Edinburgh, Suburban and Southside Junction Railway

Introduction

This line is open to freight. It provided a circular route for passenger trains serving the south of Edinburgh and an Edinburgh Waverley bypass for trains from the east to west. Niddrie Yard developed near its east end amongst the Niddrie Junctions.






Dates

  /  /1880Edinburgh, Suburban and Southside Junction Railway
Line authorised.
  /  /1880Edinburgh, Suburban and Southside Junction Railway
Line authorised.
  /  /1884Edinburgh, Suburban and Southside Junction Railway
Opened, Engineer; Thomas Bouch.
  /  /1885Edinburgh, Suburban and Southside Junction Railway North British Railway
Edinburgh, Suburban and Southside Junction Railway absorbed by North British Railway.
17/05/1905Edinburgh, Suburban and Southside Junction Railway
Siding from Gorgie Junction for Gorgie Mills opened.
09/06/1958Edinburgh and Dalkeith Railway
Edinburgh, Suburban and Southside Junction Railway
Edinburgh Waverley to Edinburgh Waverley via the outer circle and then on to Rosewell and Hawthornden service introduced using Class 100 DMUs.
09/06/1958Edinburgh and Dalkeith Railway Edinburgh, Suburban and Southside Junction Railway
Musselburgh [1st] to Edinburgh Waverley then via the inner circle to return to Edinburgh Waverley service introduced using Class 100 DMUs.
10/09/1962Edinburgh and Dalkeith Railway Edinburgh, Suburban and Southside Junction Railway
Portobello (Niddrie North Junction) to Morningside Road to Edinburgh (Haymarket Central Junction) closed to passengers.
10/09/1962Edinburgh and Dalkeith RailwayEdinburgh, Suburban and Southside Junction Railway
Niddrie North Junction to Haymarket Central Junction via Duddingston Junction closed to passengers. Remains open for freight and diverted passenger trains.
04/12/1967Edinburgh, Suburban and Southside Junction Railway
Gorgie Cattle Market [NB] to Gorgie Mills siding (excluded) closed.

Portions of line and locations

This line is divided into a number of portions.


Haymarket to Duddingston

This runs east from Haymarket West Junction to Duddingston Junction through the south side of Edinburgh. This allowed goods and mineral trains to bypass Edinburgh Waverley and allowed an approach to South Leith from the west. It also carried a circular passenger service based on Edinburgh Waverley and often terminating at Leith Central. Duddingston Junction to Niddrie West Junction was doubled.

Just west of Haymarket West Junction class A4 60011 'Empire of India' passing Balgreen Halt with Perth - Edinburgh train. ...
David Murray-Smith 14/08/1961
Balgreen tram stop occupies the exact location of Balgreen Halt, hard by the main line near Haymarket West Junction. The morning LNER Aberdeen to ...
David Panton 16/07/2018
A train for Glasgow via Cumbernauld passes Haymarket West Junction (and Balgreen tramstop) on 13 April 2019. ...
David Panton 13/04/2019
View near Haymarket West Junction, taken from an Edinburgh-bound diesel multiple unit, with an English Electric Type 4 accelerating an express in the ...
Brian Haslehust //1963
4 of 8 images. more


This is the southern junction of a triangular junction formed by Haymarket West Junction (west), Haymarket Central Junction (east) and Gorgie Junction (south).
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See also
Gorgie Cattle Market Branch (North British Railway)
A hoarding at Gorgie - August 2019.
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John Yellowlees 17/08/2019
Looking north to Gorgie Junction in 1975. The cattle market branch and goods yard joined here on the left. ...
Bill Roberton //1975
Looking west along the along the disconnected Gorgie Cattle Market branch in 1975. The track was donated to the Strathspey Railway by the city ...
Bill Roberton //1975
After taking a freight through Gorgie Junction on the Edinburgh sub, 25026 turns towards Haymarket West Junction where it will join the E&G main line. ...
John Furnevel 14/04/1981
4 of 10 images. more


This mill was rail served via a headshunt from Gorgie Junction. It was the glue and gelatine mill of J&G Cox Ltd, originally the site was probably a corn mill. The mill was rail served from 1905.
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See also
Gorgie Cattle Market Branch (North British Railway)


This was a small goods yard on the west side of the line just north of Gorgie station and south of Gorgie Junction. It was approached from the north. On the west side of the yard was Gorgie East Minerals, a larger set of sidings for coal traffic. Further west again was the start of the Gorgie Cattle Market [NB], which crossed over a level crossing (as did the mineral yard ...

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See also
Gorgie Cattle Market Branch (North British Railway)
The site of Gorgie East Goods station is occupied by interesting-looking housing, seen in January 2019. The signal for Gorgie Junction marks the ...
David Panton 13/01/2019
With the Bernard Brewery as a backcloth, N15 0-6-2T no 69150 shunts a wooden 'BD' container at Gorgie East yard in 1961. ...
Frank Spaven Collection (Courtesy David Spaven) //1961
J88 0-6-0ST no 68335 takes a break from shunting Gorgie East yard in 1961. In the right background wooden containers can be seen standing alongside ...
Frank Spaven Collection (Courtesy David Spaven) //1961
Lots of railwaymen in attendance as a J35 shunts near Gorgie East yard in 1961. The engine has just come off the Edinburgh Suburban Line and the photo ...
Frank Spaven Collection (Courtesy David Spaven) //1961
4 of 4 images.




This was a two platform station. Nothing remains of the station.
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Edinburgh South Suburban Line bridge over Gorgie Road, seen from Lothian bus on route 25 to Restalrig on the morning of Saturday, 18th June 2022. The ...
David Bosher 18/06/2022
Looking north towards the bridge over Gorgie Road carrying the Edinburgh South Suburban Line, on 20th July 2017. The line closed to passengers in 1962 ...
David Bosher 20/07/2017
GNSR 4-4-0 No.49 'Gordon Highlander' taking water at Gorgie East during a Branch Line Society railtour on 16th October 1965. The tour started in ...
Robin McGregor 16/10/1965
For many years all that there has been to see of this former Suburban Circle station is the remnants of this path from the inner platform to Slateford ...
David Panton 12/11/2018
4 of 21 images. more


This was a temporary station for the Edinburgh International Exhibition of 1890 for Electrical Engineering, General Inventions and Industries. It was built in the cutting to the east of the exhibition. The site was also served by Exhibition [CR].
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27206 heads north through Slateford on the Edinburgh sub in 1981.
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Peter Todd //1981
A diverted Glasgow - Edinburgh service passes through Slateford on the sub on 16 July 2006. In the background is the bridge that carried the ...
John Furnevel 16/07/2006
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20222 and 20223 near Craiglockhart Junction with coal hoppers in 1982. In the foreground is the link to Slateford Junction.
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Bill Roberton //1982
20099 and 20028 emerge from the Union Canal tunnel and pass Craiglockhart Junction with mineral wagons.
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Bill Roberton //1982
DBC 66014 joins the Edinburgh suburban loop at Craiglockhart Junction with a long and full Grangemouth - Tees intermodal service, having taken the ...
Bill Roberton 27/08/2019
Train 662A, the Sunday 0800 Mossend - Millerhill, runs through Craiglockhart Junction on 27 August 2017 behind Freightliner 66528. Photographed ...
John Furnevel 27/08/2017
4 of 13 images. more


This was a two platform station in a deep cutting to the south of Colinton Road and the Union Canal. There were waiting rooms at platform level. The station had no goods yard.
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A westbound coal train on the Edinburgh South Suburban freight line rounds the curve on the approach to Craiglockhart in February 2002. ...
John Furnevel 23/02/2002
Sunshine and showers on the sub on an October morning in 2003. A ballast train from Millerhill South Sidings is rounding the curve in the deep cutting ...
John Furnevel 06/10/2003
An EWS class 66 with a coal train on the sub in October 2003. The train is climbing past the remains of Craiglockhart station having just emerged from ...
John Furnevel 06/10/2003
A coal train between Morningside and Craiglockhart in 2002. ...
John Furnevel 23/02/2002
4 of 25 images. more


This was a two platform station. It is fairly intact despite closure in 1962. The eastbound platform and street level ticket office both remain intact. A lattice footbridge still crosses the west end of the former station.
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Signal ES 672 beside the Up Suburban from an unusual location. The building opposite, Morningside Manor care home, is situated on the site of the ...
Charlie Niven 14/05/2022
Morningside Road signalbox in 1974.
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Bill Roberton //1974
The memory lingers on. Only the elderly remember Morningside Road station (and almost none of them used it) but it is still the name of the location. ...
David Panton 26/12/2019
Mondays to Fridays, the 2105 Cross Country service from Glasgow Central to Edinburgh Waverley is, I believe, the only scheduled passenger train to use ...
Douglas Blades 21/06/2021
4 of 44 images. more


This was a two platform station to the west of Blackford Avenue.
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25033 passes the site of Blackford Hill station with a train of vans in 1977.
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Bill Roberton //1977
EWS 66148 runs light engine through the site of Blackford Hill station on the Edinburgh sub in April 2002. The station had closed to passengers in ...
John Furnevel 12/04/2002
Green transport in a leafy suburb; the expected freightliner train in September 2018 turned out to be a double light engine movement to Millerhill. ...
Charlie Niven 21/09/2018
Lost Railfreight 37408 passes the site of Blackford Hill station in 1986, with a freight including cut logs. These have not been carried ...
Bill Roberton //1986
4 of 28 images. more




Newington Goods was west of Newington, Newington Stone Yard being a little further west. Both were on the north side of the line and served from the west.
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47103 nears Newington, passing the former goods station, with cement empties for Oxwellmains in 1974. The former D1691 was in service until 1987, and ...
Bill Roberton //1974
View from a diverted Birmingham train travelling around the Sub. The then recently-built houses have taken the place of sidngs. A CWR expansion joint ...
Charlie Niven /07/1989
EE Type 4 No. 270 leans to the curves between Newington and Blackford Hill as it heads west on a coal train from Millerhill Yard in the spring of ...
Bill Jamieson 17/04/1970
Scene on the 'sub' in 1974 as 40160 coasts downhill towards the site of Newington Station with a mixed freight for Millerhill. In the right background ...
Bill Roberton //1974
4 of 7 images. more


This was an island platform station. The island was accessed by steps down from Mayfield Gardens/Craigmillar Park at the east end and by a footbridge and path on the north side of the line which ran to Mayfield Road to the west. The station building on the platform was originally fitted with canopies.
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47813 leads the first 'Polar Express' of the day through the former Newington station, returning from Gorgie Junction to Waverley. 16 December 2023.
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Bill Roberton 16/12/2023
A poster from the unofficial Newington ScotRail Poster Museum. ...
Ewan Crawford Collection 14/01/2017
GBRf 66738 at Newington with a North Blyth- Fort William light engine move on 30th April 2019. In the background is the site of the passenger ...
Bill Roberton 30/04/2019
This set of posters at Newington on the Edinburgh South Suburban are at least ten years old but Scotrail show no inclination to remove/update them. ...
Ewan Crawford Collection 14/01/2017
4 of 36 images. more


This signal box was east of Newington [NBR] station at Cameron Toll where the line runs raised on an embankment. It was relatively short lived, lasting from 1900 to 1925. The line remains open.
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Diversions around the Edinburgh Sub during the 2019 Christmas period see a westbound Voyager crossing the bridge at Cameron Toll on a wet 28 December. ...
John Furnevel 28/12/2019
No let up in the rain on the morning of 27 December 2019 as another re-routed long distance service takes the bridge over Cameron Toll on its ...
John Furnevel 27/12/2019
Torrential rain, driven by a westerly wind, lashes the south side of Edinburgh during a grey and miserable morning on 27 December 2019. Seen here ...
John Furnevel 27/12/2019
A diverted Voyager crossing the A7 at Cameron Toll during a circuit of the Edinburgh sub on 28 December 2019. The diversion was the result of a three ...
John Furnevel 28/12/2019
4 of 7 images. more


The surviving entrance gates of the former Deuchar's Duddingston Brewery on Duddingston Road West, one of the seven rail served breweries operating in ...
John Furnevel 06/08/2017
By 1930, thanks to an abundance of good quality local spring water (and the railway) Duddingston played host to the seven breweries of Messrs Deuchar, ...
John Furnevel 28/03/2007
2 of 2 images.




This was a two platform station on a curve. It was immediately to the west of Duddingston Junction. The main station building was on the eastbound platform with a smaller on the westbound. A goods yard was to the north, served from the old Edinburgh and Dalkeith Railway line, rather than the new Edinburgh, Suburban and Southside Junction Railway on which the station was located.
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A cold, grey winter morning on Edinburgh's south sub in December 2019. Engineering works at Haymarket West had resulted in numerous diversions over ...
John Furnevel 28/12/2019
Duddingston station closed to passengers on 10/09/1962 and this shot was taken some six years later looking in the Portobello direction. ...
John Clark 31/12/1968
37196 nears Peffermill Road bridge with a ballast train in 1989. Brewery sidings once branched off both sides of the line and the small arch was ...
Bill Roberton //1989
The 0708 Leeds - Aberdeen passing through Duddingston on 28 December 2019 having been diverted via the Edinburgh south suburban line due to ...
John Furnevel 28/12/2019
4 of 18 images. more


This junction was directly east of Duddingston station. It was formed in 1884 between the 1831 Edinburgh and Dalkeith Railway and the Edinburgh, Suburban and Southside Junction Railway.
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Edinburgh and Dalkeith Railway
Class 47 no 1606 westbound on the 'Sub' between Niddrie West and Duddingston Junctions with an unidentified train of oil tanks on 4 February 1970.
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Bill Jamieson 04/02/1970
Class 47 no 1737 on the 09.55 Bathgate - Kings Norton heading west along the Sub near Duddingston Junction on 4 February 1970.
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Bill Jamieson 04/02/1970
Duddingston Junction signal box, photographed shortly after closure in June 1969.
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Bill Jamieson //1969
St Margarets V3 2-6-2T no 67668 at Duddingston Junction on 25 August 1962. The locomotive had brought the Stephenson Locomotive Society (Scottish ...
R Sillitto/A Renfrew Collection (Courtesy Bruce McCartney) 25/08/1962
4 of 5 images. more





Haymarket Curve

This curve runs from Haymarket Central Junction to Gorgie Junction. This allowed a circular passenger service based on Edinburgh Waverley and often terminating at Leith Central.

This junction is west of Haymarket station and Haymarket East Junction. The junction opened with the Edinburgh, Suburban and Southside Junction Railway junction in 1884.
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See also
Edinburgh and Glasgow Railway
Haymarket Central Junction signal box with Haymarket depot on the right of the shot and a couple of Claytons visible. No details for this shot but ...
John Clark //1971
This is a view of the recently wired-up Haymarket Central Junction from a passing train. Part of the EGIP project it will allow the new electric ...
Charlie Niven 20/06/2016
60009 Union of South Africa passing Haymarket coal yard on 1 September 1979 with a railtour heading for Aberdeen. St Mary's Cathedral is centre ...
John Furnevel 01/09/1979
Preserved A4 Pacific 60009 Union of South Africa with a railtour westbound between Haymarket station and Haymarket MPD. The train is about to ...
John Furnevel 01/09/1979
4 of 19 images. more


This is the southern junction of a triangular junction formed by Haymarket West Junction (west), Haymarket Central Junction (east) and Gorgie Junction (south).
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See also
Gorgie Cattle Market Branch (North British Railway)
A hoarding at Gorgie - August 2019.
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John Yellowlees 17/08/2019
Looking north to Gorgie Junction in 1975. The cattle market branch and goods yard joined here on the left. ...
Bill Roberton //1975
Looking west along the along the disconnected Gorgie Cattle Market branch in 1975. The track was donated to the Strathspey Railway by the city ...
Bill Roberton //1975
After taking a freight through Gorgie Junction on the Edinburgh sub, 25026 turns towards Haymarket West Junction where it will join the E&G main line. ...
John Furnevel 14/04/1981
4 of 10 images. more





Niddrie Curve

This curve runs from Niddrie West Junction to Niddrie North Junction. This allowed a circular passenger service based on Edinburgh Waverley and often terminating at Leith Central.

This junction is between the single track line from Portobello East Junction and the double track from Niddrie South Junction. The line runs west to Craiglockhart Junction round the Edinburgh Suburban line (the former Edinburgh, Suburban and Southside Junction Railway).
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See also
Edinburgh and Dalkeith Railway
Lothian Lines (North British Railway)
An empty ballast train returning to Millerhill South Sidings on 1 July 2018 runs through Niddrie West Junction on the sub towards Brunstane. The ...
John Furnevel 01/07/2018
A Sunday morning ballast train returning from Cambuslang to Millerhill South Sidings on a bright and sunny autumn morning in October 2017. GBRf 66717 ...
John Furnevel 15/10/2017
A PW working conveying spoil and spent ballast on its way back to Millerhill from Carstairs on 10 September 2017. The train is seen here on the ...
John Furnevel 10/09/2017
Empty coaching stock used by ScotRail on the Fife Circle services approaching Niddrie West Junction on the morning of 11 August 2019 on its way from ...
John Furnevel 11/08/2019
4 of 110 images. more


This was the junction between the North British Railway's line from Portobello East Junction to Niddrie South Junction and an isolated curve of the Edinburgh, Suburban and Southside Junction Railway from Niddrie West Junction which enabled trains from the southside line to approach Edinburgh Waverley from the east, thus completing a circle line and provide a route for goods ...

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See also
Edinburgh and Hawick Railway (North British Railway)
47813 on the rear of the 'Polar Express' test run, on its way to see Santa in Gorgie, passing Niddrie North Junction on 29 November 2023. To the left ...
Bill Roberton 29/11/2023
ScotRail 380006 about to pass between the remains of the Lothian Lines bridge abutments at Niddrie North Junction on 8 July 2018. The train is an ...
John Furnevel 08/07/2018
A Tweedbank to Edinburgh service approaches its penultimate stop of Brunstane on 13 July. The pier it is passing is acting as a monument to the ...
David Panton 13/07/2018
A diverted empty stock movement from Craigentinny Depot to Waverley running past the site of Niddrie North Junction on 15 September 2019. The HST is ...
John Furnevel 15/09/2019
4 of 27 images. more





Niddrie West to East

This double track line ran from Niddrie West Junction to meet the original Fisherrow branch east of the Niddrie where it then used the trackbed for a short distance before diverting south to the North British Railway main line at Niddrie East Junction. This completed a triangular junction with the main line at the east end of the line.

This junction is between the single track line from Portobello East Junction and the double track from Niddrie South Junction. The line runs west to Craiglockhart Junction round the Edinburgh Suburban line (the former Edinburgh, Suburban and Southside Junction Railway).
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See also
Edinburgh and Dalkeith Railway
Lothian Lines (North British Railway)
An empty ballast train returning to Millerhill South Sidings on 1 July 2018 runs through Niddrie West Junction on the sub towards Brunstane. The ...
John Furnevel 01/07/2018
A Sunday morning ballast train returning from Cambuslang to Millerhill South Sidings on a bright and sunny autumn morning in October 2017. GBRf 66717 ...
John Furnevel 15/10/2017
A PW working conveying spoil and spent ballast on its way back to Millerhill from Carstairs on 10 September 2017. The train is seen here on the ...
John Furnevel 10/09/2017
Empty coaching stock used by ScotRail on the Fife Circle services approaching Niddrie West Junction on the morning of 11 August 2019 on its way from ...
John Furnevel 11/08/2019
4 of 110 images. more


This junction opened in 1884. Also known as Newhailes East Junction. It was the southern end of a Edinburgh, Suburban and Southside Junction Railway curve connecting north west to the Fisherrow branch of the Edinburgh and Dalkeith Railway.
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North British Railway