Edinburgh, Loanhead and Roslin Railway

Introduction

A portion of this line remains, in abeyance, at the south end of Millerhill Marshalling Yard (British Railways). The original line was due to terminate in Roslin but the North British Railway requested the company extend to Glencorse (Glencorse Extension (Edinburgh, Loanhead and Roslin Railway)).






Locations along the line

These locations are along the line.

This location is out of use. The junction was immediately south of Millerhill station (1849). It was the junction between the Edinburgh and Hawick Railway (North British Railway) of 1847 and the Edinburgh, Loanhead and Roslin Railway of 1874. (The 1831 Edinburgh and Dalkeith Railway alignment was off to the west.)
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See also
Edinburgh and Hawick Railway (North British Railway)
Millerhill Marshalling Yard (British Railways)
Withdrawn from passenger service in February 1968, AC Cars railbus W79977 was used as a store at the south end of Millerhill Yard, roughly at the site ...
John Clark /04/1969
26042 shunts a ECML electrification train at Millerhill Junction in 1990.
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Bill Roberton //1990
37153 propels a wiring train into the ECML electrification yard at Millerhill Junction in 1990.
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Bill Roberton //1990
Millerhill has been a location of long slow decline but in May 1995 there was still something to see. The abandoned ECML electrification depot ahead ...
David Panton 25/05/1995
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The first station on the Glencorse branch was Gilmerton, about a mile ahead of this spot near, as the sign says, Danderhall. This late-flowering ...
David Panton 24/06/2020
The Glencorse branch walkway doesn't quite extend all the way to the junction at Millerhill and to be fair that is not much of a loss. The course of ...
David Panton 19/02/2020
I am standing on the former Glencorse branch, a few hundred metres from the junction and looking towards Glencorse. All that is left of the branch is ...
David Panton 27/11/2018
The rather sad rump of the Glencorse (then Bilston Glen) line looking towards the junction a few hundred metres away in November 2018. This was ...
David Panton 27/11/2018
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This was a single platform station about a third of a mile east of Gilmerton. The platform was on the west side of a single track line with a station building and signal box at the south end. A small goods yard with siding and loading bank was on the west side of the line, south of the station, approached from the north. A station cottage was on Gilmerton Station Road to the west, alongside the ...

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Andrew Barclay 1142 0f 1908 rests at the Miners Welfare, Danderhall, near Gilmerton. It later moved to Prestongrange Mining Museum and in 2023 was ...
Bill Roberton //1992
The modest single-platform effort at Gilmerton had a suitably unflashy station house which has nonetheless outlived the station by 90 years. A ...
David Panton 19/02/2020
A class 26 drifts down the gradient towards Gilmerton, with a train from Bilston Glen Colliery, in 1978. The conical washer at the closed (in ...
Bill Roberton //1978
In 1995 the Bilston Glen branch had been out of use for a few years. The track was to remain in place for a while yet, and the trackbed here did not ...
David Panton 05/09/1995
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A class 26-hauled train from Bilston Glen Colliery passes the site of Gilmerton station in 1978. The disconnected siding into Gilmerton Colliery ...
Bill Roberton //1978
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The box controlled access to the Pentland and Straiton Oilworks Railway for Straiton Oil Works and Pentland Oil Works. The signal box, 'Straiton', was on the east side of the line at the junction. It opened in 1877. The branch was accessed from the north.
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See also
Pentland and Straiton Oilworks Railway
The Rosslyn Chapel Way (Loanhead branch to you and me) has just crossed the boundary between Edinburgh and Midlothian here at the point where Straiton ...
David Panton 18/03/2020
The (by then) Bilston Glen Colliery branch survived long-enough to require bridging by the Edinburgh City Bypass. This view looks towards Loanhead and ...
David Panton 18/03/2020
A view of the old Glencorse branch between Loanhead and Gilmerton, looking towards the latter on 18 November 2019. The replaced bridge in the ...
David Panton 18/11/2019
View north over the site of the level crossing linking the mineral line that ran down from Straiton sidings (now a nature reserve) to access Straiton ...
John Furnevel 21/02/2011
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This was a small paraffin works on the east side of Edinburgh, Loanhead and Roslin Railway at Edgefield east of Straiton. It was served by a siding on the east side of the line, approached from the south. This siding was the Edgefield Siding which also served the Edgefield Candle Works, to the south of the oil works.
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This was a single platform station. It remains an excellent example of a small North British Railway station with platform, station building, station house and goods shed.
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Progress on the old booking office building at Loanhead on 26 June 2022. Viewed platform side looking east, with part of what is now the 'Rosslyn ...
John Furnevel 26/06/2022
The old goods yard and shed at Loanhead, seen here on a sunny spring afternoon in 2011. After abandonment by the railway the facility had been taken ...
John Furnevel 01/03/2011
The trackbed of the former Edinburgh, Loanhead and Roslin Railway running north through Loanhead on 14 March 2016. The reinforced plate girder bridge ...
John Furnevel 14/03/2016
Modifications to the former booking office at Loanhead continue, with an extension now occupying part of the old station forecourt. View north from ...
John Furnevel 25/09/2022
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This was the site of a signal box which controlled access to the short branch to the Burghlee Colliery, one of the Loanhead Collieries. Access was from the north with the sidings on the west side of the line. To the immediate south is the Bilston Glen Viaduct. From a small yard by the junction the lines ran west to further sidings at the loading area, south of the colliery.
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The northern extent of the wasteland once occupied by the the sidings of Bilston Glen Colliery, seen here in 2007. Trains serving the colliery used ...
John Furnevel 03/09/2007
End of the line. Burghlee ground frame location in the 1990s after lifting of the Bilston Glen Colliery approaches. This view looking south to the ...
Bill Roberton //1990
'And the winner of this years Turner Prize is...' Part of the twisted remains of an old points mechanism in the overgrown yard alongside the ...
John Furnevel 03/10/2007
Burghlee ground frame location in the 1990s after lifting of the Bilston Glen Colliery approaches. This view looking north towards Loanhead.
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Bill Roberton //1990
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This colliery was south of Loanhead station, just west of Bilston Glen Viaduct.
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See also
Shotts Iron Co


This colliery was developed by the National Coal Board, with the sinking commencing in 1952. It replaced Burghlee Colliery, just to the east.
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The headshunt at Bilston Glen Colliery, in late 1976 or early 1977. The track layout was rationalised at some stage later as can seen in image ...
John Clark //1976
37080 waits at the closed Bilston Glen Colliery, as her train is filled with the last of the stockpiled coal, on 28 March 1991.
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Bill Roberton 28/03/1991
Looking north to Bilston Glen Colliery in 1989, the year of closure.
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Bill Roberton //1989
The former stockyard at Bilston Glen colliery. ...
Ewan Crawford //
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This viaduct was built in 1892, engineered by James Bell, to replace a viaduct of 1874. This is a single track viaduct crossing the Bilston Burn with a 331 ft truss girder, approached by spans on either side. The overall length is 444 ft.
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A side elevation view of the old Bilston Glen Viaduct, which will be impossible in the summer months and into Autumn.. ...
John Yellowlees 18/04/2021
Bilston Glen Viaduct is quite a challenge to photograph, and probably nearly impossible when the trees are in leaf. April 2021.
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John Yellowlees 15/04/2021
The underside of the 1892 Bilston Glen Viaduct looking north through its 135m lattice girder span towards Loanhead in August 2017. The category A ...
John Furnevel 24/08/2017
Standing at the north west corner of Bilston Glen Viaduct in October 2007 looking south towards Roslin. For the view from the other end of the viaduct ...
John Furnevel 02/10/2007
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This station was in the north of Roslin. It was terminus of the line from 1874 to 1877. It was a single platform station (on the south ie village side of the line). The line was single track with a passing loop by the platform. The station building was joined to a railway cottage (similar to Loanhead).
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See also
Glencorse Extension (Edinburgh, Loanhead and Roslin Railway)
The EL&R station at Roslin lost its passenger service in 1933, although the line continued in use until the late 1960s latterly serving the local ...
John Furnevel 06/04/2014
The Branch Line Society railtour of 16th October 1965 included a visit to Roslin, where GNSR No.49 'Gordon Highlander' was pictured running round the ...
Robin McGregor 16/10/1965
After leaving Roslin station the EL&R passed below the B7006, which carried the village's Main Street over the formation. Passenger services on the ...
John Furnevel 14/03/2016
Looking south away from Roslin station. ...
Ewan Crawford //
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