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Beattock Summit

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Place
  
Grid reference
  
NS994152

3 January 1900
  
Station opens

Platforms in use
  
2

Pre-grouping
  
Original company
  
Beattock Summit Beattock Summit Iain Russell Geograph Britain and Ireland

Post-grouping
  
London Midland and Scottish Railway

Beattock Summit is a high point of the West Coast Main Line (WCML) railway and of the A74(M) motorway as they cross from Dumfries and Galloway to South Lanarkshire in south west Scotland.

Beattock Summit Beattock Summit Oliver Dixon Geograph Britain and Ireland

Railway history

Beattock Summit The Pendolino Approaches Beattock Summit Mary and Angus Hogg

The highest point on the WCML north of the border (built by the Caledonian Railway and opened on 15 February 1848), it is located 52 miles (83 km) south of Glasgow Central and 349 miles (558 km) north of London Euston stations. The height of the summit is 1,033 feet (315 m) above sea level. The signboard by the rail track records the elevation as 1,016 feet.

The summit was the location of a private halt from 1900 to around 1926.

Beattock Summit Scotland 2011 Stuart39s Railway Photography

Steam locomotives frequently required banking assistance in getting their heavy trains up the incline, particularly in the northbound direction, which had steeper gradients. There was an engine shed at Beattock which had banking locomotives on standby twenty-four hours per day to minimise train delays.

Beattock Summit Beattock Summit Wikipedia

The severity of the climb to the summit is referenced in W. H. Auden's poem Night Mail, written in 1936 for the G.P.O. Film Unit's celebrated production of the same name.

Beattock Summit Signal Box Diagrams Beattock Summit

Electric locomotives, as far back as the Class 86, as well as today's Virgin Trains services, climb the gradient without assistance.

Beattock Summit Abington and Beattock Summit 30 November 2013 YouTube

Beattock Summit Atomic Systems View topic WCML North

References

Beattock Summit Wikipedia


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