doune to Callander and the later route towards Oban.

7 route places12 chapters47 sources

Explore its stations, working life, people, freight, photographs and changing landscape from the opening in 1858 to closure and the surviving railway traces.

Explore the railway →

What follows

More of Scotland’s railway stories

Further routes will join the collection when there is enough to take visitors beyond a line on the map and into the places, journeys and lives connected by it.