Easter Road Deviation (North British Railway)

Introduction

This deviation was built to replace the rope-operated incline between Canal Street and Scotland Street. A portion of this connecting line remains from Piershill Junction to Powderhall. A disused section of track also remains between Piershill Junction and Abbeyhill Junction.




Dates

01/10/1886Easter Road Deviation (North British Railway)
London Road Junction [Edinburgh] to Lochend Junction opened to passengers and freight. This line effectively quadrupled the main line of the North British Railway from Abbeyhill Junction to Piershill Junction and provided a useful diversionary route.
22/04/1895Easter Road Deviation (North British Railway)
Powderhall passenger station opened.
01/01/1917Easter Road Deviation (North British Railway)
Powderhall, Leith Walk closed (Wartime measures in the Great War).
02/11/1925Edinburgh, Leith and Granton Railway
Easter Road Deviation (North British Railway)
Edinburgh Waverley to Granton passenger service withdrawn. Trinity [2nd] and Granton closed.
17/07/1967Easter Road Deviation (North British Railway)
Edinburgh, Leith and Granton Railway
Trinity Junction signal box closed.
25/02/1969Easter Road Deviation (North British Railway)
Edinburgh, Leith and Granton Railway
Easter Road Junction to Granton begins to be worked as a single line on closure of signal boxes. Trinity Junction box closed 17/07/1968 and Bonnington South Junction box on 25/02/1969.
  /  /1977Easter Road Deviation (North British Railway)
Easter Road Junction signal box was burns down and is replaced with a temporary box until Edinburgh Signalling Centre was able to take control later in the year.
20/03/1988Easter Road Deviation (North British Railway)
Loop from Abbeyhill Junction to Lochend South Junction to Piershill Junction falls into disuse after the remodelling of Abbeyhill Junction in connection with the electrification of the East Coast Main Line.
  /  /1989Easter Road Deviation (North British Railway)
The City of Edinburgh buys 13 bogie wagons for the rubbish carrying service from Powderhall to Kaimes Quarry, the 'binliner'. Powderhall to Piershill Junction re-opened to freight for refuse trains traffic.
29/08/1997Easter Road Deviation (North British Railway)
With Kaimes Quarry full the rubbish carrying service from Powderhall was changed to Oxwellmains Quarry, the landfill site operated by Viridor Waste Management.
  /03/2000Easter Road Deviation (North British Railway)
Rail Property wishes to sell 175m of trackbed at Abbeyhill for redevelopment and faces opposition.
  /02/2017Easter Road Deviation (North British Railway)
Final 'binliner' train runs from Powderhall station.

Portions of line and locations

This line is divided into a number of portions.


Abbeyhill to Trinity

This junction was formed between the 1868 Easter Road Deviation (North British Railway) and the 1846 North British Railway. It was east of Edinburgh Waverley and the Calton Tunnels.
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See also
North British Railway
An LNER Azuma from the south slips from the Down line to the Calton North Tunnel line on the approach to Waverley on 1 April 2021. As you can probably ...
David Panton 01/04/2021
Taking the Abbeyhill loop with a Commonwealth Games shuttle from Waverley to Meadowbank Halt. Will direct trains to Fife through the Forth Tunnel ...
Bill Roberton /07/1986
Back in the day these two bridges on Abbeymount each carried double tracks through Calton Tunnels into Waverley; now there is only one track through ...
David Panton 14/04/2020
Even the leafless January vegetation gets in the way of what would otherwise be a decent viewpoint in Regent Road Park. Therefore please think of this ...
David Panton 17/01/2019
4 of 11 images. more


This was a two platform station with waiting shelters at platform level and a booking office over the line on London Road and stairways running down to platform level. The station opened with the Easter Road Deviation (North British Railway).
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Approaching the closed Abbeyhill station with a Commonwealth Games shuttle in July 1986.
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Bill Roberton /07/1986
Street ent​​rance to the trackwork compound on the site of Abbeyhill station. The sign on the left is of historical interest, and there ...
David Panton 24/02/2018
Scene in the Abbeyhill area of Edinburgh in 1988 showing the remains of a siding off the Abbeyhill loop, thought to have served Wm Youngers' Moray ...
Bill Roberton //1988
Street level building at Abbeyhill, now gone. View looks to Waverley. ...
Ewan Crawford //1999
4 of 13 images. more


This was a three way double track junction. No railway remains in use here today.
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See also
Leith Central Branch (North British Railway)
'Lochend Butterfly' was the name given to the lepidopteraform (my coining) bit of land left behind when all but one of the many lines around here had ...
David Panton 14/11/2020
The plan seems to be to develop every last square metre of the Lochend Butterfly (https://maps.nls.uk/view/130075185 - it's even got a street named ...
David Panton 28/07/2018
A shot of the curve to Easter Road from a passing DMU in 1986. I don't know if the main line turnout was still connected. I have a shot from a year ...
Bill Roberton //1986
47663 passes the dismantled turnout for Easter Road as it passes London Road Junction in 1987 with a diverted (because of ECML electrification work) ...
Bill Roberton //1987
4 of 7 images. more


Double track lines from Abbeyhill Junction (the approach from Edinburgh Waverley) and Piershill Junction (from Portobello met here, the junction forming the top of a triangular junction. The line continued to Granton, North Leith and, to the immediate west, the large Leith Walk East Goods. These lines opened in 1868 replacing the harder to work earlier alignment through ...

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A pair of class 27 on a freight pass Easter Road Junction and take the western fork to Abbeyhill. ...
Roger Geach Collection //
Looking west towards the former Easter Road Junction, from the bridge which carried the Leith Central branch, in 1988. On the right is the formerly ...
Bill Roberton //1988
Looking east along the moribund Granton (latterly Powderhall) branch in 1987 with the Redpath Brown factory on the left and the site of their sidings ...
Bill Roberton //1987
I am standing on the road bridge which replaced the rail bridge carrying the Leith Central branch over the Granton line. The view looks west along ...
David Panton 14/11/2020
4 of 8 images. more


Easter Road station was a two platform station in a very constrained site. To the west of Easter Road, which crossed over the line to the immediate west, was Leith Walk East Goods which was a large goods station with headshunts just west of the road bridge. The goods station was on the south side of the line and sidings for works were on the north side. To the east of the station was [[Easter ...

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Looking west from Easter Road. ...
John Yellowlees 28/05/2023
Looking towards Easter Road station and junction in 1987.
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Bill Roberton //1987
The Easter Road - London Road Junction spur in 1987, with evidence of spot sleeper renewal not long before it was lifted.
...
Bill Roberton //1987
67009 passes the overgrown platforms at Easter Road on its return from Powderhall Refuse Depot to Millerhill on 28 October 2014. ...
Bill Roberton 28/10/2014
4 of 22 images. more


This was a two platform station on the west side of Leith Walk. The main station building was at street level on the south side and there were waiting shelters on each platform. The footbridge was on the west side of Leith Walk with stairs down to the platforms. A row of shops is on the east side of the Leith Walk bridge over the railway.
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Looking over the latter-day Powderhall branch at Leith Walk in September 2022, with nature taking over.
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Bill Roberton 07/09/2022
Looking towards the former Leith Walk Station, past Shrubhill Tram Works on the left, in 1990. There were sidings on the left serving the works. In ...
Bill Roberton //1990
This is the east side of the tunnel under Leith Walk (Croall Place) in December 2022. It is now being taken over by the undergrowth. I do wonder what ...
Duncan Ross 20/12/2022
Rusty rails. The Powderhall waste transfer station is now out of action. ...
John Yellowlees 03/02/2017
4 of 14 images. more


Having shunted its train of empty refuse containers into Powderhall Waste Transfer Station, 37798 heads for Millerhill Depot. ...
Bill Roberton //2002
A Class 60 on Binliner duty does some pottering on the since-closed Powderhall branch. Housing now occupies the area to the right all the way back to ...
David Panton 26/07/1995
An EWS class 66 on 'Binliner' duty makes its way slowly along the Powderhall branch on a dull autumn day in 2006. Beyond the various construction ...
John Furnevel 27/10/2006
A class 37 stands on the Powderhall branch on a July morning in 2005. The locomotive has recently arrived from Millerhill and is awaiting completion ...
John Furnevel /07/2005
4 of 25 images. more


This was a two platform suburban station with a ticket office on the road bridge to the south (Broughton Road) and waiting rooms on each platform. There was no goods yard.
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The site of Edinburgh Corporations former Powderhall Depot, looking north from Broughton Road on 29 August 2023. The former Powderhall station ...
Andy Furnevel 29/08/2023
Work well underway on the original 1893 building at the former Powderhall refuse depot ('The Destructor') on 24 February 2022. View is west ...
Andy Furnevel 24/02/2022
47114 was an ex Stratford loco that went north to Eastfield from June 1989 to March 1992. During its stay in Scotland it could be found working ...
Roger Geach /03/1991
Redevelopment continues at Powderhall, as shown in this view north from Broughton Road on 24 February 2022. The original 1893 building (The ...
Andy Furnevel 02/03/2022
4 of 23 images. more




Bridge over the Water of Leith near the north end of the former Powderhall station looking south in January 2003. A train of waste containers from the ...
John Furnevel 12/01/2003
Containers of compacted household waste, destined for landfill, forming part of the morning Powderhall - Oxwellmains Binliner service on 18 ...
Bill Roberton 18/06/2008
2 of 2 images.


Point of division between the lines to Granton and Leith North on the deviation avoiding the Scotland Street Tunnel.
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From old maps this looks to have been the site of Bonnington South Junction but the underbridge is not shown. Nowadays it is part of the Water of ...
Charlie Niven 10/11/2023
The Powderhall branch was closed three years ago when it lost its raison d'etre, the waste disposal plant; the cleared site now awaits development. ...
David Panton 25/12/2019
There are plans to convert the disused Powderhall branch to a cycle path (to connect with the rest of the former Granton Harbour line) but for now the ...
David Panton 08/01/2019
3 of 3 images.


Site of the flat crossing of the lines from Granton and North Leith at Bonnington in March 2003. View is southeast towards Powderhall where the line ...
John Furnevel 10/03/2003
Remains of the former flat crossing at Bonnington in May 1985. View looks southwest along the old trackbed towards Warriston Junction and Scotland ...
David Panton /05/1985
2 of 2 images.


This was the western end of a west to east curve, connecting to Bonnington East Junction, which allowed through running from North Leith to Granton.
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Looking north from Ferry Road, along the lifted Granton branch, in late 1986. (Bonnington North Junction was behind the camera, the view is to ...
Bill Roberton //1986
Please refer to map see image 23914 and imagine yourself on the line to the left of 'Flour Mills' (the original Chancelot Mills) looking south. ...
David Panton 25/11/2009
2 of 2 images.


This junction was to the south of Trinity [2nd] station. The signal box was located on the west side.
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See also
Edinburgh, Leith and Newhaven Railway
The site of Trinity Junction is a hub of the north Edinburgh path network and my, what a choice you've got. The east/west and north/south lines were ...
David Panton 16/07/2021
Trinity Junction signal box in April 1968. The pair of tracks in front of the `box served Scotland Street goods but this line had been closed some six ...
John Clark 09/04/1968
This is the very telegraph pole seen sticking out of the top of the Clayton in Bill Jamieson's photo of 1970 (see image 28095) when it had already ...
David Panton 18/01/2019
Hard to believe that this leafy location once had railways left, right and above. For a view looking then other way in 1967, see:
...
David Panton 12/07/2018
4 of 8 images. more





Piershill to Easter Road

This is the junction for the disused line to the Powderhall Destructor. Approach was from the east.
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North British Railway
This is the out of use track of the Powderhall Branch approaching Powderhall Branch Junction (formerly Piershill Junction) as seen from a passing ...
Ewan Crawford 21/02/2023
1 of 1 images.


This was a two platform station on an elevated section of line. The booking office was at street level at the east end on Restalrig Road with covered footways up to the platform above. The westbound platform was approached from Clockmill Road. Waiting room buildings on the platforms North British Railway style.
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Totem from Piershill which closed in 1964 along with others on or near the ECML in Edinburgh. At the time the station opened the name would have meant ...
David Panton //
I'm standing in Smokey (sic) Brae on 12 February 2011 with the ECML above me and what is now the Powderhall branch bridging to the north. The branch ...
David Panton 12/02/2011
J37 0-6-0 64625 passing through Piershill Station with goods vans in 1963. ...
John Robin 31/05/1963
The former Abbeyhill loop diverged from the ECML just to the left at what is now called Powderhall Branch Junction. The first station was Piershill ...
David Panton 03/06/2009
4 of 5 images. more


This was a single platform station built on the westbound line of the Abbeyhill Loop. It served the Commonwealth Games stadium at Meadowbank. Shuttle trains from Edinburgh Waverley used the crossover west of the station to reach the platform, crossing over from the eastbound to the westbound line.
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A memento of the short-lived Meadowbank Stadium station, opened for the embarrassingly underfunded Commonwealth Games of 1986. The station appeared on ...
David Panton 02/08/1986
101 317 passes Meadowbank Stadium Halt on the Abbeyhill Loop as a HST approaches. Services diverted for ECML electrification in 1987.
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Bill Roberton //1987
Street sign outside the Commonwealth Games station at Meadowbank in 1986. ...
David Panton //1986
67007 passes the site of Meadowbank Stadium (1986-1988) with the 6B46 Oxwellmains - Powderhall empty 'Binliner' train on 6 September making its way ...
Bill Roberton 06/09/2011
4 of 15 images. more


This junction opened in 1888 with the curve from London Road Junction. This provided a secondary route from Abbeyhill Junction to Piershill Junction and on to Portobello East Junction, thus quadrupling the route.
...

More details

See also
Leith Central Branch (North British Railway)
116 387 passes an eastbound Commonwealth Games shuttle at Lochend Junction with a return trip to Waverley in July 1986.
...
Bill Roberton /07/1986
A Commonwealth Games DMU shuttle, in July 1986, is given the road at Lochend Junction for Meadowbank Halt, visible beyond the road bridge - see image ...
Bill Roberton /07/1986
Looking east towards Lochend Junction, from the bridge which carried the Leith Central branch over the Granton (latterly Powderhall) line, in 1988. ...
Bill Roberton //1988
View from a DMU operating the Waverley to Meadowbank shuttle service during the Commonwealth Games. The train is heading east towards Lochend Junction ...
Bill Roberton /07/1986
4 of 16 images. more


This was the Edinburgh structural steel manufacturing works of Redpath, Brown & Co.
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Double track lines from Abbeyhill Junction (the approach from Edinburgh Waverley) and Piershill Junction (from Portobello met here, the junction forming the top of a triangular junction. The line continued to Granton, North Leith and, to the immediate west, the large Leith Walk East Goods. These lines opened in 1868 replacing the harder to work earlier alignment through ...

More details
A pair of class 27 on a freight pass Easter Road Junction and take the western fork to Abbeyhill. ...
Roger Geach Collection //
Looking west towards the former Easter Road Junction, from the bridge which carried the Leith Central branch, in 1988. On the right is the formerly ...
Bill Roberton //1988
Looking east along the moribund Granton (latterly Powderhall) branch in 1987 with the Redpath Brown factory on the left and the site of their sidings ...
Bill Roberton //1987
I am standing on the road bridge which replaced the rail bridge carrying the Leith Central branch over the Granton line. The view looks west along ...
David Panton 14/11/2020
4 of 8 images. more





Bonnington South to East

Point of division between the lines to Granton and Leith North on the deviation avoiding the Scotland Street Tunnel.
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From old maps this looks to have been the site of Bonnington South Junction but the underbridge is not shown. Nowadays it is part of the Water of ...
Charlie Niven 10/11/2023
The Powderhall branch was closed three years ago when it lost its raison d'etre, the waste disposal plant; the cleared site now awaits development. ...
David Panton 25/12/2019
There are plans to convert the disused Powderhall branch to a cycle path (to connect with the rest of the former Granton Harbour line) but for now the ...
David Panton 08/01/2019
3 of 3 images.


Looking north in 2003 over the remains of the southernmost of the two former railway bridges which spanned the Water of Leith between Powderhall and ...
John Furnevel 10/03/2003
Remains of the bridge carrying the former NB line across the Water of Leith from Bonnington East to Bonnington South Junctions in March 2003. The line ...
John Furnevel 10/03/2003
2 of 2 images.


The second NB crossing of the Water of Leith between Bonnington South and East Junctions in March 2003. Beyond the bridge remains is one of the ...
John Furnevel 10/03/2003
1 of 1 images.


Looking south to the Powderhall refuse incinerator in 1978. In the foreground is the Warriston Jn - Bonnington East Jn trackbed with the former ...
Bill Roberton //1978
Seen from the BLS Lothians & Fife Wanderer on 23 August 1980. Looking over the allotments north of Powderhall with the former NBR North Leith branch ...
Bill Roberton 23/08/1980
2 of 2 images.





Bonnington North to East

This was the western end of a west to east curve, connecting to Bonnington East Junction, which allowed through running from North Leith to Granton.
...

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Looking north from Ferry Road, along the lifted Granton branch, in late 1986. (Bonnington North Junction was behind the camera, the view is to ...
Bill Roberton //1986
Please refer to map see image 23914 and imagine yourself on the line to the left of 'Flour Mills' (the original Chancelot Mills) looking south. ...
David Panton 25/11/2009
2 of 2 images.


This large flour mill was located north of the Bonnington North Junction to Bonnington East Junction. When built, the area was largely undeveloped (see NLS link).
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Looking south to the Powderhall refuse incinerator in 1978. In the foreground is the Warriston Jn - Bonnington East Jn trackbed with the former ...
Bill Roberton //1978
Seen from the BLS Lothians & Fife Wanderer on 23 August 1980. Looking over the allotments north of Powderhall with the former NBR North Leith branch ...
Bill Roberton 23/08/1980
2 of 2 images.





Lochend Loop

This was a three way double track junction. No railway remains in use here today.
...

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See also
Leith Central Branch (North British Railway)
'Lochend Butterfly' was the name given to the lepidopteraform (my coining) bit of land left behind when all but one of the many lines around here had ...
David Panton 14/11/2020
The plan seems to be to develop every last square metre of the Lochend Butterfly (https://maps.nls.uk/view/130075185 - it's even got a street named ...
David Panton 28/07/2018
A shot of the curve to Easter Road from a passing DMU in 1986. I don't know if the main line turnout was still connected. I have a shot from a year ...
Bill Roberton //1986
47663 passes the dismantled turnout for Easter Road as it passes London Road Junction in 1987 with a diverted (because of ECML electrification work) ...
Bill Roberton //1987
4 of 7 images. more




This junction opened in 1888 with the curve from London Road Junction. This provided a secondary route from Abbeyhill Junction to Piershill Junction and on to Portobello East Junction, thus quadrupling the route.
...

More details

See also
Leith Central Branch (North British Railway)
116 387 passes an eastbound Commonwealth Games shuttle at Lochend Junction with a return trip to Waverley in July 1986.
...
Bill Roberton /07/1986
A Commonwealth Games DMU shuttle, in July 1986, is given the road at Lochend Junction for Meadowbank Halt, visible beyond the road bridge - see image ...
Bill Roberton /07/1986
Looking east towards Lochend Junction, from the bridge which carried the Leith Central branch over the Granton (latterly Powderhall) line, in 1988. ...
Bill Roberton //1988
View from a DMU operating the Waverley to Meadowbank shuttle service during the Commonwealth Games. The train is heading east towards Lochend Junction ...
Bill Roberton /07/1986
4 of 16 images. more





Leith Walk East Goods

Easter Road station was a two platform station in a very constrained site. To the west of Easter Road, which crossed over the line to the immediate west, was Leith Walk East Goods which was a large goods station with headshunts just west of the road bridge. The goods station was on the south side of the line and sidings for works were on the north side. To the east of the station was [[Easter ...

More details
Looking west from Easter Road. ...
John Yellowlees 28/05/2023
Looking towards Easter Road station and junction in 1987.
...
Bill Roberton //1987
The Easter Road - London Road Junction spur in 1987, with evidence of spot sleeper renewal not long before it was lifted.
...
Bill Roberton //1987
67009 passes the overgrown platforms at Easter Road on its return from Powderhall Refuse Depot to Millerhill on 28 October 2014. ...
Bill Roberton 28/10/2014
4 of 22 images. more


This large goods yard was to the west of Easter Road station on the lines built in 1868 to replace the Scotland Street Tunnel route. It was a principal goods depot of the North British Railway in Edinburgh. The yard was on the northern part of a triangle of lines. It could be served from the west (via Abbeyhill Junction) or east (via Piershill Junction). Approach to the yard ...

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A North British Railway point lever photographed at Leith Walk East in 1975. ...
Bill Roberton //1975
The site of the goods depot is filling up with housing. There was a very eighties (and very red) Royal Mail depot here in between. The former car park ...
David Panton 17/02/2017
Seen from the SLS Lothians & Fife Wanderer on 23 August 1980. Looking towards Easter Road with engineers sidings surviving. On the other side of the ...
Bill Roberton 23/08/1980
Looking towards Easter Road Junction along the latter-day Granton branch in 1978. On the left are sidings serving the S & T Department, previously an ...
Bill Roberton //1978
4 of 13 images. more