Portobello [2nd]

Location type

Station

Name and dates

Portobello [2nd] (1846-1890)

Note: text in square brackets is added for clarity and was not part of the location's name.

Opened on the North British Railway.

Description

There have been three station at Portobello and presently (2018) none. The second station, opened by the North British Railway, was a two platform station with a building on each platform. To the immediate east was the original Portobello Junction (later relocated further east).

To the south west was Portobello [1st] on the Edinburgh and Dalkeith Railway.

The Ordnance Survey Name Book described it thus

A house erected by the North British Railway Company and kept by them as an office where passengers and goods are booked for any part to the United Kingdom.


A new curve from Portobello West Junction to the South Leith line opened in 1860. The existing Portobello Junction becoming Portobello East Junction.

Portobello Yard opened to the east of the station site, the station itself being closed and replaced by Portobello [3rd] on a new deviation to the south which curved round the yard, laid out on either side of the original main line.

Portobello was a very important location for the North British Railway. This was a nexus of lines before the Edinburgh, Southside and Suburban Junction Railway with lines radiating to Edinburgh (and thus Glasgow) and east to Berwick-upon-Tweed (and the south), and south to Galashiels [1st], Peebles, Carlisle and Hexham.

The former eastbound platform station building survived as a bothy at the west end of the yard. It had another important use after the opening of the Lothian Lines (North British Railway) becoming a central control for train movements.

Tags

Station

External links

NLS Collection OS map of 1892-1914
NLS Collection OS map of 1944-67
NLS Map
NLS Map
02/06/2019


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