Kirkcaldy

Location type

Station

Name and dates

Kirkcaldy (1847-)

Station code: KDY National Rail ScotRail
Where: Fife, Scotland
Opened on the Edinburgh and Northern Railway.
Open on the Fife Circle.
Open on the Edinburgh to Perth.
Open on the Edinburgh to Dundee.

Description

This is a two platform station equipped with large carparks. The main station building is on the southbound platform. The station is on the west side of the town.

The station formerly had a bay at the south end of the south bound platform. The main station was on the southbound platform with another large building on the northbound. The platforms were canopied.

To the north of the station was a goods yard on either side of the line - on the west side sidings and loading banks approached from the north and on the east side two goods sheds, approached from the south.

The signal box was at the north end of the northbound platform. This had been replaced in 1903, probably with the enlargement of the goods yard and laying out of a loop serving the yard between the station and Kirkcaldy Harbour junction.

The signal box closed in 1980, replaced by a temporary panel box ('Kirkcaldy' actually at Sinclairtown). This was in the run up to the opening of the Edinburgh Signalling Centre. This temporary panel box closed after a few months.

There were many linoleum works in Kirkcaldy including, on the west side and from south to north, the Abbotshall Linoleum Works, Forth Works [Linoleum], Caledonia Works [Linoleum] and Walton Inlaid Linoleum Works and to the north east to the National Works [Linoleum].

There was also a rail served flour mill just south of the National works.

To the north was Kirkcaldy Harbour Junction for Kirkcaldy Harbour and to the south Invertiel Viaduct and Invertiel Junction for the Kirkcaldy District Railway (North British Railway).

Local

The Kirkcaldy Galleries are very close by on the east side of the station.

The Artline - Art and Heritage on the railway in Fife

Tags

Station

External links

NLS Collection OS map of 1892-1914
NLS Collection OS map of 1944-67
NLS Map
NLS Map
NLS Map
06/08/2020




Chronology Dates

31/07/1845Edinburgh and Northern Railway
Act receives Royal assent. Mainline from Burntisland to Perth via Ladybank. Branches from Ladybank to Cupar and Kirkcaldy to the harbour. The Perth station was to be beside the Dundee and Perth Railway station.
17/09/1847Edinburgh and Northern Railway
Opened from Burntisland to Lindores and Cupar. Stations at Burntisland [1st], Kinghorn, Kirkcaldy, Sinclairtown, Dysart, Thornton, Markinch, Falkland Road, Kingskettle, Ladybank, Collessie, Lindores [1st], Springfield and Cupar.
  /  /1854Robert Douglas
Move to Kirkcaldy.
03/03/1896Kirkcaldy District Railway (North British Railway)
Line opened as a goods/mineral relief line from the coalfields to Burntisland Harbour. Opened between Invertiel Junction (just south of Kirkcaldy) and Foulford Junction (Cowdenbeath) with a goods station at Auchtertool Goods.
08/01/1973Edinburgh and Northern Railway
Withdrawal of direct daily Kirkcaldy to Glasgow Queen Street working.
24/11/1989Rosyth Dockyard Branch
Last regular Kirkcaldy to Rosyth Dockyard shuttle train runs. These ran on weekdays leaving Kirkcaldy at 0640 arriving at 0713 and an evening service returned to Kirkcaldy leaving the dockyard at 1638 (1538 on Fridays).
  /05/2011Edinburgh and Northern Railway
Siding lifted at Kirkcaldy.

News items

02/11/2023Nine-year old Fife boy walks Fife Coastal Path to help Fife Heritage Railway and gets honorary membership [Fife Today]
01/06/2023Caledonian Sleeper fault brings Kirkcaldy services to a halt [The Courier]
03/02/2023Fife Circle rail services to be reviewed by ScotRail [Dunfermline Press]
02/02/2023Questions over Edinburgh's £1 billion transport plan as public consultation gets go-ahead [Edinburgh Live]
25/01/2023Edinburgh to Fife ferry service moves closer as private firm 'declares interest' [Edinburgh Live]
17/12/2022West Fife: MSP calls for change to North Queensferry rail services [Dunfermline Press]
25/08/2022Photograph of poet behind The Boy in the Train now on display at Kirkcaldy station [Fife Today]
23/08/2022Edinburgh Council to launch plans for brand new tram route across the city [Edinburgh Live]
22/08/2022Railway vegetation clearance planned in Fife [Network Rail]
08/04/2022The 1963 job losses which devastated Kirkcaldy linoleums industry [Fife Today]

Books


A Regional History of the Railways of Great Britain: The North of Scotland v. 15 (Regional railway history series)

Burntisland: Fife's Railway Port (Locomotion papers)

Fife's Last Days of Steam

Fife's Lost Railways

Railways of Fife

The Railways of Fife