The new Scottish railway line that winds through landscapes romanticised by writer Walter Scott will be the backdrop to Queen Elizabeth II’s longevity record when she officially reopens the route on Wednesday. ‘The queen could have been anywhere in the Commonwealth, but she chose to honour Scotland,’ David Parker, a councillor from the Scottish Borders region south of Edinburgh told AFP. On Wednesday the queen will become Britain’s longest-reigning monarch, surpassing her great-grandmother Queen Victoria rule of 63 years and 216 days. As Britain and remnants of the British Empire mark the momentous occasion, the record-breaker herself will be boarding a train at Edinburgh’s Waverly Station. Abandoned in 1969, the newly-reopened line will take the 89-year-old monarch and husband Prince Philip to the border village of Tweedbank,
