100 Weeks of Scotland: North Berwick| Borders Rail

Images one and two – North Berwick

On a bitterly cold but diamond bright spring day I headed to North Berwick, one of my favourite places in Scotland. As it was the school holidays there were lots of children around and I managed to get a few good shots. My favourites are definitely these two – The Man In The Ice-cream Van was taking a well-earned break after serving a huge group of toddlers, and the little boy with the ice-cream cone sums up spring in Scotland for me – the faint promise of better days, yet still in need of a duffle coat.

Images three and four – the Borders Railway

It was 50 years ago this week that Dr Beeching published his report that slashed the UK railway network. One high profile casualty was the Waverley line that ran from Edinburgh through the Scottish borders to Carlisle. Now work is under way to reopen much of this historic line with services due to begin in 2015 between Edinburgh Waverley and Tweedbank. It will be the longest new domestic railway built in Britain in over a century.

I will be documenting the progress of the railway over the next two years and these initial images were taken on the site of the old Monktonhall Colliery in Midlothian. Much mining remediation work is under way here to comply with strict environmental and safety regulations. In these images of the Monktonhall area, contractor Bam have begun moving large quantities of material to construct a new railway cutting and a new station, Shawfair. Here between the A1 and the city bypass the railway is on a new alignment while the remainder will follow the historic Waverley line to Tweedbank.

I have always been very interested in Railways - not in the trains that run, but in the history, the people, and the architecture of railways. I will be combining this project with ‘One Hundred Weeks of Scotland’ so more images will appear as the work continues.

Alan McCredie began the ‘one hundred weeks of scotland’ website in October last year, and it will conclude in Autumn 2014. McCredie’s goal is to chronicle two years of Scottish life in the run-up to the independence referendum.

McCredie says ‘one hundred weeks...’ is intended to show all sides of the country over the next two years. On the site, he says: “Whatever the result of the vote Scotland will be a different country afterward. These images will show a snapshot of the country in the run up to the referendum.

“The photos will be of all aspects of Scottish culture - politics, art, social issues, sport and anything else that catches the eye.”

You can follow the project at www.100weeksofscotland.com. You can also follow Alan on Twitter.

• All pictures (c) Alan McCredie