Wemyss Private Railway

Introduction

Also known as the Wemyss Coal Company Railway or Mr Wemyss' Private Railway.

This line is closed. This line was built by the Wemyss family who were not contents with the service the North British Railway were providing between their pits and the Docks at Methil. The railway absorbed earlier lines; portions of the earlier Bowman and Co Railway (Muiredge to Isabella and Muiredge to Methil Harbour).

The Wemyss Estate still exists, now called Wemyss Properties .






Dates

  /  /1905Wemyss Coal Company
Takes over Denbeath Colliery from Bowman and Company. Their railway network was to be expanded to become the Wemyss Private Railway.

Portions of line and locations

This line is divided into a number of portions.


Percival to West Wemyss

This pit was served by a sidings from the Wemyss and Buckhaven Railway just east of West Wemyss station. The sidings were on the south side of the line and the pit was reached by a reversal in the sidings. The pit was closed by 1893.
...

More details

See also
Wemyss and Buckhaven Railway


This was a redevelopment and expansion of the Wellesley Colliery Lady Lilian Pit. The pithead buildings were rebuilt and a new shaft sunk in 1890.
...

More details


This depot consisted of a locomotive shed, workshops and wagon workshops. The depot belonged to the Wemyss Estate's Wemyss Private Railway and was located on that system in the west of East Wemyss, just to the west of Wemyss Castle station on the neighbouring Wemyss and Buckhaven Railway.
...

More details
The Wemyss Private Railway wagons shops and loco shed, seen from the former WPR main line. A steel bridge carried the line over the Wemyss & Buckhaven ...
Bill Roberton //1992
The abandoned WPR wagons shops and loco shed (Scott's Road) at East Wemyss in 1992. Since demolished and replaced by housing, ...
Bill Roberton //1992
2 of 2 images.







Earlseat Branch

This colliery was served by a branch of the Wemyss Private Railway.
...

More details
Embedded rails at the site of Earlseat Colliery and Disposal Point in 1992. The latter site had closed in 1964. This was served by the Wemyss Private ...
Bill Roberton //1992
1 of 1 images.









Denbeath Branch




Michael Colliery Branch

The overgrown sidings at Michael Colliery, in East Wemyss, Fife, in 1980, with a few fragments of track remaining after the 1967 closure.
...
Bill Roberton //1980
The Michael Colliery, in East Wemyss, Fife was closed after a disastrous underground fire on 8 September 1967. Looking over the railway approach to ...
Bill Roberton 08/09/1967
Headframe of the Michael Colliery, East Wemyss, in the early 1980s. The tubs would have moved coal from the shaft to the screens. The colliery closed ...
Bill Roberton //1982
3 of 3 images.


An elaborate planter at Coaltown of Wemyss stands in front of the memorial to the fire at nearby Michael Colliery in 1967, which claimed the lives of ...
John Yellowlees 17/04/2021
Model locomotive and wagon adjacent to the former A955 level crossing in East Wemyss. NCB locomotives used to move WPR wagons from the Michael ...
Bill Roberton 28/04/2018
Mocked-up mine tubs painted to recall the Wemyss Private Railway, located where the Wemyss & Buckhaven (Thornton Junction - Methil) line passed under ...
Bill Roberton 09/07/2017
Monument to the memory of nine men killed by a disastrous fire at the Michael Colliery, East Wemyss, on 9 September 1967. The railway connecting the ...
Bill Roberton 28/04/2018
4 of 7 images. more