The Edinburgh and Dalkeith Railway was an early railway built to convey coal from pits in the vicinity of Dalkeith into the capital. It was a horse-operated line, with a terminus at St Leonards on the south side of Arthur's Seat.
Opened in stages from 1831, it was Edinburgh's first railway, and used the track gauge of 4 ft 6 in, commonly used for mineral railways in Scotland. The entry into the terminus involved a passage through a tunnel on a rope-worked incline.
It was not planned for passengers, but a trader operated passenger services and they were surprisingly successful, and the company later operated them itself.
When intercity railways were being planned, the North British Railway wished to reach Carlisle from Edinburgh, and it purchased the Dalkeith line in 1845 to secure part of the route. The new owners altered the gauge to the standard 4 ft in and laid stronger track for locomotive operation. Part of its main line became incorporated into the Waverley Route. Only a small section of the network remains open.
Summary From 1800 the city of Edinburgh had an increasing appetite for coal; although there were coal pits a few miles away, the roads of the time were inadequate, and the horse-and-cart journey added substantially to the cost to the user. Coal owners with pits in the Dalkeith area got together and formed a railway to carry their coal to the capital.
It was designed for horse-drawn operation, with an Edinburgh terminal, called St Leonard's, on the south side of Salisbury Crags. The location was chosen for simplicity of land acquisition, and the coal would in any case need to be distributed in the city. However, reaching the location involved a tunnel on a steep gradient, and wagons were hauled up and lowered by rope operation controlled by a steam engine.
The line was opened in 1831 from St Leonards to Dalhousie Mains, with a branch line to Fisherrow, a small harbour just to the west of Musselburgh.
A businessman started operating passenger coaches, also horse drawn, from 1832, and this was very successful; the railway company itself later took over the passenger operation.
A branch line to Leith, to give better access to shipping, opened in 1832. The total network amounted to about , but many private tramway connections were made in the coal districts to bring the coal to the railway.
Railway technology advanced, and in the 1840s railways using steam locomotives and running longer distances were being planned and built. In 1845 the North British Railway purchased the line, using it as a springboard for its line to Carlisle. They strengthened the track for locomotive operation, and the Edinburgh to Carlisle route became the Waverley Route.
The Edinburgh and Dalkeith line was referred to by a writer as "the Innocent Railway", referring to its unsophisticated horse traction and leisurely ways; the term was understood later to refer to the line's supposed freedom from accident, although this is not historically accurate.
Formation
The city of Edinburgh had an accelerating demand for coal in the early years of the nineteenth century, rising from 200,000 tons per year in 1800 to 350,000 in 1830.John A Hassan, The Supply of Coal to Edinburgh, 1790–1850, Transport History 5 (1972), quoted in Robertson
Coal in the immediate locality was of poor quality and of limited quantity. Better coal was being brought in from Fife and Tyneside by coastal shipping, and from Monklands by the Union Canal. The Duke of Buccleuch had coal pits in the Dalkeith area with superior coal, but road transport to the capital cost 4 shillings per ton from a final delivery price of 11 to 17 shillings. A report prepared for him by his factor John Grieve proposed a railway from his pits to the city, with a branch to Fisherrow, a fishing harbour near Musselburgh.
The Edinburgh and Dalkeith Railway Company received its act of Parliament, the (7 Geo. 4. c. xcviii) on 26 May 1826. It was designed as a horse-drawn railway, and its engineer, James Jardine, adopted the track gauge of 4 ft 6 in, which had been used in the West of Scotland. The line linked coal pits in the Dalkeith area to the city of Edinburgh, bringing coal for domestic and industrial use. The Edinburgh terminus was called St Leonards, located to the south of Salisbury Crags, in the area between the present-day St Leonard's Street and St Leonard's Bank.Francis Whishaw, Railways of Great Britain and Ireland, John Weale, London, 1842, reprint by David and Charles, Christopher Awdry, Encyclopaedia of British Railway Companies, Patrick Stephens Limited, Wellingborough, 1990, John Thomas, revised Alan J S Paterson, A Regional History of the Railways of Great Britain, Volume 6: Scotland, The Lowlands and The Borders, second edition 1984, David and Charles, Newton Abbot, W and E A Munro, Lost Railways of Midlothian, self-published, 1985
The original act authorised share capital of £70,125; a second act of Parliament, the (10 Geo. 4. c. cxxii), was obtained on 4 June 1829, authorising further share capital of £8,053, and sanctioning the Leith Branch. The third act of Parliament, the (4 & 5 Will. 4. c. lxxi), on 27 June 1834, authorised a further £54,875 to build branches to Fisherrow, and "allowing a certain amount of passenger traffic by horse-drawn railway coaches".Lewin
The line was designed by James Jardine, its engineer from 1826; the company's manager David Rankine also had an engineering role from the mid-1830s.Roland Paxton and Jim Shipway, Civil Engineering Heritage: Scotland, Lowlands and Borders, Thomas Telford, Limited, London, 2009 (reprint),
Promoters The railway was a public company, but the five coal-owners who would benefit from the line were the dominant shareholders: Sir John Hope, the Marquis of Lothian, John Grieve (presumably as proxy for the Duke of Buccleuch), and two members of the Dundas family who owned the pits at Arniston.C J A Robertson, The Origins of the Scottish Railway System, 1722 – 1844, John Donald Publishers, Edinburgh, 1983,
First openings The opening of the line was much delayed by difficulties which the contractor had not foreseen and which he had not sufficient capital to enable him to surmount.North British Railway Act 1845 (8 & 9 Vict. c. lxxxii), quoted in Robertson
The main line opened from St Leonard's to a coal pit at Craighall on 4 July 1831; this was probably close to the present-day Newcraighall.
It was soon extended to a temporary terminus at Dalhousie Mains, on the north bank of the South Esk river, opening in October 1831. The route ran via Millerhill village and Hardengreen, crossing the North Esk on a bridge high, and the main line was about long.
The Fisherrow branch from Niddry (later spelt Niddrie) opened on the same day; the junction at Niddry was facing for trains from St Leonards. Fisherrow had a small fishing harbour, and offered the possibility of transferring coal to coastal shipping. (Carter calls the point of divergence "Wanton Walls", and says that there was another branch from Cairney to Musselburgh collieries.)R F Carter, An Historical Geography of the Railways of Great Britain, Cassell, London, 1959)
The main line was double track, and the branch was single. The gauge was 4 ft 6in, "which [the engineer] Grainger had established with his railways in the west". Horse haulage was used throughout, (except of course for the rope-worked incline plane).
At this early date there was no thought of passenger operation, and the locations on the line were not "stations". The terminus at Dalhousie Mains is referred to as "Eskbank" by one source, but that name was not applied until after takeover of the line by the North British Railway. Cobb calls the 1834 passenger station there "South Esk", but that may simply refer to "the station at the South Esk River".Col M H Cobb, The Railways of Great Britain, a Historical Atlas, Ian Allan Publishing Ltd, Shepperton, 2003,
There were numerous small coal pits on the line of route, and they were quick to construct their own tramway connections to the line; already in 1832 a contemporary account of a journey on the line described "the rich flat valley through which we now rolled, veined with rail-ways, branching off, right and left, to the several coal-works – to Edmonstone, Newton, 'Sir John's' [colliery], &c &c".John Johnstone, The Schoolmaster and Edinburgh Weekly Magazine, 4 August 1832
Extensions and branches
The Marquis of Lothian's Waggonway The Marquis of Lothian had coal pits on the south-eastern side of the South Esk river, at Arniston. He constructed an extension to the pits from the Edinburgh and Dalkeith Railway (E&DR) terminus at Dalhousie Mains at his own expense, a distance of . This required a bridge over the South Esk; the total length was .
The line was named "The Marquis of Lothian's Waggonway", and the first part opened on 21 January 1832, running east from the South Esk viaduct to reach pits at Bryans, immediately east of Newtongrange. This section is shown as "tramroad" on early maps.
Priestley refers to the raising an additional £7,815 for a short extension at Eskbank.
Later an extension forking southwards from the viaduct reached Lingerwood Colliery, and eventually reached as far south as Arniston Engine.Leslie James, A Chronology of the Construction of Britain's Railways, 1778 – 1855, Ian Allan Limited, Shepperton, 1983,
The pit at Lingerwood eventually became Lady Victoria Colliery and Newbattle Colliery, later with a considerable internal branch line between them and the main line. The pit at Arniston Engine was served by a tramway branch from Arniston, on the main line, which is located just short of Gorebridge station.Ordnance Survey, One-inch Survey, Sheet 32, "Edinburgh", published 1857; and 25-inch mapping: Edinburghshire, Sheet 014.07 etc, surveyed 1892
In compensation for the expense, the Marquis was allowed to use the North Esk viaduct on the for his coal free of charge.
Leith In March 1835, the opened a branch (authorised by the Edinburgh and Dalkeith Railway Act 1829) from Niddrie to a terminus at Constitution Street in Leith. It was single track throughout; the junction at Niddrie was facing for trains from Dalhousie.Only Awdry gives the month; Railscot says 1838 but this may be a transcription error. Carter gives the point of divergence as "Niddrie North Main Colliery", and he adds that the total length of the branches amounted to .
Dalkeith branch The made a branch from the south end of the North Esk viaduct curving round east and north-east into Dalkeith, opening in the autumn of 1838. "Date uncertain".
Duke of Buccleuch's railway The Duke of Buccleuch owned coal pits at Smeaton and Cowden, north-east of Dalkeith. Like the Marquis of Lothian, he extended the line at his own expense to reach his pits in 1839. His line diverged from the Dalkeith branch just before the terminus, and crossed a large viaduct, "Victoria Bridge", over the South Esk; the line then forked to the two groups of pits.
Route descriptions Priestley, writing in 1831, described it: