The North British Railway’s determination to keep its great rival, the Caledonian Railway, from gaining a foothold in Leith, took the decision in 1891 to build a short branch line northwards from Abbeyhill Junction to a new station at the Foot of Leith Walk in central Leith, notwithstanding, in 1884, the NBR had informed Leith Town Council that a further line to Leith was not viable. Contracts to build the line were not let until the end of 1897 and it wasn’t until 1 July, 19

A great conflagration on Saturday night dispelled the darkness of the black-out in Edinburgh. In Lothian Road, near the city centre, a large store in the LMS Goods Station went up in flames. The greater part of the building was leased to the Cadbury-Fry firms and was part of their distribution centre for Edinburgh and the East of Scotland. The building was totally destroyed, including roughly 300 tons of chocolate meant for Edinburgh’s Christmas trade. The offices, including

With the conversion of the last Edinburgh cable car route, Waterloo Place to Joppa, also came the link between the electric tramway systems of Edinburgh and Musselburgh, a town five miles east of Edinburgh. Musselburgh’s tramways dated from 12 December, 1904 when the National Electric Construction Company, London commenced operating an overhead electric tramway system, constructed by that company, between Joppa and Levenhall. The line was double track with convenient loops wh

In the late 1880s, the mansion and estate of Barnton Park, then the property of Sir John Gibson Maitland, Bart., were very much in the countryside, the city of Edinburgh being about three miles away. Sir James thought that Barnton Park would make a wonderful country residential estate and the Caledonian Railway co-operated by agreeing to build a branch line specially to connect the estate with the city. A Glasgow firm of Chartered Civil Engineers were appointed to examine th