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Balerno line
The Balerno line was a short loop railway in the southern suburbs of Edinburgh, Scotland. It was 6 miles in length, leaving the main Caledonian Railway Edinburgh to Carstairs line at Slateford, and rejoining it at Ravelrig. It was built by the Caledonian Railway mainly to service the many manufacturing enterprises situated along the upper Water of Leith, and passenger trains also ran. The line opened in 1874. As well as at Balerno, stations were constructed at Colinton, Juniper Green and Currie. The line was steeply graded.
In the 1930s the line increased in popularity for residential and leisure travel, but the passenger business never reached the desired level, and the line was closed to passenger trains in 1943. In the 1960s the mills that sustained the goods train business closed down, and the line closed completely in 1967.
Already at the beginning of the eighteenth century there were several mills and other sites of local industry along the Water of Leith. Balerno was "very much a small village". Transport for finished products was by road and the road network was poor. The opening of the Union Canal in 1822 ameliorated the problem somewhat, even though it passed three miles (5 km) away to the north. This was of great importance to the district. The transport facilities were enhanced further by the opening of the Caledonian Railway through the area in 1848. The Edinburgh line of the Caledonian Railway from Carstairs ran south-west to north-east through open countryside when it was built. It was designed as a through line, and it avoided the narrow valley of the Water of Leith.
There were twenty-two mills on the Water of Leith between Slateford and Balerno; these included the manufacture of snuff, grain meal, spices, woodflour for linoleum, and specialist paper for bank notes, as well as several ordinary paper mills. With the removal of excise duty from esparto in 1861, the substitution of the grass fibre for rags stimulated the manufacture of paper.
As the railway network developed, local mill-owners began to agitate for better railway connection to their premises, and on 16 September 1864 the Caledonian Railway decided to accede to their request and construct a branch line from Slateford to Balerno. The construction of the line would cost £80,000, but it was expected that there would be very heavy additional costs for land acquisition. The Royal Assent was given to the construction on 29 June 1865. The terminus at Balerno would be near Balerno bridge. Authorised share capital was £150,000. Parliament imposed a penalty of £50 a day if the construction was not completed in five years.
The Caledonian Railway was heavily committed to capital expenditure on a number of schemes, and the collapse of the banking house of Overend, Gurney and Company in June 1866 resulted in a financial crash, and money for railway construction was impossible to get. The subscriptions the Caledonian had acquired for the Balerno line were expended on other schemes that were already in progress. The company could see that it was not feasible to build the line at the time, and on 22 October 1867 the Board decided to abandon the work. An Act authorising the abandonment was granted on 26 July 1869.
The following year the Board considered that the money markets had calmed, and they applied to renew the authorisation of the branch. This time they wished to extend it to Ravelrig, rejoining the Carstairs main line there and forming a loop. This was authorised on 20 June 1870, under the Caledonian Railway (Additional Powers) Act. Once again the £50 daily penalty was applied, if the line was not opened by 20 December 1872. In fact construction difficulties in the narrow confines of the valley delayed matters. Col Rich inspected the line for the Board of Trade; he found some minor issues connected with the signalling arrangements, but he did not object to the opening of the line. Accordingly, it opened to traffic on 1 August 1874. Notwithstanding the overrun, the penalty was not applied. The contractor was Charles Brand of Melrose.
The line was single, with a passing loop at Currie. The earlier Currie station on the main line was renamed Curriehill. At Balerno there was a moderately large goods yard on a southward spur of the branch line; this had earlier been intended as the passenger and goods terminus of the original dead-end branch line. The line had cost £134,000 to construct, of which land acquisition cost £26,800. The gradients were steep, and the Caledonian ordered a special design of 0-4-4T locomotive to handle trains on the line. Four locomotives of the type were ordered; one in particular generally handled the traffic on the line over several decades, number 419. That locomotive has been preserved at the Scottish Railway Preservation Society site at Bo'ness.
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Balerno line AI simulator
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Balerno line
The Balerno line was a short loop railway in the southern suburbs of Edinburgh, Scotland. It was 6 miles in length, leaving the main Caledonian Railway Edinburgh to Carstairs line at Slateford, and rejoining it at Ravelrig. It was built by the Caledonian Railway mainly to service the many manufacturing enterprises situated along the upper Water of Leith, and passenger trains also ran. The line opened in 1874. As well as at Balerno, stations were constructed at Colinton, Juniper Green and Currie. The line was steeply graded.
In the 1930s the line increased in popularity for residential and leisure travel, but the passenger business never reached the desired level, and the line was closed to passenger trains in 1943. In the 1960s the mills that sustained the goods train business closed down, and the line closed completely in 1967.
Already at the beginning of the eighteenth century there were several mills and other sites of local industry along the Water of Leith. Balerno was "very much a small village". Transport for finished products was by road and the road network was poor. The opening of the Union Canal in 1822 ameliorated the problem somewhat, even though it passed three miles (5 km) away to the north. This was of great importance to the district. The transport facilities were enhanced further by the opening of the Caledonian Railway through the area in 1848. The Edinburgh line of the Caledonian Railway from Carstairs ran south-west to north-east through open countryside when it was built. It was designed as a through line, and it avoided the narrow valley of the Water of Leith.
There were twenty-two mills on the Water of Leith between Slateford and Balerno; these included the manufacture of snuff, grain meal, spices, woodflour for linoleum, and specialist paper for bank notes, as well as several ordinary paper mills. With the removal of excise duty from esparto in 1861, the substitution of the grass fibre for rags stimulated the manufacture of paper.
As the railway network developed, local mill-owners began to agitate for better railway connection to their premises, and on 16 September 1864 the Caledonian Railway decided to accede to their request and construct a branch line from Slateford to Balerno. The construction of the line would cost £80,000, but it was expected that there would be very heavy additional costs for land acquisition. The Royal Assent was given to the construction on 29 June 1865. The terminus at Balerno would be near Balerno bridge. Authorised share capital was £150,000. Parliament imposed a penalty of £50 a day if the construction was not completed in five years.
The Caledonian Railway was heavily committed to capital expenditure on a number of schemes, and the collapse of the banking house of Overend, Gurney and Company in June 1866 resulted in a financial crash, and money for railway construction was impossible to get. The subscriptions the Caledonian had acquired for the Balerno line were expended on other schemes that were already in progress. The company could see that it was not feasible to build the line at the time, and on 22 October 1867 the Board decided to abandon the work. An Act authorising the abandonment was granted on 26 July 1869.
The following year the Board considered that the money markets had calmed, and they applied to renew the authorisation of the branch. This time they wished to extend it to Ravelrig, rejoining the Carstairs main line there and forming a loop. This was authorised on 20 June 1870, under the Caledonian Railway (Additional Powers) Act. Once again the £50 daily penalty was applied, if the line was not opened by 20 December 1872. In fact construction difficulties in the narrow confines of the valley delayed matters. Col Rich inspected the line for the Board of Trade; he found some minor issues connected with the signalling arrangements, but he did not object to the opening of the line. Accordingly, it opened to traffic on 1 August 1874. Notwithstanding the overrun, the penalty was not applied. The contractor was Charles Brand of Melrose.
The line was single, with a passing loop at Currie. The earlier Currie station on the main line was renamed Curriehill. At Balerno there was a moderately large goods yard on a southward spur of the branch line; this had earlier been intended as the passenger and goods terminus of the original dead-end branch line. The line had cost £134,000 to construct, of which land acquisition cost £26,800. The gradients were steep, and the Caledonian ordered a special design of 0-4-4T locomotive to handle trains on the line. Four locomotives of the type were ordered; one in particular generally handled the traffic on the line over several decades, number 419. That locomotive has been preserved at the Scottish Railway Preservation Society site at Bo'ness.