Jim Further to your note about William Turner Arnott and the contract at Talla Reservoir, there was an interesting article about this contract and the railways and locomotives employed on it in the Journal of the Stepenson Locomotive Society in October 1966., Unfortunately the author of the article has since died, but I now have the file of papers of which it was based, There is a memorial to those who died on the job at Tweedsmuir Church. There is also an article, based on part on that noted above, in The Scots Magazine for Nov. 1974. I believe the Whitehill and Polton pits at Rosewell date back before the period you mention, but a new winding shaft was sunk at Whitehill in 1878, which may tie in. Was Alison Sommerville the daughter of John and Harriet Sommerville? Best wishes Russell Wear