Princes Street Gardens Cutting

Location type

Place

Name and dates

Princes Street Gardens Cutting (1846-)

Opened on the Edinburgh and Glasgow Railway.

Description

The Edinburgh and Glasgow Railway was extended east from Haymarket through Haymarket Tunnels to what is now Edinburgh Waverley station through Princes Street Gardens and the Mound Tunnels under The Mound in 1846.

A 'Princes Street Gardens' signal box split the section between Haymarket and Edinburgh Waverley. It was located on the north side of the line. This closed in 1892.

In 1895, five years after the Forth Bridge opened, the line was quadrupled to handle the additional traffic. The new lines were laid to the south of the existing railway A new larger signal box opened. This was a little to the east of its predecessor and also on the north side of the line.

The box closed in 1936 during a re-signalling of Edinburgh Waverley. It was absorbed by Waverley West signal box, itself replaced in 1976 by Edinburgh Signalling Centre.

The railway is still four tracks wide. The present apparent signal box building is not an original box.

Local

To the north are the Princes Street Gardens

To the south is Edinburgh Castle .

Tags

Railway cutting four track




Nearby stations
Princes Street [Tram]
Edinburgh Princes Street
Lothian Road
Princes Street [1st]
St Andrew Square [Tram]
West End - Princes Street [Tram]
Edinburgh Waverley
York Place [Tram]
Haymarket
Haymarket [Tram]
Picardy Place [Tram]
Scotland Street
Dalry Road
St Leonards
McDonald Road [Tram]
The Mound [Tram]
Mound Tunnels
Lothian Road Goods
Lothian Road Shed
Haymarket Tunnels
Tourist/other
Princes Street Gardens
Edinburgh Castle
Scottish National Gallery
Camera Obscura
Gladstone^s Land
Georgian House Charlotte Square
Scott Monument
St Giles Cathedral
Scottish National Portrait Gallery
The Balmoral Hotel
Location names in dark blue are on the same original line.


Power Magazine


When a railway through Princes Street Gardens was first proposed one of the arguments against the route was that sparks could ignite the powder magazine at Edinburgh Castle above the line.


Books


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

An Illustrated History of Edinburgh's Railways

An Illustrated History of Glasgow's Railways

An Illustrated History of Glasgow's Railways

Central Glasgow 1893: Lanarkshire Sheet 6.10a (Old Ordnance Survey Maps of Lanarkshire)

Edinburgh ( Western New Town) 1877: Edinburgh Large Scale Sheet 34 (Old Ordnance Survey Maps - Yard to the Mile)

Edinburgh (Rail Centres)

Edinburgh (Rail Centres)
Edinburgh and Glasgow Railway Guidebook (Auld Kirk Museum Publications)
Edinburgh To Inverkeithing.: including The Port Edgar, North Queensferry And Rosyth Dockyard Branches. (Scottish Main Lines.)

Edinburgh Waverley

Edinburgh Waverley Station Through Time
Edinburgh's Transport: The Early Years v. 1
Glasgow Stations

Glasgow's Last Days of Steam

Haymarket Motive Power Depot Edinburgh: A History of the Depot, Its Work and Locomotives, 1842-2010

Landranger (66) Edinburgh, Penicuik & North Berwick (OS Landranger Map)

Last Trains: Edinburgh and South East Scotland v. 1

Memories of Steam from Glasgow to Aberdeen

Memories of Steam from Glasgow to Aberdeen

On Either Side, 1939: The Train between London King's Cross & Edinburgh Waverley, Fort William, Inverness & Aberdeen (Old House)

Rails Around Glasgow

The Next Stop: Inverness to Edinburgh, station by station

This Magnificent Line (the story of the Edinburgh-Glasgow Railway

Vanished Railways of West Lothian