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Edinburgh Transport - Railways East Pilton Station |
DMU departs East Pilton Station - Early 1960s
© Reproduced by courtesy of Scotsman Publications Ltd. Click here for web site details
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Comment 1. John Blackwood |
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Thank you to John Blackwood for sending me a copy of this photo and to Scotsman Publications for allowing me to reproduce it. John wrote: |
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East Pilton Station "This picture was taken by an Evening News photographer when Edinburgh's network of suburban rail lines was being closed as part of the Beeching cuts. *** *** Please also see Comment 2 below It shows the halt on Pilton Drive, between: - the old Northern General hospital site (now Morrisons supermarket and an NHS building) and - Ainslie Park playing fields (now a swimming pool). You can see Ainslie Park in the top-right corner of the picture. The railway line is now part of an extensive network of cycle and walking paths, but I remember travelling the rail line each day to go from Pilton to school in Trinity. What a way to travel! That's me coming up the steps! We called the hump-back bridge over the line 'The Station Brae' - as though there was only one in the world!" John Blackwood: February 20, 2013 |
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The Caledonian Line to Leith This line was five miles long. It ran from the West End of Princes Street to Leith, beside the entrance to Ocean Terminal at Lindsay Road. The line closed to passengers on 30 April 1962. The stations on this line were: - Princes Street - Dalry Road - Murrayfield - Craigleith
- - East Pilton - Granton Road - Newhaven - Leith North. Peter Stubbs, Edinburgh: July 27, 2013 |
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** UPDATE I took all the names in the list above from a map inside the back cover of of A J Mulley's book, Rail Centres: Edinburgh, but on a closer inspection of the map, I see that Crewe Junction is just a railway junction with no station marked there. Thank you to John S Wilson, Slateford, Edinburgh for alerting me to this error. John wrote: "Where does the fictitious idea of a station at Crewe Junction come from?" Peter Stubbs, Edinburgh: 1 November 2018 |
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Comment 2. John S Wilson Slateford, Edinburgh |
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Thank you to John S Wilson for writing. As well as correcting my list of stations above, John sent the following comments about the closure of the Edinburgh suburban rail lines: |
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'The Beeching Cuts' Leith North Service "The 'Reshaping of British Railways' report, one element of which proposed rail service withdrawals - 'Beeching cuts' in the vernacular - was published in March 1963. Withdrawal of the Leith North service in April 1962 obviously preceded the Beeching cuts. The intention of service withdrawal was decided in 1961." Diesel Multiple Units "Diesel train operation on local rail services around Edinburgh - extending as far as Galashiels via Peebles and to North Berwick - took place in 1958, with some increase in service (significant in some cases) in a last effort by BR to stimulate usage That did not materialise to the extent hoped, and - no doubt the lines seen as having weakest performance - the service to Galashiels via Peebles was withdrawn in February 1962, that from Princes Street Station to Leith North in April 1962, and the services to Bonnyrigg and Rosewell and on the South Side Circle in September 1962. The withdrawal of these services therefore had nothing whatsoever to do with "the Beeching cuts". John S Wilson, Slateford, Edinburgh: 17 October 2018 |
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More photos: East Pilton Station and other stations |
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