A Tour round the Craigentinny Rail Depot « CityCyclingEdinburgh Forum

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A Tour round the Craigentinny Rail Depot

(6 posts)

Started 10 years ago by Wilmington's Cow
Latest reply from Morningsider

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Wilmington's Cow
Member

Well that was interesting. As part of my role on the Friends of Figgate Park committee I met with a chap from the Craigentinny depot with another committee member today to discuss a few ways in which they can help out at the park (given they border it). One cool thing is a little engineering project for us, making a bird table or two out of old axles and wheels.

Then we were given a two hour tour, which I thought might interest a few people on here. Got a whole load of history of the place (given it had its 100th birthday last year). It's also humungous, we got taken through various 'sheds' for maintenance and rebuilds and chatted to loads of the workers. Really good stuff.

Craigentinny Depot by blackpuddinonnabike, on Flickr

Craigentinny Depot by blackpuddinonnabike, on Flickr

Craigentinny Depot by blackpuddinonnabike, on Flickr

Craigentinny Depot by blackpuddinonnabike, on Flickr

Craigentinny Depot by blackpuddinonnabike, on Flickr

Craigentinny Depot by blackpuddinonnabike, on Flickr

Craigentinny Depot by blackpuddinonnabike, on Flickr

Craigentinny Depot by blackpuddinonnabike, on Flickr

Craigentinny Depot by blackpuddinonnabike, on Flickr

Posted 10 years ago #
Mandopicker101
Member

Wow thanks for sharing the pics. I've always wanted to see what's there when I go through on the train. A century old - the yard hides its age very well!

Was it established by the North British Railway Co (or does the yard predate even the NBR)? Who owns/operates it now?

Posted 10 years ago #
kaputnik
Moderator

@Mandopicker yes it was a NB carriage sidings originally.

Posted 10 years ago #
Wilmington's Cow
Member

Well.... There are the remains of an embankment at the east end of the Figgate that are apparently an offshoot of the Innocent, built by the Duke of Buccleuch , and that passed through the same site, when apparently some sheds were in place. Real bit of Scottish industrial heritage it appears.

East Coat have just been bought by Virgin, so things are changing, but Hitachi (bizarrely) will be running the show from 2018 (I think that was the date). I hadn't realised that they serviced trains for other companies as well - second most profitable bit of the East Coast business after ticket sales, remarkably!

Posted 10 years ago #
kaputnik
Moderator

There was a fairly short-lived loop from the Edinburgh and Dalkeith Railway (a.k.a. "The Innocent") to the North British Mainline (a.k.a. The East Coast Mainline), and

It left the Innocent nearby ASDA and ran under the housing estate there, then parallel to and on the west side of Duddingston Road and Balleyfield Road. It turned westwards to join the NB line at what is now the Figgate Park, crossing the burn on a wooden trestle viaduct. A further branch ran on to Seafield and Leith docks and was later incorporated into the North British network. The purpose of the branch was to give the coals of Midlothian access to Leith docks for export.

The Edinburgh & Dalkeith Railway was funded mainly by the landed gentry of Midlothian whose main interests at the time were the coals lying under their estates. They had the Edinburgh house coal market nicely sewn up and made a great profit from it, even though its carriage by horse and cart was slow and expensive. An early waggonway, from Edmonstone to Little France still had the problem of getting the coal from there into town. The coming of the Union Canal and railways from West Lothian and Lanarkshire and even coastal sea trade coming up from Northumbria whose mines were larger and more technically advanced than Scottish mines greatly vexed the Midlothian coal families, as this broke their monopoly and promised cheaper coal (even though it had to come far). So they reluctantly agreed to fund their own coal railway into Edinburgh, which terminated at St. Leonards (there was never any reason to take it more central for passenger purposes). The Duke of Buccleuch was one of these landowners and investors (the Dundasses of Arniston were another). When the North British bought over the Edinburgh & Dalkeith, they had to regauge it to standard gauge and convert it from wooden rails and horse power to iron rails and steam. They obviously had no need for the chord that ran from The Jewel and across the Figgate Park as their own lines gave the required access and so got rid of it.

Posted 10 years ago #
Morningsider
Member

WC - Nice photos. Bit more details on the other stuff:

East Coast Mainline, a subsidiary of Directly Operated Railways, owned by the UK Department for Transport has run the East Coast service since 2009 - very successfully. In their wisdom, the UK Government decided to re-privatise it. The bid was won by Virgin East Coast - which is really Stagecoach, which owns 90% of the company. The hand over is on 1 March 2015.

Separately, the UK Government procured new trains (variously known as Intercity Expresses, Super Expresses and Class 800/801) through a hugely lengthy, complex and expensive PFI type programme. These trains will enter service on the Great Western line in 2017 and East Coast in 2018. They are being "built" in Newton Aycliffe by Hitachi (except the first 12 sets which are being built in Japan), who will also service them at depots, including Craigentinny.

Posted 10 years ago #