Macmerry Branch (North British Railway)

Introduction

This railway is closed.





Dates

03/06/1862Macmerry Branch (North British Railway)
Monktonhall Junction [1st] to Hardengreen Junction authorised with branch to Macmerry.
19/03/1870Macmerry Branch (North British Railway)
Line opened from Monktonhall Junction [1st] to Macmerry.
31/07/1870Macmerry Branch (North British Railway)
Connection from Hardengreen Junction (Edinburgh and Dalkeith Railway) to Smeaton (Macmerry Branch) opened.
01/05/1872Macmerry Branch (North British Railway)
Smeaton, Ormiston, Winton and Macmerry stations opened.
01/07/1925Macmerry Branch (North British Railway)
Ormiston (excluded) to Macmerry closed to passengers. Macmerry and Winton closed.
22/09/1930Macmerry Branch (North British Railway)
Smeaton and Crossgatehall Halt closed to passengers, ahead of the closure of the line to Gifford to passengers.
03/04/1933Macmerry Branch (North British Railway)
Gifford and Garvald Railway
Edinburgh (Monktonhall Junction) (excluded) to Gifford closed to passengers. Ormiston, Pencaitland, Saltoun, Humbie and Gifford closed.
02/05/1960Macmerry Branch (North British Railway)
Macmerry to Ormiston (excluded) closed to freight. Goods depots at Macmerry and Winton closed.
25/05/1965Gifford and Garvald Railway Macmerry Branch (North British Railway)
Saltoun to Smeaton (excluded) closed to freight. Ormiston goods depot closed.
  /  /1978Macmerry Branch (North British Railway)
Dalkeith Colliery closed.
  /  /1980Macmerry Branch (North British Railway)
Dalkeith Washery closed, line closed completely from Monktonhall Junction.

Portions of line and locations

This line is divided into a number of portions.


Monktonhall to Winton

This junction has had several different layouts and refers to several slightly different locations. The original junction was for the Macmerry Branch (North British Railway) the present version is between the East Coast Main Line (former North British Railway) and line to Millerhill Marshalling Yard (British Railways).
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See also
North British Railway
Lothian Lines (North British Railway)
A Virgin Trains East Coast service to Kings Cross photographed six miles out from Waverley in the spring of 2018. The train has just come off the long ...
John Furnevel 03/05/2018
There are two bridges over the River Esk close to Monktonhall Junction. The bridge to the right is the original North British Railway bridge and the ...
Duncan Ross 22/05/2021
A northbound cement train photographed shortly after turning west off the ECML at Monktonhall Junction on 19 July 2018. GBRf 66736 is on the 1961 BR ...
John Furnevel 19/07/2018
View south east towards Monktonhall Junction in 1999, taken from the trackbed of the NB Lothian Lines route to Wanton Walls Junction. The ECML is on ...
Ewan Crawford //1999
4 of 13 images. more


Initially the mineral line to Carberry Colliery Pits Nos 2 and 3 was reached via a reversing spur on the east side of the line. It was reached from the north.
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The first junction on the Gifford branch, seen looking north towards Monktonhall Junction on 28 December 2019. The colliery branch fell sharply to the ...
David Panton 28/12/2019
1 of 1 images.


This was a junction station. To the north the line, opened in 1866, ran to Monktonhall Junction (east of Edinburgh) and to the south the line continued through Dalkeith to Hardengreen Junction on the Waverley Route. To the south of the station was the branch to Macmerry (opened as far as Ormiston for goods in 1867). This was continued to Macmerry (goods 1868, passengers ...

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See also
Dalkeith Branch (North British Railway)
Smeaton station, closed on 22 September 1930, seen in 1981. The last trains on this line served Dalkeith Coal Preparation Plant until closure in 1978. ...
Bill Roberton //1981
Looking south over the former Smeaton station, towards Dalkeith Coal Preparation Plant, in 1973.
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Bill Roberton //1973
View north with the former Smeaton station at my back in 1997. ...
Ewan Crawford //1997
Looking south west along the A6094 towards Whitecraig, with the former Gifford/Dalkeith Colliery branch crossing over. 1978. ...
Bill Roberton //1978
4 of 15 images. more


This colliery was served by sidings from the Macmerry Branch (North British Railway). A train from Smeaton would arrive by reversal at Crossgatehall Halt. Opened by A G Moore & Co.
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This was a single platform halt opened for the Dalkeith Colliery Nos 1,2 and 3. The platform was on the north side of the line and west of the A6124 over bridge.
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Crossgatehall Halt had a tiny shed-like building and I initially thought it unlikely that it warranted live-in accommodation several times the size, ...
David Panton 06/11/2019
The railway cut through the crossroads at the hamlet of Crossgatehall and the roads had to be bridged. The arrangement has never been altered as seen ...
David Panton 06/11/2019
A Halt was constructed at Crossgatehall, East Lothian, by the NB in 1913 to serve the nearby village of Cousland. Located in the Lothian coalfield ...
John Furnevel 09/04/2017
3 of 3 images.


This was a single platform station, just west of Ormiston Junction where the line from Edinburgh divided for Macmerry (opened 1868) and Gifford (opened 1901). Ormiston itself opened to goods in 1867 and passengers in 1872.
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The site of Ormiston Station in December 2004, looking east along the remains of the overgrown platform towards the road bridge carrying the B6371. ...
John Furnevel 05/12/2004
Looking west over the site of the former Ormiston station. ...
Ewan Crawford //
St Margarets C16 4-4-2T no 67492 stands at Ormiston on 6 September 1958 with the SLS Lothian Lines Tour. The special, consisting of 4 ex-LNER ...
Robin Barbour Collection (Courtesy Bruce McCartney) 06/09/1958
A peaceful rural scene looking west over the former Ormiston station, East Lothian, towards Smeaton Junction from the B6371 road bridge around 1964. ...
Robin Barbour Collection (Courtesy Bruce McCartney) //1964
4 of 4 images.


This junction was directly east of Ormiston station. The Macmerry Branch (North British Railway) of 1867 was continued to Macmerry in 1868. This was met by the Gifford and Garvald Light Railway in 1901.
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Gifford and Garvald Light Railway




This station had a passing loop and two slightly staggered platforms. The platform on the west side had the station building at the south end and the east side platform was slightly further north. The goods yard was on the east side, approached from the north. Winton House is a half mile south east of the former station.
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Macmerry

This was the terminus of a branch from Monktonhall Junction. There were several mines in the Macmerry area. The station was in the west of Macmerry.
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View north to the terminus at Macmerry in 1999. The platform mound is in the middle distance and beyond that are the cottages which appear in ...
Ewan Crawford //1999
Macmerry station site in 1999. The view looks south from roughly the site of the signal box. The loading bank is on the right, the passenger platform ...
Ewan Crawford //1999
C16 no 67492 off St Margarets shed runs round an SLS Lothian lines railtour on 6 September 1958 in the goods yard at Macmerry. Passenger services on ...
Robin Barbour Collection (Courtesy Bruce McCartney) 06/09/1958
All change! Scene in the goods yard at Macmerry on 6 September 1958, with St Margarets C16 4-4-2T no 67492 involved in run-round manoeuvres ...
K A Gray 06/09/1958
4 of 5 images. more







Carberry Colliery

Initially the mineral line to Carberry Colliery Pits Nos 2 and 3 was reached via a reversing spur on the east side of the line. It was reached from the north.
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The first junction on the Gifford branch, seen looking north towards Monktonhall Junction on 28 December 2019. The colliery branch fell sharply to the ...
David Panton 28/12/2019
1 of 1 images.


Opened by Deans and Moore. In 1900 the Edinburgh Collieries Company rebuilt the colliery, abandoning pit no 1 and opening no 3.
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The Carberry Colliery branch had a trailing junction south of Monktonhall and crossed Carberry Road at this point, half way up the brae between ...
David Panton 06/11/2019
The gated and padlocked entrance to the former Carberry Colliery in 2019, photograph looking east along the trackbed from the site of the A6124 level ...
John Furnevel 24/03/2019
Recent photographs of the line from from Smeaton to Carberry Colliery where it crossed the A6124 prompted the addition of this photograph. I took this ...
Douglas Blades 30/10/1971
Course of the Carberry Colliery branch photographed in October 1998 from the site of the level crossing over the A6124. The pit was located in the ...
David Panton /05/1993
4 of 5 images. more