Talk:Portobello railway station (E&DR)

Published nformation about station
previously entered on a User Talk page - original research or collation of others' research

I came across the page on Portobello Station and in making the change to this page I did not do it in isolation but in consultation with a contemporary extensively familiar with Edinburgh railway history; we both lived in Portobello in the past. I supply the following relevant to what the initial paragraph and original company and dates box should correctly state.

John Thomas, “The North British Railway,” Vol 1, 1969, writes (pages 28-29): “The North British made a fancy-dress debut on 18 June 1846... The company began its bread-and-butter existence on Monday, 22 June...  The first morning short train ... ran to Musselburgh [later renamed Inveresk] in about twenty minutes, stopping at Portobello...  The first timetable provided for five through workings between Edinburgh and Berwick... The through trains stopped at Portobello and Musselburgh in each direction.”

WAC Smith and Paul Anderson, "An Illustrated History of Edinburgh's Railways," 1995, page 88, give the date of the first Act authorising the Edinburgh Suburban and Southside Junction Railway as 1880. AA Maclean, “The Edinburgh Suburban and Southside Junction Railway,” 2006, gives further detail on what was authorised. John Thomas, “The North British Railway,” Vol 2, 1975, page 146, writes that the Edinburgh Suburban and Southside Junction Railway “left the Glasgow line west of Haymarket and ... passed through Gorgie, Morningside Road, Blackford Hill, Newington and Duddingston before joining the Waverley route at Niddrie North Junction”. Portobello Station was not on that line. The original company for Portobello Station, new like others on the line in 1846, was the North British Railway and an entity formed 34 years later cannot be stated as the original company.

As far as earlier Edinburgh and Dalkeith Railway presence is concerned, we have sought to review more widely the available information, which needs to be considered carefully; and better to omit if causing confusion and not crucial to the page concerned. Relevant content can be included on the Edinburgh and Dalkeith Railway page.

There is published reference to a Portobello station on the Edinburgh and Dalkeith line but reason to mention this on the page on Portobello Station merely in passing and as prehistory. A valid alternative wording to what we submitted would be: “The Edinburgh and Dalkeith Railway line from Niddrie to Leith served Portobello between 1838 and 1846.”

WAC Smith and Paul Anderson, "An Illustrated History of Edinburgh's Railways," 1995, page 12, and John Thomas, “A Regional History of the Railways of Great Britain – Vol VI, Scotland: the Lowlands and the Borders,” 1971, page 231, have diagrams suggesting the location of an Edinburgh and Dalkeith Railway Portobello station towards the south end of what is now Duddingston Park, possibly just before the start of the embankment (where the line would have been at the level of the adjoining road).

But the Edinburgh and Dalkeith stopping places shown in these sources cannot have been the only ones. It is recorded that horse-drawn “trains” on the Edinburgh and Dalkeith stopped wherever passengers wanted to board or alight. CJA Robertson, “The Origins of the Scottish Railway System 1722-1844,” 1983, quotes Edinburgh and Dalkeith manager David Rankine in a statement to a Select Committee of 1839 writing of “so many different places for lifting passengers”. AJ Mullay, “Rail Centres: Edinburgh” 1991, page 126, writes of Edinburgh and Dalkeith trains “picking up and setting down passengers in the Portobello (Baileyfield Road) area” and says “the North British main line station was Portobello’s first, built when the line opened in 1846”. That is a point to note.

The Railway and Canal Historical Society (RCHS) booklet “Closed Passenger Lines of GB 1827-1947” by M D Greville and Jeoffry Spence (revised edition 1974) lists the line between Niddrie and Leith (later South Leith), length 4 miles (to nearest 1/4 mile) as opening ca. 1838 and closing with effect from 14.07.1847. The only station on the line at date of closing is listed as Leith.

MJ Worling, “Early Railways of the Lothians,” 1991, states on the Edinburgh and Dalkeith Railway: “A branch to Leith was authorised in 1829 and opened to Seafield Baths in 1832 and only to Leith in 1836.” However, other sources, including RCHS quoted above and the following, give the date of the line to Leith as 1838.

John Thomas, “A Regional History of the Railways of Great Britain – Vol VI, Scotland: the Lowlands and the Borders,” 1971, writing of the Edinburgh and Dalkeith Railway, states, page 232: “In 1838 a 4 mile branch from Niddrie reached Leith harbour. Single throughout, it ran by the west side of the Duddingston-Portobello road...”

WAC Smith and Paul Anderson, "An Illustrated History of Edinburgh's Railways," 1995, page 15, state that the Edinburgh and Dalkeith reached Leith “during 1838 by a three and a half mile branch from Niddrie. The line curved northwards from the junction on an embankment and soon crossed the Niddrie-Portobello road on the level.”

Published information conveys varying understanding on dates of operation of a service to Leith on the Edinburgh and Dalkeith alignment after 1846 (note reference to RCHS information above).

WAC Smith and Paul Anderson, "An Illustrated History of Edinburgh's Railways," 1995, page 33, write of the NBR line crossing the Edinburgh and Dalkeith’s “South Leith branch on an eleven span timber and iron viaduct”.

Smith and Anderson (page 17) refer to the spur that was built from the Edinburgh and Dalkeith South Leith branch into the platform specially provided beside the station on the NBR main line and state that when this spur opened in 1849 the Edinburgh and Dalkeith station and the original line to Niddrie closed. The above RCHS booklet gives the section between Leith and the junction with spur into the new Portobello station as reopening 1848 (no precise date given). Wilson Slateford (talk) 10:36, 24 August 2011 (UTC)