Leith North Branch (Caledonian Railway)

Introduction

This line provided a service from the docks at Leith harbour to Granton and Edinburgh, joining the Granton Branch (Caledonian Railway) at Pilton. The line is closed and now forms a walkway. The line was later augmented by a passenger service. This was provided by adding additional running lines to the south from Newhaven Junction to Leith.






Dates

07/08/1862Leith North Branch (Caledonian Railway)
Crew Junction (Granton Branch (Caledonian Railway)) to Leith North Goods and the Leith Western Docks authorised. Agreement with Leith Dock Commissioners. Includes Pilton Junction Branch (Pilton Junction West to Pilton Junction East).
01/09/1864Leith North Branch (Caledonian Railway)
Leith line opened to goods and minerals.
01/09/1864Leith North Branch (Caledonian Railway)
Pilton Junction West to Pilton Junction East opened. However the curve was, from this date, only used as a siding.
  /  /1865Leith North Branch (Caledonian Railway)
Bangholm Branch authorised. The proposed line was to link the Caledonian Railway and North British Railway.
  /  /1868Leith North Branch (Caledonian Railway)
Caledonian Railway's proposed Bangholm Branch, associated with the Leith North branch (Act 1862), abandoned. (Today Bangholm Park borders, and is to the south of, the former Newhaven station.) The proposed line was to link the Caledonian Railway and North British Railway.
01/08/1879Granton Branch (Caledonian Railway)
Leith North Branch (Caledonian Railway)
Leith North Passenger Branch (Caledonian Railway)
Passenger service starts, a new passenger portion opens from Newhaven Junction to Leith North on the south side of the existing goods lines. Granton Junction to Crew Junction to Newhaven Junction opened to passengers. Stations opened at Craigleith and Murrayfield on the Granton branch, Granton Road on the Leith North branch, Newhaven and Leith North on the new line.
01/12/1934Leith North Branch (Caledonian Railway)
East Pilton Halt opened.
05/05/1958Granton Branch (Caledonian Railway)
Leith North Branch (Caledonian Railway)
Leith North Passenger Branch (Caledonian Railway)
Class 100 DMUs introduced on the Edinburgh Princes Street to Leith North service.
09/09/1958Leith North Branch (Caledonian Railway)
Newhaven signal box re-painted for visit of King Olav of Norway.
30/04/1962Leith North Passenger Branch (Caledonian Railway)
Leith North Branch (Caledonian Railway)
Granton Branch (Caledonian Railway)
Edinburgh Princes Street (Dalry Middle Junction) to Leith North passenger service withdrawn. Craigleith, Murrayfield, Granton Road, Newhaven and Leith North closed.
04/09/1967Granton Branch (Caledonian Railway)
Leith North Branch (Caledonian Railway)
Granton Junction (excluded) to Coltbridge Junction to Crew Junction to Newhaven Junction (excluded) closed.
28/02/1968Leith North Branch (Caledonian Railway)
Newhaven Junction to Leith High Depot Junction (excluded) (for the Leith High Depot) closed to freight.
  /  /1970Leith North Branch (Caledonian Railway)
Leith North Goods closed. (Accessed from former North British Railway lines latterly).

Locations along the line

These locations are along the line.

This junction was between the goods only 1861 Granton Branch (Caledonian Railway) and the 1864 Leith North Branch (Caledonian Railway). The junction gave access to the Granton and Leith routes from the south. Both railways were double track.
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See also
Granton Branch (Caledonian Railway)
Thought I would capture this information board at the site of Crew Junction before it gets covered in graffiti. I don't imagine this will have too ...
David Panton 09/10/2020
Base of a lattice post signal near Crew Junction, seen during a walk of closed Edinburgh railway lines in January 2019. This was most likely the down ...
Bill Roberton 15/01/2019
I am standing at the site of the box at Crew Junction at Crewe Toll, Edinburgh looking north. Another RailScot contributor asserts that this junction ...
David Panton 23/01/2019
Site of the sidings immediately east of Crew Junction. That rusty (lighting?) pole may be a remnant of the yard. Incidentally those sinister-looking ...
David Panton 08/05/2020
4 of 18 images. more


This junction is also known as Pilton Junction West. The signal box here was called Pilton West Junction.
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Granton Branch (Caledonian Railway)
I wonder how many people passing here are aware that this was once a railway line? The bridge carrying Crewe Road Gardens was obviously rebuilt at the ...
David Panton 09/10/2020
This picture serves as a 'now' to Bill Roberton's 'then' of 1980 (see image 75406). The Granton Gasworks station building, hardly changed, serves ...
David Panton 08/01/2021
The view north from West Granton Road in 1997. There was a cycleroute down there, laid on the original trackbed level. Since this photograph the large ...
Ewan Crawford /09/1997
Looking north west to Granton Gasworks, and its former station, from just north of Pilton West Junction in 1998. The trackbed into the works is in the ...
Ewan Crawford //1998
4 of 11 images. more


This was a double track junction, the eastern apex of a triangular junction. The other junctions were Pilton West Junction to the north west (for Granton Harbour) and Crew Junction to the south west (for Edinburgh). Going west the line ran to Leith. The triangle opened in 1864. The lines ran near parallel for a short way before separating to the west.
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Pilton East junction was severed early - before adjacent East Pilton Halt opened, in fact. It served a chord to Pilton West on the Granton goods ...
David Panton 10/01/2020
Photograph of an information board on the former CR Leith North branch. As well as gripping stuff about esparto grass at Granton Harbour it shows an ...
David Panton 29/05/2020
View east from Pilton Drive of the CR line to Leith, now a foot/cycle path, in January 2019. Housing now occupies the site of the rail-served Bruce ...
Bill Roberton 15/01/2019
3 of 3 images.


Manufacturer of electrical equipment. Company originally formed in 1866. Moved to East Pilton works in 1904.
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After closure of the CR Leith branch in 1968, the internal railway sidings at Bruce Peebles survived to serve the stock yard with a Jones diesel crane ...
Bill Roberton //1976
This little stockade has been a puzzle to me for some years. It is hard by course of the CR Leith branch at exactly the location of the points for the ...
David Panton 24/04/2020
2 of 2 images.


This halt was built on the former site of Pilton Junction East, which was closed by the time the halt opened. The signal box which was formerly located here would have been at the east end of the eastbound platform.
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Having bought their ticket at the East Pilton 'potting shed' at the top of the other platform stairs, passengers for Princes Street would make their ...
David Panton 13/11/2020
The base of East Pilton's small and rudimentary ticket office on Pilton Drive seen on 13 January 2020. With its all-wooden construction and lack of ...
David Panton 13/01/2020
The base of the Down platform shelter at East Pilton seen on 13 January 2020. Nothing much has changed since I photographed this in 1986 See image ...
David Panton 13/01/2020
The halt opened to serve social housing in a tram-starved part of the city, but was more handy for an engineering works and a hospital (now the site ...
David Panton 07/04/2018
4 of 6 images. more


This was a two platform station with offices above on the east side of the Granton Road overbridge. Platforms were to the east of the bridge running east towards the Wardie Road overbridge. There were waiting shelters on the platforms. There was no goods yard.
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The walkway on the CR's Leith North branch faithfully follows the trackbed except here at Granton Road where it makes a very slight detour to use the ...
David Panton 09/04/2020
The up side access to Granton Road station from Wardie Road in February 1986. ...
David Panton /02/1986
The almost impenetrable site of Granton Road station in February 1986, looking west at the foot of the path up to the ticket office.  I'm therefore ...
David Panton /02/1986
The former Granton Road station in 2002, looking west towards the bridge carrying the said road over the formation. Closed in 1962, much of the route ...
John Furnevel 22/04/2002
4 of 6 images. more


This junction opened in 1879 when the Leith North, which had opened in 1864, was converted for passenger use. A separate line ran from here on the south side of the original goods line to North Leith.
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See also
Leith North Passenger Branch (Caledonian Railway)
Leith New Lines (Caledonian Railway)
A very minor railway junction makes an odd entry in the Ordnance Gazetteer of Scotland (1885, my collection). What is even odder is that it surely ...
David Panton 06/09/2020
The location where the CR's Leith New Lines left the Leith North branch, seen in January 2019. There was a small mineral depot where the flats now ...
David Panton 18/01/2019
Detail from the map of Edinburgh included in the Ordnance Gazetteer of Scotland (1886, my collection) prominently showing the railways of west Leith. ...
David Panton 27/09/2020
The former Newhaven Junction - goods sidings fanned off to the right, quickly followed by the line to Seafield. Looking east towards Leith on 25 Nov ...
David Panton 25/11/2009
4 of 4 images.




This junction was immediately east of Newhaven station. A connection was made from the goods lines (the original lines dating from 1864, to the north) to the passenger lines (dating from 1879 and to the south) allowing a train from the west to cross to the passenger lines and then enter Leith High Depot (also known as George Street Mineral Depot). The depot was on the south side of the ...

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Leith North Passenger Branch (Caledonian Railway)


This was a coal depot. Also known as the George Street Mineral Depot. This depot was largely to south of the goods and passenger lines, accessed from west (but also some lines to the north, accessed from east.
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Leith High Depot (George Street Mineral Depot) seen from the west in 1961. ...
David Murray-Smith /07/1961
1 of 1 images.


This goods yard was the terminus of the line from Crew Junction opened in 1864. In 1879 the line was opened to passengers too, with a new terminus North Leith being built to the south and additional lines laid from Newhaven Junction. The depot was built on land reclaimed from the sea.
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This unglamorous building is a surprising survivor of late C20 redevelopment. A little digging shows that it was probably part of the CR's dockside ...
David Panton 09/07/2021
A short section of surviving track from the old Caledonian Leith North yard. View towards Ocean Terminal in September 2012. See image 40179 ...
Bill Roberton 01/09/2012
Site of the CR Leith North yard as seen looking west from the Ocean Terminal shopping centre in September 2012. The passenger station was out of shot ...
Bill Roberton 01/09/2012
With D5308 in the rear, D368 eases the empty stock of the Royal Train into a temporary platform constructed near Leith North terminus on 16th October ...
Frank Spaven Collection (Courtesy David Spaven) 16/10/1962
4 of 4 images.