Wemyss and Buckhaven Railway

The railway served the rich mineral resources of the East Fife Coalfield, but that declined after 1930, and passenger carryings fell steeply at the same time.

As part of the frenzy of railway speculation culminating in 1845, the Edinburgh and Northern Railway was authorised in 1845 to build from Burntisland to Perth and Dundee, forming a through communication between Edinburgh and Dundee with ferry crossings of the Firth of Forth and the Firth of Tay.

The company changed its name to the Edinburgh, Perth and Dundee Railway (EP&DR), and opened its main line in the years 1847 to 1848, running broadly south to north through Thornton.

It was held back by difficult transport conditions; the priority of the Leven Railway and its extensions was not to connect with the pits, and the coastwise and export shipping routes were constrained by the limited harbour facilities on the coast.

It was not until 1868 that the Leven and East of Fife Railway constructed a branch line to Muiredge, connecting a pit there, and even so there was no railway route to a useful harbour in East Fife, and much of the export traffic went to Burntisland; this was a long and expensive rail transit.

[3][2] Although some improvements were made to local harbours, the intransigent attitude of the North British Railway, and its monopoly freedom to set haulage rates, was resented by the coalmaster tenants of the Wemyss Estate.

In May 1874 a committee of coalmasters discussed building their own line to the developing Methil Dock, a little west of Leven.

Thornton was chosen as the junction because of the convenience of bringing coal from Dunfermline, as the West Fife coalfield also required an outlet to an alternative harbour.

Matters progressed and on 17 October 1879 a certificate for the construction of the railway was issued by the Board of Trade; an act of Parliament was not required because no compulsory land acquisition was needed and there were no objections to the scheme.

Wemyss forged an agreement with them, ratified on 21 April 1883[5] by agreeing to the Burntisland carriage rates applying to coal traffic from outside the immediate area to Methil and Leven.

The line was inspected by Major General Hutchinson on 3 March 1887 and opened to passenger traffic on 5 May 1887, operating as an extension of the Wemyss and Buckhaven line; passenger trains ran between Thornton, Buckhaven and Methil; only mineral traffic continued to Leven Harbour, but the new, well-equipped Methil Dock opened on 5 May 1887 also.

[3][2][9][7][5][8][10] In eight months of 1887 Methil shipped 220,000 tons, rising to 409,000 in the full year 1888; Burntisland throughput fell substantially in the same period.

[3] Wemyss did not foresee retaining long term operation of the harbour at Methil, and he conducted negotiations with the North British Railway; the outcome was that the NBR purchased the harbour from it for £225,000, and with it they took the Wemyss and Buckhaven Railway, which became a branch of the NBR.

Its performance was stated to be "indifferent" and the sharp 1 in 50 gradient from Methil to Buckhaven led to problems with slipping, especially on frosty mornings.

The passenger service had lost custom substantially, and further economies were put in hand, including the closure of the little-used West Wemyss station in 1949.