Forth Bridge Connecting Lines (North British Railway)

Introduction

This line is open. The lines pass close to Edinburgh Airport at Turnhouse and there have been plans to built a line from near Winchburgh, via the Airport, to Turnhouse. This route would slightly shorten the Edinburgh and Glasgow Railway and allow Edinburgh Airport to be more accessible to both Edinburgh and Glasgow.






Dates

02/06/1890Forth Bridge Connecting Lines (North British Railway)
Line opened from Dalmeny to Winchburgh.
  /03/2004Edinburgh Airport Rail Link
Proposed scheme would have a station under Edinburgh Airport served by a link off the Forth Bridge Connecting Lines (North British Railway) and the Edinburgh and Glasgow Railway and the Forth Bridge lines. The layout would be southern approaches (both approached from the east) from South Gyle and Gogar combining and passing under Edinburgh Airport before dividing with a western link to Humbie Signal Box and northern link to Dalmeny South Junction. This layout would allow trains from Edinburgh Waverley and Glasgow Queen Street High Level to serve the station and the line to the north from Edinburgh to Fife, Aberdeen and Inverness over the Forth Bridge. The estimated cost was £500M.
  /03/2010Forth Bridge Connecting Lines (North British Railway)
Gogar interchange station promoted by Scottish Government as a cheap alternative to an Edinburgh Airport Rail Link. Cost expected to be £40M. (Opened as Edinburgh Gateway.)

Portions of line and locations

This line is divided into a number of portions.


Saughton to Dalmeny

This junction is west of Edinburgh. This is where the Edinburgh and Glasgow Railway of 1842 is met by the Forth Bridge Connecting Lines (North British Railway) of 1890. The location is just east of the former Saughton station. Both lines are double track and from the east of the junction to Edinburgh the line is quadrupled.
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See also
Edinburgh and Glasgow Railway
A couple of spotters look on as a Glasgow to Edinburgh service recovers from a signal slow on 29 July 2021. Photographed from the tram bridge which is ...
David Panton 29/07/2021
Pathfinder Tours 'The Edinburgh Explorer' passing Saughton on 27 April 2002. 66040 and 66117 were in charge. This view has since been transformed and ...
Bill Roberton 27/04/2002
A Helensburgh Central to Edinburgh service nears journey's end on 5 June 2021. Who knows, one day there may be overhead wires on the Fife Lines side ...
David Panton 05/06/2021
156504 and 156462 pass the former Saughton Junction with a service for Edinburgh. ...
Bill Roberton //1990
4 of 76 images. more


This was a four platform station on raised embankments to the east side of Saughton Road in western Edinburgh.
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Edinburgh and Glasgow Railway
A 6-car class 334 EMU set eastbound between Edinburgh Park and Haymarket on a sunny summer afternoon in July 2014. The train is the 1323 Milngavie - ...
John Furnevel 25/07/2014
ScotRail 170414 running west at speed on the approach to Saughton Junction on 26 October 2002 with an Edinburgh Waverley - Glasgow Queen Street ...
John Furnevel 26/10/2002
Shortly after leaving Balgreen on a sunny 25 July 2014 a westbound Edinburgh tram about to cross the Edinburgh - Glasgow main line on the approach to ...
John Furnevel 25/07/2014
A Bathgate train westbound from Haymarket in November 2006 approaching Saughton Junction. ...
John Furnevel 02/11/2006
4 of 45 images. more


This signal box was to the north of Saughton Junction and Saughton station on the line to the Forth Bridge from Edinburgh. The box was the north side of the line. ...

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This is a modern and minimal two station platform. There is a station car park to the south. This station is entirely new and is not a re-opening. Previously the nearest station was at Saughton, now closed, a mile to the east.
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A Waverley-bound service accelerates through South Gyle after a stop at Edinburgh Gateway. There are several pairs of stations in Scotland which are ...
David Panton 07/07/2021
This double arrow here refers to South Gyle station, but non-locals might be forgiven for thinking otherwise. Pinkhill staion closed on 1968, and ...
David Panton 10/07/2018
A First ScotRail DMU northbound out of Edinburgh heading for The Forth Bridge on 6 August 2013. The train has recently restarted its journey after ...
John Furnevel 06/08/2013
An Edinburgh service calls at South Gyle on 11 January 2019. South Gyle lost half of its daytime services when the new Edinburgh Gateway took them ...
David Panton 11/01/2019
4 of 20 images. more


This station is a train/tram interchange which also serves the Gyle shopping Centre. Trams run west to Edinburgh Airport.
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A six-car 158 calls at Edinburgh Gateway bound for Waverley. I didn't notice whether anybody got off, but if just one person did they would have ...
David Panton 01/05/2021
'Our railway family' is an emerging theme in ScotRail advertising (note the advert on the right). ...
John Yellowlees 22/09/2023
A six-car Edinburgh-bound Class 158 calls at Edinburgh Gateway on 8 May 2021. ...
David Panton 08/05/2021
Some neighbours for Edinburgh Gateway at last? I'm not sure whether that 'gateway' is influenced by the station name. For now at least the packaging ...
David Panton 10/07/2021
4 of 59 images. more


This was a two platform station to the south of Turnhouse Farm and east of today's Edinburgh Airport.
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An Aberdeen-bound HST seen just to the north of Turnhouse on 4 September 2021. ...
David Panton 04/09/2021
I think the driver of this Inverness service is waving to the driver of a passing 158 rather than me, alas. Remains of Turnhouse station are as scant ...
David Panton 01/05/2021
An Edinburgh-bound Class 158 approaches the site of Turnhouse station on 4 September 2021. Pretty rural for now but that digger is harbinger of the ...
David Panton 04/09/2021
The construction tentacles of the new West Craigs development reach as far west as the old station house at Turnhouse as seen in this view of 4 ...
David Panton 04/09/2021
4 of 12 images. more


Looking south west at Turnhouse on 11 September 2009. The residue of a morning mist still hangs over the airport as a ScotRail five car 170+158 ...
John Furnevel 11/09/2009
An Air France jet about to land at Edinburgh Airport in June 2008 flys low over the railway viaduct spanning the River Almond carrying the line ...
John Furnevel 26/06/2008
A new interchange station is to be built at Gogar in order that train passengers can change onto a tram to reach Edinburgh Airport. The photograph ...
John Furnevel 26/06/2008
3 of 3 images.


This was a four way junction. The 1868 was crossed by the 1890 Forth Bridge Connecting Lines (North British Railway) which joined the line from south east and left the older line to the north west of the junction.
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See also
South Queensferry Branch (North British Railway)
25227 passes Dalmeny Junction, with a Thornton to Mossend trip working, in 1978.
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Bill Roberton //1978
A view south at Dalmeny South Junction in 2003 with the trackbed of the closed line to Ratho going off to the right. The open line is to Saughton ...
Ewan Crawford 28/12/2003
2 of 2 images.





Dalmeny South to North Junction

This was a four way junction. The 1868 was crossed by the 1890 Forth Bridge Connecting Lines (North British Railway) which joined the line from south east and left the older line to the north west of the junction.
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See also
South Queensferry Branch (North British Railway)
25227 passes Dalmeny Junction, with a Thornton to Mossend trip working, in 1978.
...
Bill Roberton //1978
A view south at Dalmeny South Junction in 2003 with the trackbed of the closed line to Ratho going off to the right. The open line is to Saughton ...
Ewan Crawford 28/12/2003
2 of 2 images.


This junction is south of Dalmeny station. Lines from Edinburgh (Saughton Junction) and the west (Winchburgh Junction) meet before passing through Dalmeny station and crossing the Forth Bridge.
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More details

See also
Forth Bridge Railway
A First ScotRail 158 with a returning Fife Circle service on the downhill section half a mile south of the Forth Bridge in the summer of 2008. The ...
John Furnevel 16/06/2008
A northbound train approaching Dalmeny Junction passes below the A90 on 26 August 2008.The line to Winchburgh Junction can be seen curving away to the ...
John Furnevel 26/08/2008
The 1530 Edinburgh to Aberdeen service, powered by a 43127/43144 combo, heads north through Dalmeny Junction on 15 June 2023. The line trailing in ...
Malcolm Chattwood 15/06/2023
A northbound First ScotRail DMU passing below the A90 overbridge on the approach to Dalmeny Junction on 26 June 2008. The pathway running in parallel ...
John Furnevel 26/06/2008
4 of 32 images. more





Winchburgh to Dalmeny

This junction opened in 1890 between the 1842 Edinburgh and Glasgow Railway and the approach to the then new Forth Bridge. It is the western end of a line which runs to Dalmeny. This was a double track junction.
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See also
Edinburgh and Glasgow Railway
A 47/7 propels an Edinburgh - Glasgow Queen Street push-pull near Philpstoun. ...
Bill Roberton //1990
A4 Pacific 60009 Union of South Africa climbing away from Winchburgh Junction with the morning SRPS Forth Circle special on 27 April ...
Jim Peebles 27/04/2014
Running east from Winchburgh Junction is a loaded coal train for Longannet. ...
Ewan Crawford //
An afternoon Glasgow Queen St to Edinburgh Waverley push-pull working hurries past Winchburgh Junction with what appears to be class 27 No. 5400 ...
Bill Jamieson /04/1972
4 of 9 images. more






This signal box was located on the western approach to the Forth Bridge on the line between Winchburgh Junction and Dalmeny North Junction.
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This junction is south of Dalmeny station. Lines from Edinburgh (Saughton Junction) and the west (Winchburgh Junction) meet before passing through Dalmeny station and crossing the Forth Bridge.
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More details

See also
Forth Bridge Railway
A First ScotRail 158 with a returning Fife Circle service on the downhill section half a mile south of the Forth Bridge in the summer of 2008. The ...
John Furnevel 16/06/2008
A northbound train approaching Dalmeny Junction passes below the A90 on 26 August 2008.The line to Winchburgh Junction can be seen curving away to the ...
John Furnevel 26/08/2008
The 1530 Edinburgh to Aberdeen service, powered by a 43127/43144 combo, heads north through Dalmeny Junction on 15 June 2023. The line trailing in ...
Malcolm Chattwood 15/06/2023
A northbound First ScotRail DMU passing below the A90 overbridge on the approach to Dalmeny Junction on 26 June 2008. The pathway running in parallel ...
John Furnevel 26/06/2008
4 of 32 images. more