Mineral railways of Dunfermline

Their purpose was to convey minerals to market from the outcropping coal deposits that had encouraged industrial activity in the area from an early date.

In the eighteenth century much of the limestone from the area around Dunfermline was exported through Brucehaven, near Limekilns, but as the agricultural revolution gathered pace the demand for lime to improve land also accelerated.

[3][7] The wooden permanent way was laid with two timber beams making a rail, fir underneath and beech above; wood sleepers were at two-feet intervals.

In December 1817 Henderson died and his daughter Anne Isabella inherited the estate, and in time she became the second wife of Sir Philip Calderwood Durham.

The upper part of the inclined plane had three rails and the lower half was single track, with a passing loop at the mid point.

In 1850 the George Pit was sunk on the north of Cuttlehill; a standard gauge waggonway was built to connect to the nearby Edinburgh, Perth and Dundee Railway.

The existing track was not strong enough to carry the loads of locomotives and relaying with steel rails was started from the St David's end, with some realignment to improve gradients.

[2] Lime burning required large quantities of coal, but nothing suitable was available on the Broomhall estate, and Elgin was dependent on supplies from workings at Pitfirrane and Urquhart.

The road transit was difficult, and he attempted to interest his neighbouring landowners, Sir John Wedderburn of Gosforth, now of Pitfirrane, and Robert Wellwood of Garvock and Pitliver, in improving transport facilities; in 1762 he was corresponding with them over a possible waggonway, but little was done.

In 1769 Chalmers wrote to Ralph Carr of Newcastle saying that a five-mile waggonway over rough terrain had been surveyed but that he wanted Mr Brown's advice.

[note 3] In 1777 the Pitfirrane pits and later those at Balmule and Urquhart to the north-east of Berrylaw were linked to Limekilns by a lengthy branch built by a Newcastle engineer, George Johnson.

In 1824 Alexander Scott described the line in a technical paper: The railway on Lord Elgin's works, between Dunfermline and Limekilns in Fife, for design and execution, is inferior to none.

On this line of railway there are two inclined planes, executed with all the requisite machinery, for the loaded waggons drawing up the empty ones; the longest of these is about 511 yards, with a declivity of about one in twenty.

[10] Chalmers described the situation on Lord Elgin's railway: His Lordship's coal is conveyed to his limeworks and shipping at Charleston (sic) by a railroad, the two inclined planes of which, near the town of Dunfermline, are much admired, and were executed, on a change of the line of the rail-road in 1821, at very great expense, under the direction of the late ingenious Mr Landale of Dundee.

The coals are conveyed by a locomotive engine from the pits to the top of the first incline at the Colton station, [near the] east end of Golf Drum Street, and from the bottom of it they are drawn a short distance by horses, to the top of the second incline, which commences a little south of Pittencrieff toll-bar, and are afterwards conveyed by another locomotive, which takes also goods and passengers from the Netherton (sic) station in the town of Dunfermline to the steamboats that ply between Stirling and Granton [near Edinburgh] pier.

[7][13] The Halbeath Railway ran from Sampson Lloyd's collieries near Crossgates and Dunfermline to the Forth at Inverkeithing where coal was exported, and also used in salt pans.

This caused an uproar at a shareholders' meeting as the Board was already under fire for committing the company's money to speculative schemes, and the shares in the Halbeath line that had been purchased were subsequently sold.

Accordingly the Halbeath directors, prompted by the E&PDR, refused to agree to a flat crossing of their line, and the completion of the Dunfermline branch was frustrated: it terminated for the time being at Crossgates in 1848.

It was only when the E&PDR scheme was obviously doomed that the matter was resolved, and the Dunfermline branch was completed, making a flat crossing with the Halbeath line after all, and opening in 1849.

After a long period during which road transport was used, a waggonway to join the Halbeath line at Guttergates was built; it opened in September 1841 from North Engine (Townhill No 1 Pit) with a short branch to Humbug.

[8] The Townhill branch was extended to connect with the Elgin system about the year 1856, and also to reach Wellwood colliery, which had lost its link with Charlestown by this time.

The transition did not take place overnight, and for a long time purely mineral concerns did not associate themselves with the concept of a modern, relatively high speed railway.

Additional powers, the West of Fife Mineral Railway (Kingseat Extension) Act of 23 July 1860, were needed for the line when it was finally built; it was completed after the end of the independent existence of the company.

There will, we understand, be considerable alterations effected by the new proprietors on the gradients of the Charlestown line, so as to make the railway more available than hitherto for passengers as well as for mineral traffic.

[17] The former Elgin railway system declined rapidly in importance after the NBR takeover, when the company wished to make direct connection with its own standard gauge wagons, and parts of the network soon closed.

It was promoted independently, and the North British Railway had promised financial support, but as it became increasingly likely that a Forth Bridge would soon be built, the NBR lost interest, and the little company had to fall back on its own resources.

[20] An intermediate passenger station on the Charlestown line was opened early in March 1916; it was named Crombie Halt, and was provided for munitions workers at the Royal Ordnance Depot.

A lengthy three mile extension beyond Steelend on the West of Fife line was built by the North British Railway in 1909 for, and at the expense of, John Wilson MP, who had plans for mining on the western side of Saline hills.

[8] St David's harbour was placed under naval control during World War I, as the important Royal Navy Dockyard of Rosyth was close by.

[22] By the end of World War II the geological reserves of the Dunfermline coalfield were nearing exhaustion, and the mineral railways were dependent on the coal mining for their own survival.