http://citycyclingedinburgh.info/bbpress/ CityCyclingEdinburgh Forum » Topic: NEPN - some history en Sun, 17 May 2026 21:51:06 +0000 http://citycyclingedinburgh.info/bbpress/topic.php?id=15191&page=2#post-360983 Mon, 30 May 2022 15:45:05 +0000 chdot 360983@http://citycyclingedinburgh.info/bbpress/ <p>Towards the end of this section being used as a railway - maybe a weekly tanker train to Granton - maintenance was minimal/non-existent. </p> <p>A train split the track and derailed between the tunnel and Powderhall. </p> http://citycyclingedinburgh.info/bbpress/topic.php?id=15191&page=2#post-360981 Mon, 30 May 2022 13:54:05 +0000 jonty 360981@http://citycyclingedinburgh.info/bbpress/ <p>To reply to a 5 year old post, Klaxon and kaputnik...</p> <p>&gt; 1967 picture is a peculiar junction by modern standards</p> <p>It could be a singling done on the cheap but you also have to remember that facing points (ie points which diverge in the normal direction of travel of trains) were (and still are, to some degree) considered a necessary evil on the mainline railway. Some companies were more fanatical about this than other leading to some rather odd layouts. This would seem like a fairly simple way of at least pushing the facing points off to a 'siding' rather than forcing them to be on the mainline. </p> http://citycyclingedinburgh.info/bbpress/topic.php?id=15191&page=2#post-360980 Mon, 30 May 2022 13:30:40 +0000 chdot 360980@http://citycyclingedinburgh.info/bbpress/ <p>Just revising this thread as I am using a fair bit of the NEPN fairly often these days. </p> <p>Mostly Haymarket to Trinity also up to St. M &amp; K G Parks. </p> <p>Vegetation encroaching at ground, shoulder and head height, reducing effective width a safety/sight lines. P</p> <p>This is not new, but very noticeable at this stage of a new growing season. </p> <p>Also various places where the surface is beginning to show its age. </p> <p>When the main part of the NEPN was constructed it was decided by (then) LRC to construct it to ’road standards’ ie with good foundations under the tarmac. </p> <p>That decision was down to Phil Noble who continues to do valuable/important work at CEC.</p> <p>A long time ago, Sustrans did a report with recommendations for ‘vegetation management’s. This recommended significant cutting back/tree felling.<br /> This was not universally welcomed, but the current lack of maintenance is presumably not due to ‘prioritising<br /> wildlife’ but lack of resources/money. Also (probably) because no one is really responsible - at least in Transport/Active Travel sense.</p> <p><img src="https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/52105347036_b013e78d91_z.jpg"></p> <p><img src="https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/52104325817_934b9f8613_z.jpg"></p> <p><img src="https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/52105350146_6d3caf9346_z.jpg"></p> <p>No doubt the uncertainty over the possibility of the tram using the Roseburn Corridor is part of the problem. </p> <p>But… </p> http://citycyclingedinburgh.info/bbpress/topic.php?id=15191&page=2#post-235202 Tue, 01 Nov 2016 14:28:39 +0000 kaputnik 235202@http://citycyclingedinburgh.info/bbpress/ <p>@Klaxon I think it would have been the "singling on the cheap" option. The straight-ahead line there leads only to the short dead-end stub to Scotland Street goods &amp; mineral yard and Heriothill mineral yard, traffic would have been very light on this line for a long time by 1967 restricted to domestic coal deliveries mainly. The junction was originally singled between the 1876 and 1893 OS Town Plan surveys (see <a href="http://maps.nls.uk/geo/explore/#zoom=18&amp;lat=55.9741&amp;lon=-3.2023&amp;layers=73&amp;b=1)" rel="nofollow">http://maps.nls.uk/geo/explore/#zoom=18&amp;lat=55.9741&amp;lon=-3.2023&amp;layers=73&amp;b=1)</a> probably not long after the Abbeyhill Diversion loop was built as the main access to Granton. The running line to Scotland Street was still doubled in 1893, but the junction singled as per your diagram above, as was the next junction south at Warriston. I suspect it was left double track to act as a passing / holding loop for traffic waiting for access to Granton docks.</p> <p>The primary route in the 1967 photo is that curving off left towards Powderhall / Leith Walk / Lochend and would still have been quite busy at this time. </p> http://citycyclingedinburgh.info/bbpress/topic.php?id=15191&page=2#post-235194 Tue, 01 Nov 2016 14:12:12 +0000 Klaxon 235194@http://citycyclingedinburgh.info/bbpress/ <p>1967 picture is a peculiar junction by modern standards. Having the down line merge into the single line over a double junction doesn't convey any benefit compared to a crossover to the up and a single turnout.</p> <p>I would suspect it was left this way after a singling job on the cheap.</p> <p>As shown, assumed line direction (London up): </p> <p><code>.....| single<br /> .....|<br /> ..../|<br /> d../ |<br /> .\ | |<br /> u \| |<br /> .\ |\|<br /> ..\| |<br /> ...| |<br /> up down<br /> </code></p> <p>Modern arrangement (best guess):</p> <p><code>d<br /> .\...| single<br /> u \..|<br /> .\ \.|<br /> ..\ \|<br /> ...| |<br /> ...|/|<br /> ...| |<br /> up down</code></p> <p>The latter arrangement can be seen (in reverse) at Ladybank in Fife.</p> <p>edit: I drew these nice diagrams but chdot's code tag doesn't respect multiple whitespaces so i needed to add all those ugly dots </p> http://citycyclingedinburgh.info/bbpress/topic.php?id=15191&page=2#post-235176 Tue, 01 Nov 2016 12:13:29 +0000 kaputnik 235176@http://citycyclingedinburgh.info/bbpress/ <p>@ih yes the caption is wrong, it's looking south with the tunnel to the north behind the photographer. </p> http://citycyclingedinburgh.info/bbpress/topic.php?id=15191&page=2#post-235174 Tue, 01 Nov 2016 12:09:14 +0000 ih 235174@http://citycyclingedinburgh.info/bbpress/ <p>@Kaputnik that's a great picture from 1967, but just as a question of orientation, shouldn't the label say "looking South"? </p> http://citycyclingedinburgh.info/bbpress/topic.php?id=15191&page=2#post-235167 Tue, 01 Nov 2016 11:59:34 +0000 kaputnik 235167@http://citycyclingedinburgh.info/bbpress/ <p><a href="https://flic.kr/p/rGDmek"><img src="https://c6.staticflickr.com/8/7698/16868866237_d34f56bb3e.jpg"></a><a href="https://flic.kr/p/rGDmek">Trinity Junction looking North, September, 1967. (Collection of W D Yuill)</a> by <a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/127340508@N05/">Kenneth G Williamson</a>, on Flickr</p> <p>the base of the signal box was there until fairly recently.</p> <p><a href="https://flic.kr/p/n6eaE1"><img src="https://c1.staticflickr.com/8/7452/13842643544_237966ed95.jpg"></a><a href="https://flic.kr/p/n6eaE1">175 Bangholm Apr 72</a> by <a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/117983829@N03/">Alan Rintoul</a>, on Flickr</p> <p>This photos is taken from the bridge over the Chancelot Path that gives access to the Bangholm Recreation Ground (fields on the right), looking north towards fiveways, the Pilton - Leith route runs left-right across the photo in the middle distance where the line of houses is. </p> http://citycyclingedinburgh.info/bbpress/topic.php?id=15191&page=2#post-235165 Tue, 01 Nov 2016 11:50:50 +0000 chdot 235165@http://citycyclingedinburgh.info/bbpress/ <p>Good find.</p> <p>Can't remember when that bridge was removed.</p> <p>(Exactly the site that is now Five Ways.) </p> http://citycyclingedinburgh.info/bbpress/topic.php?id=15191&page=2#post-235161 Tue, 01 Nov 2016 11:45:30 +0000 kaputnik 235161@http://citycyclingedinburgh.info/bbpress/ <p><a href="https://flic.kr/p/n6cqRi"><img src="https://c4.staticflickr.com/3/2828/13842304435_a392bc84ba.jpg"></a><a href="https://flic.kr/p/n6cqRi">26032 Trinity Jct A_NEW</a> by <a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/117983829@N03/">Alan Rintoul</a>, on Flickr</p> <p>To help orientate, the train is just coming out of the Trinity Tunnel. The E-W route from Pilton to Leith ran over this route at the bridge level, now lowered down to form 5-ways. Fork to the left is the Chancelot Path, fork to the right the Warriston / Goldenacre Path. </p> <p><a href="https://flic.kr/p/naHqPR"><img src="https://c8.staticflickr.com/3/2860/13893423695_fd01793db7.jpg"></a><a href="https://flic.kr/p/naHqPR">Trinity Junction</a> by <a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/117983829@N03/">Alan Rintoul</a>, on Flickr</p> <p><a href="https://flic.kr/p/ntF6VJ"><img src="https://c1.staticflickr.com/3/2911/14096666824_644f862663.jpg"></a><a href="https://flic.kr/p/ntF6VJ">Cl. 26 Powderhall Sept 80-p18n151anqpqr152fdu0128pe35</a> by <a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/117983829@N03/">Alan Rintoul</a>, on Flickr </p> http://citycyclingedinburgh.info/bbpress/topic.php?id=15191&page=2#post-234963 Sat, 29 Oct 2016 16:28:44 +0000 chdot 234963@http://citycyclingedinburgh.info/bbpress/ <p>Not the NEPN though!</p> <p>Needs a connection...</p> <p>Anyone got 'previously' pix of Five Ways?</p> <p>(Some here - <a href="https://www.railscot.co.uk/locationnew.php?loc=Trinity%20Junction)" rel="nofollow">https://www.railscot.co.uk/locationnew.php?loc=Trinity%20Junction)</a> </p> http://citycyclingedinburgh.info/bbpress/topic.php?id=15191&page=2#post-234962 Sat, 29 Oct 2016 16:22:10 +0000 Arellcat 234962@http://citycyclingedinburgh.info/bbpress/ <p>Good find, K. Michael Laing had a better camera than me, five years before I photo'd almost the same view:</p> <p><a href="https://flic.kr/p/616d4L"><img src="https://c3.staticflickr.com/4/3164/3282799986_d2a9b83275.jpg"></a><br /> <a href="https://flic.kr/p/616d4L">Mind your head</a></p> <p>and then 2009:</p> <p><a href="https://flic.kr/p/6aTc1m"><img src="https://c1.staticflickr.com/4/3476/3393620040_6d810089be.jpg"></a><br /> <a href="https://flic.kr/p/6aTc1m">Development</a> </p> http://citycyclingedinburgh.info/bbpress/topic.php?id=15191&page=2#post-234957 Sat, 29 Oct 2016 15:12:30 +0000 crowriver 234957@http://citycyclingedinburgh.info/bbpress/ <p>Lochend viaduct coming from the 'butterfly'? Taken presumably from the Restalrig path? </p> http://citycyclingedinburgh.info/bbpress/topic.php?id=15191#post-234953 Sat, 29 Oct 2016 12:46:27 +0000 kaputnik 234953@http://citycyclingedinburgh.info/bbpress/ <p>I know there's another "auld photies" thread of the cycle paths before they were cycle paths somewhere on here, but I can't la my hand to it right now. Anyway, I came across a few shots I wanted to share from Flickr.</p> <p>A railtour on the Innocent just before closure; <a href="https://flic.kr/p/NgsXU1" rel="nofollow">https://flic.kr/p/NgsXU1</a> <a href="https://flic.kr/p/Nc3Mmz" rel="nofollow">https://flic.kr/p/Nc3Mmz</a> and <a href="https://flic.kr/p/N9mhZC" rel="nofollow">https://flic.kr/p/N9mhZC</a></p> <p>And here's a changed scene!</p> <p><a href="https://flic.kr/p/N3KGsj"><img src="https://c7.staticflickr.com/6/5571/30223570222_01bc06c6c3.jpg"></a><a href="https://flic.kr/p/N3KGsj">1999-13-17</a> by <a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/punkrocksuperstar63/">Michael Laing</a>, on Flickr</p> <p>(clue, the bridge is now filled in and there's a slalom ramp up an embankment to road level)</p> <p>It's worth noting that the trackbed in the above photo was about 30 feet lower than the ground level in the photo, and the railway had to pass under the road and another railway crossing perpendicular over it. </p> http://citycyclingedinburgh.info/bbpress/topic.php?id=15191#post-231936 Mon, 26 Sep 2016 09:24:34 +0000 neddie 231936@http://citycyclingedinburgh.info/bbpress/ <p>Thanks Arellcat. That's cheered me up no end on a gloomy Monday morning :) </p> http://citycyclingedinburgh.info/bbpress/topic.php?id=15191#post-231922 Sun, 25 Sep 2016 23:24:55 +0000 Cyclingmollie 231922@http://citycyclingedinburgh.info/bbpress/ <p>That is excellent. </p> http://citycyclingedinburgh.info/bbpress/topic.php?id=15191#post-231911 Sun, 25 Sep 2016 21:00:06 +0000 kaputnik 231911@http://citycyclingedinburgh.info/bbpress/ <p>Really well done Arellcat. I'm absolutely inspired to try this out for myself with some other photos. Pinkhill here we come! </p> http://citycyclingedinburgh.info/bbpress/topic.php?id=15191#post-231899 Sun, 25 Sep 2016 18:30:36 +0000 Arellcat 231899@http://citycyclingedinburgh.info/bbpress/ <p>Wester Drylaw was laid out in the late 1950s. The flats faintly visible on the right-hand edge of the photo K linked to are actually just off Ferry Road, near Silverknowes Neuk.</p> <p>I thought it would be fun to try to recreate the view:</p> <p><a href="https://flic.kr/p/MsLqxp"><img src="https://c6.staticflickr.com/9/8355/29838950941_70e8eae12a.jpg"></a><a href="https://flic.kr/p/MsLqxp">Steaming down the cycle path</a> </p> http://citycyclingedinburgh.info/bbpress/topic.php?id=15191#post-231852 Sun, 25 Sep 2016 07:39:20 +0000 gembo 231852@http://citycyclingedinburgh.info/bbpress/ <p>Wonder when the houses we t in? Crammond still a weekend resort for mr lowther at the time this photo take? </p> http://citycyclingedinburgh.info/bbpress/topic.php?id=15191#post-231851 Sun, 25 Sep 2016 00:17:23 +0000 kaputnik 231851@http://citycyclingedinburgh.info/bbpress/ <p><a href="https://flic.kr/p/Lz7PJj"><img src="https://farm9.staticflickr.com/8532/29254473394_cfe9f30f0a.jpg"></a><a href="https://flic.kr/p/Lz7PJj">Site of House o' Hill (Halt). BR loco No. 57654 on a coal train from Davidson's Mains, date unknown. ( W S Sellar).</a> by <a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/127340508@N05/">Kenneth G Williamson</a>, on Flickr</p> <p>This is now the Silverknowes / D-Mains branch of the NEPN, this is the bridge carrying House O Hill Road over the trackbed, now a footpath only. It is the last bridge you pass under heading out of town before the path turns off to the right at Silverknowes Road East.</p> <p>Photo taken pre-1960 when the branch closed (it had been open as far as Davidsons Mains only for freight since 1951) </p> http://citycyclingedinburgh.info/bbpress/topic.php?id=15191#post-230789 Thu, 15 Sep 2016 00:03:47 +0000 kaputnik 230789@http://citycyclingedinburgh.info/bbpress/ <p>I thought they were due to go back in about 2 years time? </p> http://citycyclingedinburgh.info/bbpress/topic.php?id=15191#post-230786 Wed, 14 Sep 2016 23:21:44 +0000 crowriver 230786@http://citycyclingedinburgh.info/bbpress/ <p>Now that IS a long story.</p> <p>I do recall them with fondness, though I suspect they will never be reinstated due to presenting a trip hazard for the visually impaired, or some such. That's not why they were removed though... </p> http://citycyclingedinburgh.info/bbpress/topic.php?id=15191#post-230785 Wed, 14 Sep 2016 22:46:08 +0000 ih 230785@http://citycyclingedinburgh.info/bbpress/ <p>We have quite a bit to thank Mr Temple for; the cycle/path network and other walkways, but... what happened to the pigeons at the top of Leith Walk? </p> http://citycyclingedinburgh.info/bbpress/topic.php?id=15191#post-230778 Wed, 14 Sep 2016 22:10:11 +0000 chdot 230778@http://citycyclingedinburgh.info/bbpress/ <p>"</p> <p>Temple qualified as a landscape architect in the 1980s and set about creating the cycleways of Edinburgh on the disused railway network, which have transformed the way people move around the city. </p> <p>He said: "The radical thing that's happened in Edinburgh as far as I am concerned is the development of the long distance paths and the path systems across the city.</p> <p>"</p> <p><a href="http://www.scotsman.com/lifestyle/ian-helped-shape-city-as-we-know-it-1-1252962" rel="nofollow">http://www.scotsman.com/lifestyle/ian-helped-shape-city-as-we-know-it-1-1252962</a> </p> http://citycyclingedinburgh.info/bbpress/topic.php?id=15191#post-194418 Fri, 31 Jul 2015 11:41:43 +0000 Cyclingmollie 194418@http://citycyclingedinburgh.info/bbpress/ <p>That perhaps explains why Whitecraigs people seem so grumpy. </p> http://citycyclingedinburgh.info/bbpress/topic.php?id=15191#post-194342 Thu, 30 Jul 2015 12:48:53 +0000 kaputnik 194342@http://citycyclingedinburgh.info/bbpress/ <p>The traveller campsite is where the colliery offices, baths and canteen were. The little roundabout was a sort of ornamental turning circle out the front.</p> <p>One of the most interesting and unusual features of the colliery was an aerial ropeway (like the one at the end of Get Carter) that carried the waste from the washery across the fields to the site of the first colliery at Smeaton Shaw. This is where the bing is. The bing from the more modern colliery buried the old Smeaton Shaw pit village underneath it, which had been long ago condemned as unfit for habitation. The tenants were unceremoniously turfed out, their belongings confiscated for fumigation, their persons deloused and then rehoused in Whitecraigs. </p> <p>You can see the old pit village on this map;<br /> <a href="http://maps.nls.uk/view/82878051" rel="nofollow">http://maps.nls.uk/view/82878051</a></p> <p>When they were landscaping the bing into a bund for the recycling plant that now sits within it, I found the uncovered base of one of the ropeway pylons;<br /> <a href="https://flic.kr/p/9gcevw"><img src="https://farm6.staticflickr.com/5255/5422793260_7d78c3f09d.jpg"></a><a href="https://flic.kr/p/9gcevw">Ropeway Relic</a> by <a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/kaputniq/">andy a</a>, on Flickr </p> http://citycyclingedinburgh.info/bbpress/topic.php?id=15191#post-194339 Thu, 30 Jul 2015 12:34:49 +0000 Cyclingmollie 194339@http://citycyclingedinburgh.info/bbpress/ <p>That explains all the post-industrial mess alongside the path towards Dalkeith. It's a shame the bridge wasn't kept as it would have been a pleasant ride over the fields to the top of the North Esk path and then down into Musselburgh. As it is you have to ride through Whitecraig and down Cowpits Road to make that connection. </p> http://citycyclingedinburgh.info/bbpress/topic.php?id=15191#post-194336 Thu, 30 Jul 2015 12:28:27 +0000 kaputnik 194336@http://citycyclingedinburgh.info/bbpress/ <p>The route latterly served the Dalkeith colliery and preparation plant near Smeaton Junction (not therefore in Dalkeith), which closed in 1978. At Smeaton Junction, the line originally forked, with a through route to Dalkeith at Hardengreen, but that was cut back quite early to the eastern outskirts of Dalkeith. There are some good pictures of the junction in operation at Railscot; <a href="https://www.railscot.co.uk/locationnew.php?photographer=&amp;loc=Macmerry%20Branch%20%28North%20British%20Railway%29&amp;offset=1" rel="nofollow">https://www.railscot.co.uk/locationnew.php?photographer=&amp;loc=Macmerry%20Branch%20%28North%20British%20Railway%29&amp;offset=1</a>.</p> <p>The other tail of the fork was the Ormiston and Macmerry branch, as the name suggests this ran to Ormiston (you can cycle it this far) and then onto the terminus at Macmerry. Coal and to a lesser extent agricultural produce was the main purpose of the line. </p> http://citycyclingedinburgh.info/bbpress/topic.php?id=15191#post-194326 Thu, 30 Jul 2015 12:00:55 +0000 Cyclingmollie 194326@http://citycyclingedinburgh.info/bbpress/ <p>This is where the bridge was. It crossed between the two clumps of trees. The NCN path is joined on the left up a short steep path to the old railway which runs through to Dalkeith. </p> <p><a href="https://flic.kr/p/woWycL"><img src="https://farm1.staticflickr.com/278/19950310330_d7b9324983.jpg"></a><a href="https://flic.kr/p/woWycL">Whitecraig from the east</a> by <a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/44681630@N02/">Tom Orr</a>, on Flickr </p> http://citycyclingedinburgh.info/bbpress/topic.php?id=15191#post-194270 Wed, 29 Jul 2015 17:43:58 +0000 Arellcat 194270@http://citycyclingedinburgh.info/bbpress/ <p><em>(GS in middle of photo)</em></p> <p>Whose is the Mk1/2 Moulton hiding in the background? </p>