Beattock Summit

The highest point on the Caledonian Railway Main Line 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, which is reached by the adjacent A74(M) motorway. The railway reaches a slightly lower elevation of 1,016 feet (310 m).[2] The summit is the watershed between the River Clyde to the north and Evan Water, a tributary of the River Annan to the south. The northbound climb has a 15 mi (24 km) ascent, with gradients of up to 1 in 69 (1 foot of rising or falling gradient for every 69 feet of distance) which made it a notoriously severe climb in the days of steam locomotives.[3]

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.

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.[2]

The railway was electrified in the early-1970s. Electric locomotives, as far back as the Class 86, as well as today's Avanti West Coast services, climb the gradient without assistance.

• 
  Liverpool and Manchester to Glasgow express nearing Beattock Summit in 1957
• 
  The Royal Scot approaches Beattock Summit in 1957
• 
  Railway cutting near Beattock Summit

The summit was the location of a private halt from 1900 to around 1926.[1] 1966[4]