Roy Perkins

Railway preservationist and author Born: December 8, 1946; Died: April 25, 2015.

ROY PERKINS, who has died aged 68, was a Londoner whose enthusiasm for the railways almost protected the Waverley Line in the Borders from the cuts brought about by the notorious Beeching report.

His bold plan to take over more than 90 miles of former British rail tracks eventually foundered, but he retained a lifelong connection to the route.

Born in London, Roy’s mother’s roots were in the village of Newcastleton, in Roxburghshire, and it was this connection to the area, along with a passionate love of trains and rail, that led to his involvement in a unique attempt to take over the 98-mile stretch of track from Edinburgh to Carlisle.

The Waverley Route – named after Sir Walter Scott’s Waverley novels and first opened in 1849 – was axed during the swingeing cuts of the 1960s.

To many it was the worst of the closures orchestrated by Dr Richard Beeching after his 1963 report on the restructuring of Britain’s rail network.

The route’s closure six years later was accompanied by a furious reaction from locals – when the last train left, on a bitterly cold night in January 1969, there were protests at Galashiels, Melrose and Hawick where a coffin was loaded on bearing the name of the transport minister.

Then at Newcastleton the train was halted by villagers who closed the level crossing gates and blocked the line. It took an intervention by a young local Liberal MP, David Steel, now Lord Steel – a passenger on the train – to persuade the crowd of demonstrators to disperse.

Behind the scenes, Perkins was already beavering away in an ambitious bid to save the apparently doomed line.

According to David Spaven, author and transport consultant, over a drink in Perkin’s local Wellington Arms in Woolwich, in 1968 with his neighbour Martin Symms, he had discussed the impending closure of the Waverley Route. Around the same time, Perkins was introduced to another rail preservation enthusiast, the television presenter Bob Symes-Schutzmann, who was then working on Tomorrow’s World.

Perkins and Symms wrote to David Steel asking to meet him at the House of Commons. The MP left the Chamber to see the pair and a “productive dialogue” began.

Perkins suggested the planned new venture should be known as the Border Union Railway Company (BURCo), a nod to its original name, and he, Symms and Symes-Schutzmann, who all became founding directors, began to draw up a business plan and work their extensive contacts across the railways, business, finance and public relations sectors.

Perkins, who had qualified with a degree from the London School of Economics, abandoned his job with Michelin and moved to Newcastleton to work full-time on the dream for almost a year.

It was undoubtedly a hugely exciting prospect for the young man who had begun writing for national railway enthusiast magazines as a teenager and spent his annual visit to his grandpar- ents in Newcastleton cycling miles across the Border countryside to visit remote railway stations.

“The scale of BURCo’s ambition was breathtaking,” says Spaven in his book Waverley Route: The Life, Death and Rebirth of the Borders Railway. “There was no precedent for the takeover of more than 90 miles of double-track railway as a commercial concern – as opposed to the revival of short branch lines as volunteer-led ‘preserved’ railways. The scale of the project was monumental in relation to the immediate resources available.”

Sadly the bold vision failed to materialise. The company was unable to make a sufficiently persuasive business case and neither British Rail or potential investors were convinced to back the plan. However Perkins never lost his enthusiasm for the line. He helped to establish the Whitrope Heritage Centre and was eventually able to participate in the return of a stretch of railway to Liddesdale when the line was recreated at Whitrope, base of the Waverley Route Heritage Association of which he was also a former chairman.

After the failure of the BURCo plan, Perkins moved to Liverpool where he was marketing manager of Merseyside Passenger Transport Executive and he settled in the area following marriage to his wife Patricia in 1972. He went on to become a Liberal councillor for Wirral Council’s Claughton Ward, serving from 1978 to 1990, including a spell as Liberal group leader between 1982 and 1986. Later he was leader of the Liberal SDP Group and subsequently led the Social and Liberal Democrat Group.

A quiet individual with strong beliefs, a fertile mind and a loathing of modern consumerism – he recently acknowledged he would have been happier living in a bygone age.

Latterly an author and heritage railway consultant, his photographic record for The Waverley Route Through Time, which he co-wrote, was published three years ago. Until his final days, he remained fascinated by the history of the line, particularly with Riccarton Junction, Roxburghshire’s unique railway village which was once only accessible by train.

This autumn rail transport is finally to be reborn in the Borders with a new railway due to open, covering some 30 miles of the axed route, from Edinburgh to Tweedbank.

Following his death a white wreath was carried by a preserved railbus on the short section of the Waverley Line at Whitrope.

He is survived by his wife Patricia and their son Alexander.