Gifford and Garvald Light Railway

Introduction

This railway is closed. This was a single track line which extended the Macmerry Branch (North British Railway) from Ormiston south east to Gifford. It was initially planned to continue the line through to Garvald, but this was not carried out. The line opened in 1903 and closed to passengers in 1933. Flood damage severed the line east of Humbie in 1948. The final portion, Ormiston to Saltoun, closed in 1965. Much of the route is now a footpath or can be walked, with some missing bridges and portions ploughed out. Yester House, seat of William Montagu Hay the 10th Marquess of Tweeddale, is to the south east of the former Gifford station. The Marquess was the Chairman of the North British Railway.






Dates

  /  /1903Pencaitland Pit (Pencaitland)
Sunk 1903, by the Woodhall Coal Company, also known as Tyneholm, had a platform on the Gifford and Garvald Light Railway.

Locations along the line

These locations are along the line.

This junction was directly east of Ormiston station. The Macmerry Branch (North British Railway) of 1867 was continued to Macmerry in 1868. This was met by the Gifford and Garvald Light Railway in 1901.
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See also
Macmerry Branch (North British Railway)




This colliery was west of Pencaitland station and village. It was opened by the Woodhall Coal Company and was also known as Woodhall Colliery or Tyneholm Colliery.
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This was a single platform station. The timber platform was on the north side of the line and there were two sidings in the goods yard, both on the north side of the line and approached from the west. The station building was one of the small timber sheds typical of the line. To the west was a railway cottage.
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Photograph taken alongside the trackbed at Pencaitland in March 2007. The line from Ormiston came in from the left, with the route onward towards the ...
John Furnevel 24/03/2007
Site of Pencaitland station on the Gifford branch looking northwest along the trackbed in March 2007. The station closed in 1933 and the line itself ...
John Furnevel 24/03/2007
The Gifford branch closed to passengers in 1933 and its own branch to Macmerry closed in 1925, but they were both still open for goods in 1957, the ...
David Panton //1957
3 of 3 images.


This private siding was on the east side of the line, reached from the Gifford direction. It was built for the Saltoun Estate. In particular it was to serve the nearby Lempock Wells Farm, a short distance to the east.
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This was a two platform station with a passing loop on a single track line. At the north end was a level crossing. By the crossing was the southbound platform for Gifford. The station building, a small timber building typical of the line, was by the crossing. The northbound platform was timber built.
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This old sign to Saltoun Station still stands at a road junction near Humbie.
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Charlie Niven 24/09/2023
Saltoun station closed to passengers in 1933 but the little wooden station building was still in place when I visited in 1977. In the 1990s it was ...
Bill Roberton //1977
Saltoun goods loading bank looking towards the former eastbound platform and level crossing. The platforms here were staggered and there was a loop. ...
Ewan Crawford 21/03/2009
The timber eastbound platform at Saltoun which still sported a station building until the 1990s. The building was dismantled and taken to Bo'ness. ...
Ewan Crawford 21/03/2009
4 of 7 images. more


This was the main engineering feature of railway. It was a single track stone arch viaduct.
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Humbie Viaduct was a large masonary clad arched viaduct just east of Saltoun station. The viaduct has been demolished and large pieces of it remain in ...
Ewan Crawford 21/03/2009
1 of 1 images.




This was a single platform station with a goods yard approached from the west on the south side of line. The station building was a small timber building typical of the line.
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The timber loading bank at Humbie still exists despite the closure of the line in 1960. The line east from here to the terminus at Gifford was closed ...
Ewan Crawford 21/03/2009
A photograph of something which isn't there. Gilchriston Bridge viewed from the south. The collapse of this bridge in 1948 led to the truncation of ...
Ewan Crawford 21/03/2009
2 of 2 images.


This was the terminus of the line from Ormiston, built to the north west of the village. It was the make do terminus of a line originally promoted to Garvald around four miles further east.
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The trackbed just west of the former Gifford terminus in March 2009. The usual welcoming bog that is the start of a closed railway walk. ...
Ewan Crawford 21/03/2009
To the west of the former Gifford station, looking west. ...
Ewan Crawford //
2 of 2 images.