The Edinburgh and Northern Railway (E&NR) was a railway company authorised in 1845 to connect Edinburgh to both Perth and Dundee. It relied on ferry crossings of the Firth of Forth and the Firth of Tay, but despite those disadvantages it proved extremely successful. It took over a short railway on the southern shore of the Forth giving a direct connection to Edinburgh, and it changed its name to the .
It operated passenger and goods ferryboats over the two firths directly, but seeking to overcome the cost of manhandling goods and minerals at the quays, it introduced a revolutionary system in which railway goods wagons were transferred on to rails on the steamers by means of movable ramps. The wagons moved on their own wheels and this system formed the world's first roll-on roll-off railway ferry service, in use from 1850.
The Edinburgh, Perth and Dundee Railway was taken over by the North British Railway in 1862. The ferry system was a success, but competing land routes had a considerable advantage, and the North British Railway determined to bridge the Forth and the Tay, as part of a strategy to create an efficient and modern route from Edinburgh to Aberdeen. This was achieved in 1890.
Much of the network remains in use, although the northern extremity from Leuchars to the Tayport ferry terminal has closed, and some sections of the Dunfermline branch have closed.
History
Before railways The natural barrier of the Firth of Forth had for centuries impeded transport between Edinburgh and Fife, and points north. The Firth of Tay presented another barrier further north, and the most expeditious route from Edinburgh to Dundee and beyond was a coastal steamer from Leith. Intermediate locations were served by ferry crossing the Forth, but the harbours available were primitive and the crossings in many cases were hazardous. A number of different harbour locations were tried, but no obviously dominant route developed before the railway age.
A railway from Edinburgh to the Forth
The first definite move to form a railway connection was the Edinburgh and Newhaven Railway, which obtained an act of Parliament, the Edinburgh, Leith and Granton Railway Act 1836 (6 & 7 Will. 4. c. cxxxi), on 13 August 1836. The engineering design for the line was by Thomas Grainger and John Miller, who had made their name on the Monkland and Kirkintilloch Railway in 1823, and a number of other Scottish lines subsequently. However the costs of building the line were beyond the resources of the company, and nothing was done for some time.
After a change of northern terminal location, the Edinburgh, Leith and Newhaven Railway opened in 1842 as far as Trinity, a little to the west of Newhaven. However this intended harbour was not developed, and a further change of terminal, to Granton, was adopted. The line opened to there from Canal Street, in the complex that later became Waverley station, in 1846. The primary purpose of the line was the conveyance of passengers and goods to harbours on the Firth of Forth, from where ferries provided onward transport to locations in Fife and further afield, including northern parts of Scotland and the east coast of England.
The Duke of Buccleuch developed Granton Harbour and arranged for efficient ferries to be operated from there to Fife; the principal ferry harbour was Burntisland.Peter Marshall, Burntisland: Fife's Railway Port, the Oakwood Press, Usk, 2001, John Thomas and David Turnock, A Regional History of the Railways of Great Britain: Volume 15, North of Scotland, David and Charles, Newton Abbot, 1989,
A railway across Fife
As early as 1819 a railway had been proposed, starting from Burntisland to the Firth of Tay. The engineer Robert Stevenson designed a line, but nothing further was done. Further proposed schemes followed in 1835 and 1836. In October 1840 a definite decision was taken to adopt one of these schemes, but now the money market was difficult and it was decided to delay until conditions improved. Two competing schemes were put forward in the intervening period, but they came to nothing. So it was that early in 1844 a prospectus was issued for the Edinburgh, Dundee and Northern Railway, with capital of £800,000. this was to be the scheme designed by Thomas Grainger and his partner John Miller. On 1 March 1844 the title of the proposed company was shortened to the Edinburgh and Northern Railway. It was to run from Burntisland through Kirkcaldy and Markinch to Ladybank and Newburgh, on the southern shore of the Tay. At Newburgh the line was to cross the Tay and make a junction with the proposed Dundee and Perth Railway, over which trains would get access to Perth along the north shore of the Tay.Marshall, page 19
Although there was enthusiasm for such a line, only about half the subscription required to present a bill in Parliament was forthcoming, and the chairman of the provisional committee proposed that a more modest scheme be drafted, and the intended presentation in the 1844 session of Parliament had to be deferred.William Scott Bruce, The Railways of Fife, Methven Press, Perth, 1980
The revised scheme was for a railway from Burntisland to Kingskettle and then through Newburgh to Perth, crossing the Tay a little above Newburgh and joining the (proposed) Dundee and Perth Railway; and a short branch to Kirkcaldy Harbour, and a longer one to Cupar. The line was to be single, and the Tay crossing was to make use of Mugdrum Island, which separates the Tay into two channels; the southern channel would be crossed by a swing bridge or a floating bridge, and the northern channel by a causeway. The Dundee and Perth Railway would pay half the cost of the Tay crossing. The line from the convergence with the Dundee and Perth line into Perth itself would be operated as two single lines, one for each company; the entire system would be a single line. The estimated cost of the revised scheme was £500,000.
Interested people in Cupar were dissatisfied that their town was to be served by a terminus reached from the south alone, and proposed a Cupar, Ferry-Port-on-Craig and Dundee Railway to reinstate the earlier proposal, and the Edinburgh and Northern agreed to treat their line in amicable terms.
A proposed Edinburgh and Perth Railway (E&PR) was competing with the supporters for parliamentary authorisation; they put forward a route via a ferry at Queensferry, with a long branch through Dunfermline and Lochgelly to Kirkcaldy; the branch had the potential to wipe out the lucrative mineral traffic that the hoped to secure.
In the 1845 parliamentary session, the had to defend hastily prepared modifications to its earlier plans, and opposition from the Edinburgh and Perth promoters was fierce. Radical mutual compromises were made with the Edinburgh and Perth Railway promoters, and had both schemes passed the remaining scheme would have been mortally wounded.
There was far worse: now the Admiralty stepped in, together with the magistrates of Perth, objecting to the bridge at Mugdrum, on the grounds of interference with navigation, and it appeared that this opposition could not be overcome: the whole of the Perth line was under threat. The promoters saw that a Strathearn Junction Railway had been authorised, to build a short connecting line between the proposed at Newburgh and the proposed Scottish Central Railway line at Hilton Junction. At the last minute the bought out the Strathearn Junction line and altered their own proposals to reach Perth over its route. Now they did not need to cross the Tay to reach Perth.
Now at the last moment it emerged that the deposited plans did not comply with standing orders, and the scheme was summarily thrown out. A stopgap proposal for an Dunfermline branch had been inserted, and suddenly the bill including this branch, were authorised. The line was now to be double-track at the instigation of Parliament, heavily increasing costs; and the access to Perth would be over the (proposed) Scottish Central Railway line from Hilton Junction through Moncrieffe Tunnel. Although this involved dependency on another company, and some concomitant compromises, this avoided the crossing of the Tay.
The Edinburgh and Northern Railway authorised
The bill for the Edinburgh and Northern Railway was passed as the (8 & 9 Vict. c. clviii) on 11 June 1845, and the company was incorporated on 31 July 1845. The authorised extent was from Burntisland to Perth, with a branch to Cupar, and a short Kirkcaldy harbour branch. The line was required to be double track throughout, a financial burden the young company had hoped to avoid.
Tenders for the construction were soon invited, and negotiations with the Duke of Buccleuch resulted in the company adopting the Granton ferries and associated terminals. A short connection to the small harbour at Pettycur was included in the first contract: the (9 & 10 Vict. c. lxxix) was obtained retrospectively. Pettycur was a few miles east of Burntisland in the natural shelter of a promontory, and some of the construction materials were landed there. Sixteen locomotives, shortly increased to 26, were ordered from R and W Hawthorn, and rolling stock was also ordered. In addition passenger and cargo ferryboats were ordered.
The Edinburgh, Leith and Granton Railway
The Edinburgh and Northern Railway was authorised to build its lines in Fife, on the northern side of the Firth of Forth; yet to reach Edinburgh its passengers and goods would have to get from one of the harbours on the south side into the city. In 1836 the Edinburgh, Leith and Newhaven Railway had been authorised to build a line from Princes Street in Edinburgh to the Forth. After some false starts it opened a line from Trinity, close to Newhaven, to Scotland Street, some distance north of Princes Street, in 1842. In 1844 it obtained an act of Parliament, the Edinburgh, Leith and Granton Railway Act 1844 (7 & 8 Vict. c. lxxxi) giving authorisation to extend to Granton Harbour, now seen as a more promising ferry terminal for crossing the Forth, and the Edinburgh, Leith and Newhaven Railway changed its name to the Edinburgh, Leith and Granton Railway (EL&GR).John Thomas revised J S Paterson, A Regional History of the Railways of Great Britain: Volume 6, Scotland, the Lowlands and the Borders, David and Charles, Newton Abbot, 1984,
The company was always short of money, and it sought a larger business to which it might sell its concern. The Edinburgh and Northern Railway was the obvious partner, and the absorbed the by the Edinburgh and Northern Railway Company and Edinburgh, Leith and Granton Railway Company Amalgamation Act 1847 (10 & 11 Vict. c. ccxxxix) of 22 July 1847, taking effect on 7 August 1847.Awdry says the bought the on 27 July 1847. The had not yet opened any of its lines.Christopher Awdry, Encyclopaedia of British Railway Companies, Patrick Stephens Limited, Wellingborough, 1990,
Opening of the line: in stages In the slump that followed the frenzy of railway promotion of 1845, money became difficult to obtain, and contract prices rose considerably. However the work progressed well in the circumstances, and the Board of Trade inspection for passenger operation of the section from Burntisland to Cupar, and to Lindores on the Perth line, took place on 3 September 1847. The inspecting officer expressed himself well satisfied with the construction, and a ceremonial opening of the line took place on 17 September, with the public service commencing on 20 September. There were four passenger trains each way daily on the Cupar line, with a coach service from Cupar to the ferry for Dundee. Two trains ran to Lindores daily, and the trains from Burntisland connected with ferryboats running in connection with the trains from Canal Street, Edinburgh. The trains were over-subscribed and the service was soon augmented.David Ross, The North British Railway: A History, Stenlake Publishing Limited, Catrine, 2014,