Craigentinny Depot

Location type

Loco shed

Names and dates

Craigentinny Carriage Sidings (1914-1978)
Craigentinny Depot (1978-)

Opened on the North British Railway.

Description

This a an important depot servicing trains used on the East Coast Main Line.

A signal box opened here in 1895 on the north side of the line. The was with the addition of an eastbound slow line on the approach to Portobello West Junction, always a bottleneck before the opening of the Lothian Lines (North British Railway) in 1915.

The box was replaced in 1909 when the North British Railway established a new set of carriage sidings here. (The depot celebrated its 100th anniversary in 2014, although it appears in the Ordnance Survey map revised in 1912-13 so perhaps it opened a little earlier.) These new sidings were located to the south of the main line and faced Edinburgh. There were a series of dead end sidings, approached from the west, reversal from which gave access to carriage sheds.

The layout of the depot was changed in 1978 in preparation for the introduction of the HSTs to the East Coast Main Line. A series of sheds now cover the area once occupied by the carriage sidings with some stabling roads to the south. Sidings run east on the south side of the main line through the site of Portobello [3rd] station to sidings generally used to stable 'The Leaf Train' and locomotives used for sleeper haulage.

The depot used to receive oil by train, from Grangemouth New Oil Terminal.

Prior to the railway use of the site this was a clay pit which was connected by a tramway to the Westbank Brick and Tile Works. This tramway ran north east under the North British Railway main line, passing under the bridge originally built to cross over the Figgate Burn.

Tags

Sidings depot

External links

Canmore site record
NLS Collection OS map of 1892-1914
NLS Collection OS map of 1944-67
NLS Map
NLS Map
NLS Map
NLS Map
08/05/2021




Chronology Dates

  /  /1909North British Railway
Carriage sidings opened which were to become Craigentinny Depot.
25/04/1976North British Railway
Eastern approach to Craigentinny Depot opened from Portobello.
  /  /1978North British Railway
Craigentinny Depot altered for the introduction of the HSTs to the East Coast Main Line.
  /03/2003North British Railway
Great North Eastern Railway begins major overhauls of HST coaches at Craigentinny Depot.

News items

17/05/2016Craigentinny does it all [Rail Engineer]
10/01/2016Virgin unveils first train of refurbished fleet [Rail News]
22/06/2015First Virgin liveried HST enters service on East Coast [Rail News]
29/08/2012Train fumes ‘killing’ Portobello residents [Scotsman]

Books


A Regional History of the Railways of Great Britain: Scotland - The Lowlands and the Borders v. 6 (Regional railway history series)

Drem to Edinburgh: Including Gullane, Haddington, Tranent, Musselburgh and Fisherrow Branches (Scottish Main Lines)

Edinburgh St. Margaret's: The Story of the 'Other' Edinburgh Depot of the North British Railway 1845-1967

Exploring Disused Railways in East Scotland

Last Trains: Edinburgh and South East Scotland v. 1
LNER Wagons: Volume 3: Scottish Area: Ex North British and Ex-Great North of Scotland Railway Wagons
North British Railway in Northumberland, The

North British Railway, Vol. 1 (Standard Railway History)

North British Railway, Vol. 2 (Standard Railway History)

Signalling and Signal Boxes along the North British Railway, Great North of Scotland Railway and the CLC Routes

South East Scotland (British Railways Past & Present)

The Castle and the Bear: A Brief History of the North British Railway

The North British Railway a History
The North British Railway, Volume 1, One,
The Vanished Railways of Old Western Dunbartonshire (Britains Railways/Old Photos)

Vanished Railways of West Lothian