Millerhill Marshalling Yard (British Railways)

Introduction

This marshalling yard and the Monktonhall Curve are open. The marshalling yard has, however, been drastically cut back from its 1960s size and very little of it remains in use. The few remaining original sidings are in the extreme east of the site currently in use as a permanent way depot. The line which ran from Niddrie South Junction through the centre between the up and down yards and east to Monktonhall Junction also remains open and is electrified. The lines which led south to Carlisle are now closed. This yard was built by British Railways in the 1960s as a result of the 1950s modernisation scheme. It partly opened in 1961 and was fully open in 1963. Much of the former Millerhill Yard Down Sorting Sidings and the site of the Monktonhall Colliery was due for re-development as a new housing estate. A council recycling centre has been opened at the north end of the former down yard. The Borders Railway (Network Rail) cuts through the site of the Millerhill Down Secondary Sorting Sidings. The MPD site, and some of the Millerhill Yard Up Sorting Sidings, have been taken over for the new Millerhill EMU Depot. The depot is accessed from the north. The eastern part of this yard has re-opened, with reconditioned sidings, as a permanent way depot. This depot is accessed from the south.






Portions of line and locations

This line is divided into a number of portions.


Up Yard

From Niddrie South Junction to Millerhill Junction.

This junction is in the south east of Edinburgh. It controls the junction between the Edinburgh Waverley to Tweedbank line and the goods only line from Slateford and Haymarket. It is a busy location with freight, passenger trains and depot traffic, made difficult by the single track line north to Portobello.
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See also
Edinburgh and Dalkeith Railway
Edinburgh and Hawick Railway (North British Railway)
Lothian Lines (North British Railway)
An early Sunday morning PW train returning to Millerhill South Sidings in October 2017 carrying residual spoil and spent ballast. The train is ...
John Furnevel 15/10/2017
A Tweedbank service clears the junction on the approach to Newcraighall on 5 June. The feathers are for the connection with the Sub at Niddrie West, ...
David Panton 05/06/2018
Grab shot from a Waverley - Newcraighall train crossing a bridge on the approach to Niddrie South Junction (100m to the left) on 9 August 2013. View ...
John Furnevel 09/08/2013
The 0911 Edinburgh - Tweedbank approaching Niddrie South Junction shortly after leaving Brunstane on 10 June 2018. On the left is the line to Niddrie ...
John Furnevel 10/06/2018
4 of 9 images. more


321 402 sits on the site of the Up Arrival Sidings having been involved in a Network Rail Emergency exercise in February. 6 July. ...
Bill Roberton 06/07/2023
The eastern section of the bridge that carried Whitehill Road over the up reception sidings at the north end of end of Millerhill Yard, seen here ...
John Furnevel 18/01/2015
Looking north from the Whitehill Road bridge in 1977, over the former Millerhill Up Arrival Sidings, occupied by engineers vehicles.
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Bill Roberton //1977
An unidentified Class 08 shunts the tip at the north end of Millerhill Yard in 2000.
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Bill Roberton //2000
4 of 18 images. more




The Up Yard, originally of 40 looped sidings, opened in 1962.
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26005 has the fuel tanks for the depot at Millerhill yard and is reversing to reach it. The former main line, down side hump and Monktonhall Colliery ...
Roger Geach /04/1981
Sidings on the east side of Millerhill Yard, occupied by engineers' wagons. To be the location of the new EMU depot? ...
Bill Roberton //1996
2 of 2 images.


37692 The Lass O' Ballochmyle in BR Coal Sector livery on the east side of Millerhill yard in June 1998. [Ref query 5091] ...
John Furnevel 30/06/1998
The body of Park Royal railbus SC79971 in use as a bothy at Millerhill Yard on 28 April 1984. Later that year it would be buried at a landfill site ...
Bill Roberton 28/04/1984
2 of 2 images.




The wagon works a the south end of Millerhill Up Yard seen around 1985.
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Bill Roberton //1985
1 of 1 images.


Confusingly Millerhill South Junction is north of Millerhill Junction and the former Millerhill station.
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Wide view looking north towards Millerhill Yard from Old Craighall Road on 18 August 2022. On the right is the line that ran between Millerhill ...
John Furnevel 18/08/2022
This signal on the east-south cord at Millerhill looks like it might have sighting problems. You can't get close (this is a zoom shot) but this line ...
David Panton 03/12/2019
My first photo of a 66... 66050 parked in the headshunt near the wagon shops at the south end of Millerhill Yard, on 8 April 1999. ...
Bill Roberton 08/04/1999
In 2000, 37415 stops to reverse a PW train into the up yard. It is paused between Millerhill South Junction on the Monktonhall curve and Millerhill ...
Ewan Crawford //2000
4 of 9 images. more


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)
Edinburgh, Loanhead and Roslin Railway
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
Looking towards the Down arrivals yard ('Millerhill Yard Carlisle Arrival Sidings') at Millerhill in the 1980s, with the lifted Waverley Route on the ...
Bill Roberton //1985
4 of 6 images. more





Down Yard

Most arriving goods would enter the Millerhill Yard Down Arrival Sidings to enter the down yard via the hump, but it was possible to make use of the Millerhill Yard Carlisle Arrival Sidings. The down side also had a departure yard at the north end for fitted freight.

Carlisle Arrival Sidings predate Millerhill Yard (originally known as Millerhill Down Yard). These were first used to to give access to the Millerhill goods yard on the west side of the mainline approached from the Roslin branch. Adding these sidings allowed access off the main line. They were probably added after initial opening of branch in 1874.
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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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More details

See also
Edinburgh and Hawick Railway (North British Railway)
Edinburgh, Loanhead and Roslin Railway
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
Looking towards the Down arrivals yard ('Millerhill Yard Carlisle Arrival Sidings') at Millerhill in the 1980s, with the lifted Waverley Route on the ...
Bill Roberton //1985
4 of 6 images. more


This was a set of seven sidings at the south end of Millerhill Marshalling Yard (British Railways). The sidings were south of the west side hump and Millerhill Yard Down Sorting Sidings.
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A view north, perhaps around 1985, of the south end of Millerhill Yard looking north. The down yard reception sidings have been relatively recently ...
Bill Roberton //1985
A 1-1-0 heads north through the former Down Yard at Millerhill on 5 June 1987. On the left is the loading hopper at Monktonhall Colliery. ...
Bill Roberton 05/06/1987
2 of 2 images.




This was a set of 40 sorting sidings on the west side of Millerhill Marshalling Yard (British Railways) approached from the hump to the south via 6 retarders.
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View south over the former Down Yard at Millerhill in 1992 with Monktonhall Colliery in the background. The Borders Railway will veer to the right ...
Bill Roberton //1992
Looking south over Millerhill down yard in April 1980, with Monktonhall Colliery coal loading facility in the right background. ...
John Furnevel 22/04/1980
Looking south over Millerhill Yard on a misty 28 April 1984. Tracklifting is well underway, with the down sidings being removed. See image 52371 ...
Bill Roberton 28/04/1984
View south over the Northwest section of Millerhill yard in September 1971. The main lines are over on the left and Monktonhall Colliery stands in the ...
John Furnevel 11/09/1971
4 of 4 images.


This was a set of 9 single ended sorting sidings on the west side of the Millerhill Yard Down Sorting Sidings at their northern end.
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A September evening at Millerhill Yard in 1995. View is south over the abandoned down yard which by this time was completely overgrown. Over on ...
John Furnevel 28/09/1995
Freight for the north leaving Millerhill down yard in November 1972 behind a pair of type 2 locomotives. ...
John Furnevel 03/11/1972
A long lens view south over the down side of Millerhill marshalling yard from Whitehill Road on 22 April 1980, with Monktonhall Colliery dominating ...
John Furnevel 22/04/1980
Class 37 No. D6903 standing at the north end of Millerhill Yard on Wednesday 18th February 1970 prior to working the 15.07 Millerhill to Leith South ...
Bill Jamieson 18/02/1970
4 of 4 images.






This was the first station at Niddrie, opened by the E&DR at the point of divergence of the lines to Fisherrow and South Esk one year before the opening of the South Leith branch. This location is marked on OS maps as having a 'Branch House' immediately to the south of the running lines. The station is likely to have been an interchange pausing point and probably did not serve the ...

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See also
Edinburgh and Dalkeith Railway





Millerhill MPD

Connection from yard, to MPD to the west junction.

This is the junction between the Newcraighall North Junction to Monktonhall Junction route through the former Millerhill Yard and the Millerhill EGIP Depot, built partly on the site of the Millerhill MPD and the Millerhill Yard Up Sorting Sidings.
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See also
Edinburgh and Dalkeith Railway
A returning PW train destined for Millerhill south sidings runs through the yard past the refuelling and stabling point in the summer of 1997. ...
John Furnevel 16/07/1997
Coal empties for Ravenstruther and Hunterston seen looking south towards Millerhill Yard in October 2007. EWS 66200 has just been given the road with ...
John Furnevel 08/10/2007
Dalzell - Lackenby flats running south through Millerhill yard late one afternoon in the autumn of 1996 behind a BR 'Metals Sector' liveried class 60 ...
John Furnevel 15/10/1996
Sunday morning activity at Millerhill on 22 January 2017 as Freightliner 66551 ambles through the yard. Works in connection with the new ScotRail EMU ...
John Furnevel 22/01/2017
4 of 5 images. more


This was a locomotive depot opened with the Millerhill Marshalling Yard (British Railways) in 1962.
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24104, 40159 and an unidentified Class 40 at Millerhill in August 1976. ...
Doug Nicholls /08/1976
Unidentified Class 37 and Class 26 in early red stripe Railfreight livery at Millerhill in 1987. ...
Crinan Dunbar //1987
A quiet Sunday at Millerhill Depot in 1983. 26006 is closest, resting with other 26s and 37s.
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Bill Roberton //1983
An evening view of Millerhill MPD seen in 2004. There were at least eight 66s parked up for the night. ...
Ewan Crawford 27/12/2004
4 of 17 images. more







Up Monktonhall Curve

Goods could leave the up sorting and up secondary sidings by conventional means and head for the East Coast Main Line.



This junction is on the line between Newcraighall North Junction and Monktonhall Junction near the southern end of the former Millerhill Yard Up Sorting Sidings. It is the eastern apex of a triangle of lines with Millerhill West Junction giving access north to Newcraighall North Junction and Millerhill South Junction which leads to the disused portion to the former ...

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Millerhill East is at the southern end of that neat 'S' on the map that links the ECML at Monktonhall with Millerhill Yard. The chord to Millerhill ...
David Panton 03/12/2019
GB Railfreight 66733 leaves Millerhill Yard with the 6E45 Bridgeton Yard (ex-Fort William) Alcan empties to North Blyth on 4 June. ...
Bill Roberton 04/06/2012
EWS 66080 reverses a trainload of ballast spoil for unloading at the mound at the top end of Millerhill yard in January 2006. See image 13620. ...
James Young 25/01/2006
Looking west at Millerhill East Junction. ...
Ewan Crawford //
4 of 5 images. more


This was a junction which was formed in 1961 with the opening of the Millerhill Marshalling Yard (British Railways) which met the existing Niddrie West Junction to Monktonhall Junction route here. It appears that at first the junction was unnamed, considered part of Monktonhall Junction, but after closure of Wanton Walls Junction [1st] in 1967 the name was transferred to this ...

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See also
Lothian Lines (North British Railway)
The far bridge carries the ECML while the nearer one is for the eastern end of the elegant 'S' which carries the 1960s Monktonhall to Millerhill ...
David Panton 30/05/2021
The connection between the Monktonhall to Niddrie West line and the new Millerhill 'S' was called Wanton Walls Junction, the name pinched (why?) from ...
David Panton 29/05/1995
View from a diverted North Berwick-bound DMU. Looking west in 1989 along, on the left, the disused trackbed of the Lothian Lines line from Monktonhall ...
Bill Roberton //1989
On the afternoon of 5 February 1970, BRCW Type 2 No. 5303 approaches Monktonhall Junction off the chord from Millerhill Yard with a loaded MGR coal ...
Bill Jamieson 05/02/1970
4 of 4 images.





Down Monktonhall Curve

Arrival from the East Coast Main Line to the up yard was inconvenient. This was carried out via the east junction, south junction, Millerhill junction and Carlisle arrival sidings before running round to head for the down arrival sidings. Unfortunately the yard had been largely configured for operation with the Waverley Route.

This was a junction which was formed in 1961 with the opening of the Millerhill Marshalling Yard (British Railways) which met the existing Niddrie West Junction to Monktonhall Junction route here. It appears that at first the junction was unnamed, considered part of Monktonhall Junction, but after closure of Wanton Walls Junction [1st] in 1967 the name was transferred to this ...

More details

See also
Lothian Lines (North British Railway)
The far bridge carries the ECML while the nearer one is for the eastern end of the elegant 'S' which carries the 1960s Monktonhall to Millerhill ...
David Panton 30/05/2021
The connection between the Monktonhall to Niddrie West line and the new Millerhill 'S' was called Wanton Walls Junction, the name pinched (why?) from ...
David Panton 29/05/1995
View from a diverted North Berwick-bound DMU. Looking west in 1989 along, on the left, the disused trackbed of the Lothian Lines line from Monktonhall ...
Bill Roberton //1989
On the afternoon of 5 February 1970, BRCW Type 2 No. 5303 approaches Monktonhall Junction off the chord from Millerhill Yard with a loaded MGR coal ...
Bill Jamieson 05/02/1970
4 of 4 images.


This junction is on the line between Newcraighall North Junction and Monktonhall Junction near the southern end of the former Millerhill Yard Up Sorting Sidings. It is the eastern apex of a triangle of lines with Millerhill West Junction giving access north to Newcraighall North Junction and Millerhill South Junction which leads to the disused portion to the former ...

More details
Millerhill East is at the southern end of that neat 'S' on the map that links the ECML at Monktonhall with Millerhill Yard. The chord to Millerhill ...
David Panton 03/12/2019
GB Railfreight 66733 leaves Millerhill Yard with the 6E45 Bridgeton Yard (ex-Fort William) Alcan empties to North Blyth on 4 June. ...
Bill Roberton 04/06/2012
EWS 66080 reverses a trainload of ballast spoil for unloading at the mound at the top end of Millerhill yard in January 2006. See image 13620. ...
James Young 25/01/2006
Looking west at Millerhill East Junction. ...
Ewan Crawford //
4 of 5 images. more


Confusingly Millerhill South Junction is north of Millerhill Junction and the former Millerhill station.
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Wide view looking north towards Millerhill Yard from Old Craighall Road on 18 August 2022. On the right is the line that ran between Millerhill ...
John Furnevel 18/08/2022
This signal on the east-south cord at Millerhill looks like it might have sighting problems. You can't get close (this is a zoom shot) but this line ...
David Panton 03/12/2019
My first photo of a 66... 66050 parked in the headshunt near the wagon shops at the south end of Millerhill Yard, on 8 April 1999. ...
Bill Roberton 08/04/1999
In 2000, 37415 stops to reverse a PW train into the up yard. It is paused between Millerhill South Junction on the Monktonhall curve and Millerhill ...
Ewan Crawford //2000
4 of 9 images. more


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.)
...

More details

See also
Edinburgh and Hawick Railway (North British Railway)
Edinburgh, Loanhead and Roslin Railway
26042 shunts a ECML electrification train at Millerhill Junction in 1990.
...
Bill Roberton //1990
37153 propels a wiring train into the ECML electrification yard at Millerhill Junction in 1990.
...
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
Looking towards the Down arrivals yard ('Millerhill Yard Carlisle Arrival Sidings') at Millerhill in the 1980s, with the lifted Waverley Route on the ...
Bill Roberton //1985
4 of 6 images. more


Carlisle Arrival Sidings predate Millerhill Yard (originally known as Millerhill Down Yard). These were first used to to give access to the Millerhill goods yard on the west side of the mainline approached from the Roslin branch. Adding these sidings allowed access off the main line. They were probably added after initial opening of branch in 1874.
...

More details