Waggly work well under way.
CityCyclingEdinburgh Forum » Infrastructure
Loanhead – Gilmerton cycle route Consultation
(167 posts)-
Posted 6 years ago #
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Ramp from Gilmerton Road now open, despite a sign at the top saying it'll open on Monday.
Posted 6 years ago # -
:) I'll have to try it out
Posted 6 years ago # -
Does anyone know if the path from the cul-de-sac at Kaimes View connects to the new ramp?
If so, there may be a problem with OSM:
Posted 6 years ago # -
It doesn't, but Midlothian Council plans to fix that soon (think I was told "in the next year" a few months ago, but could have that wrong).
Posted 6 years ago # -
Alternative options there are:
- Old Dalkeith Road (highly unlikely to have an problems on the pavement if you wanted)
- Newton Church Road. You can cut through at Newton Church to get to Shawfair Avenue without going on Millerhill Road, but there's a fairly narrow (~1m) gap in the wall, so some bikes will have problems. Pavement also an option outside of Danderhall.
- Go straight on at Newton Church Road and go through the Drum estate. The road isn't tarred the whole way, but is perfectly passable. Turn left at Gilmerton Road onto the shared use pavement then take the new ramp onto the cycle path.
Posted 6 years ago # -
Browsing around on the OS web site, I just noticed that the 1:50k map still shows the route from Loanhead to Millerhill as railway all the way, apart from a short gap around the back of the ERI. It does, however, show the Borders Rail track. I don't know whether all the track had been lifted from the remnants of the Edinburgh, Loanhead and Roslin Railway by the time Borders Rail went in (work started in earnest in 2013 and the line opened in September 2015) but I'm pretty sure that it didn't reach as far as Straiton Pond by then.
If you zoom in to the 1:25k map, even that still shows tracks as being in place between Gilmerton station and Shawfair Park. I guess that those were some of the last to be lifted (you could certainly still see the impressions of sleepers in the ballast when I rode along it about a year before it was turned in to tarmac).
Seems odd that at least the more up-to-date (but still not correct) detail on the 1:25k hasn't been transferred to the 1:50k.
Posted 5 years ago # -
New artworks at Gilmerton Station Road and Shawfair officially unveiled today: https://twitter.com/SustransScot/status/1146736754319339522
Posted 5 years ago # -
Last night I went with my roller blades and did the whole path from Roslin to Sheriffhall park and ride. What a revelation! It's hard to believe there's such a wide, smooth and streetlit path for such a distance.
It made me even more embarrassed for the (newer) "surfacing" on the Water of Leith up to Balerno - and of course no street lights there except where there are housing schemes. I bet there are ten or twenty commuters on the Loanhead path for each one on the Water of Leith.
Posted 3 years ago # -
"I bet there are ten or twenty commuters on the Loanhead path for each one on the Water of Leith."
I doubt that's true, sadly - possibly the opposite
Posted 3 years ago # -
Maybe, I guess it only really takes you to the park & ride. But I saw many more cyclists yesterday (7-8pm) than I'd ever see on the WoL.
Posted 3 years ago # -
Posted 3 years ago # -
@chdot; that's very close to my 26 minutes on the Elephant Bike.
I don't know whether all the track had been lifted from the remnants of the Edinburgh, Loanhead and Roslin Railway by the time Borders Rail went in (work started in earnest in 2013 and the line opened in September 2015) but I'm pretty sure that it didn't reach as far as Straiton Pond by then.
I remember walking from about the pond to a bit past the Lasswade Road bridge, back in about 2009. The surface was just ballast from the bypass underpass (where MLC's efforts famously ended) as far as Lasswade Road, and the rails were still in place beyond the bridge towards Gilmerton. I think there was a decrepit buffer stop somewhere about there. It was in late 2013 or early 2014, I can't remember, that the Lasswade Road bridge was removed for refurbishment and the bridge supports improved. The OS 1:2500 map seems to be up to date, though.
Posted 3 years ago # -
“that's very close to my 26 minutes on the Elephant Bike”
More coming back (says Google).
Posted 3 years ago # -
@Arellcat: I explored beyond the Lasswade Road bridge early in 2018. At that time it was just ballast from there as far as Gilmerton Road. It was hard going on my CX bike so I gave up at that point so I don't know if there were any rails left in situ between there and Shawfair, though I doubt it.
There is a fragment of the Edinburgh, Loanhead and Roslin Railway still remaining on the east side of the old line of Millerhill Road, which was re-aligned a few hundred metres to the west when the new Borders Rail went in. You can see it if you head left past the (now defunct?) Cockatoo in Millerhill, and keep a sharp eye out to your left. It's actually easy enough, if a bit steep, to clamber down the embankment where the overbridge has been filled in/removed altogether and get a closer look. There's a buffer stop and a set of points, and even a colour light signal - which was showing a red aspect when I was nosing around so it looks like the line may still be in occasional use (or else not yet worth the time, money and effort to decommission it*).
Bear in mind that crossing the fence to get a closer look would technically be trespassing on the railway and thus cause fire and brimstone to rain down upon you. So I definitely limited my investigation to peering over the fence through the gaps in the lineside vegetation, honest officer. (AFAICS there there is no video surveillance of that location, and certainly no sign of a robocop like on Whitehill Road.)
You can see a bit more of the line from the overbridge that takes Old Craighall Road over the line, where Millerhill station used to be. Again there are apparently live signals and pointwork to be seen. It looks like it might be used as an occasional headshunt or run-round for activities still going on in the remnants of the Millerhill depot (mostly servicing of the new Hitachi EMUs** on the Edinburgh-Glasgow line now I believe - I think the PW storage yard is no longer there but I may be mistaken).
There is an overbridge on The Kaims track, that runs from the new Millerhill Road roundabout to Dalkeith Road, that passes over the remnants of the trackbed to the west of Millerhill Road. There didn't seem to be much in the way of railway left down there when I last passed that way.
* AIUI unpicking the signalling interlocking - and proving the result - can be more time-consuming and expensive than lifting the physical track. There are instances where "live" signals have simply been left in situ when all the other railway infrastructure has been removed and the site redeveloped. I believe there is/was one example of a signal permanently at red tucked away in the back of a superstore car park somewhere.
** Which may or may not have experienced similar jacking point cracking issues to their more illustrious Class 800 cousins on the GWML and ECML.
Posted 3 years ago # -
More coming back (says Google).
Yes, from Shawfair end as far as Lasswade Road is just a slog that makes you wonder where all your energy has gone. I once did it on my Brompton, riding into a storm force headwind, and could barely turn the pedals.
Posted 3 years ago # -
If you think Brompton wheels are small, may I introduce you to the painful world of riding uphill into the wind on rollerblades? :P
Posted 3 years ago #
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