Dear Spurtle,

I was glad of my metaphorical safety valve to release the intense build-up of pressure upon reading that the LMS ran services from Waverley to 'Euston and King's Cross' in Spurtle's Issue 356 [see inset]. 

I am sure I cannot be the only correspondent writing to remind you that the LMS ran services from Waverley to neither of those stations, though it did run the Royal Scot from Princes Street station (which was behind the Caledonian Hotel) to Euston, and the Thames–Forth express from Waverley to St Pancras over the LNER's Waverley route. 

It was of course the LNER which ran the Flying Scotsman from Waverley to King's Cross.

In fairness, Bryan de Grineau was using some artistic licence to depict the Flying Scotsman and the Royal Scot passing in Princes Street Gardens. 

The Royal Scot would never have traversed those LNER metals, having terminated in Princes Street Station. 

I doubt that the Flying Scotsman would have either. Having terminated in Waverley, I am fairly certain that the carriages would have been taken to Craigentinny carriage sidings, and the loco would have run light to St Margaret's Shed, now occupied by Meadowbank House. There is certainly evidence of Gresley A3 and A4 Pacifics being stabled at St Margarets in BR days. 

I trust that the record can be corrected in the next edition.

David Sterratt

***

Dear Spurtle,

Much as I love your Independent Stirrer, I must correct you in your front page piece on The Royal Scot and Flying Scotsman. 

There were never any trains from Waverley to Euston, nor did the London, Midland and Scottish (LMS) Railway run trains to King’s Cross. The LMS ran from Edinburgh’s Princes Street Station (not Waverley) to London Euston via Carstairs and the West Coast Main Line, while the LNER (the original version, 1923–48) ran from Waverley to London King’s Cross via Newcastle (the East Coast Main Line), and from Waverley to London St Pancras via Hawick, Carlisle and Leeds. 

In Edinburgh the LMS also ran suburban services from Princes Street Station to Balerno (closed 1943), Barnton (closed 1951) and Leith (via Craigleith – closed 1962), while LNER operated the South Suburban line from Waverley through Morningside and Portobello (closed 1962), and also trains to Corstorphine, Leith Central, North Leith via Bonnington, Musselburgh, North Berwick, Haddington, Dalkeith, Penicuik, and further afield to Peebles, Galashiels and other Borders towns. With the sole exception of North Berwick, all these former LNER lines had closed by 1969, with North Leith going first in 1947. 

The former LMS terminus station at Princes Street (behind the Caledonian Hotel) closed in September 1965.

Hope that’s helpful!

Robert Drysdale

-----