Leven Railway

Introduction

This line will re-open between Thornton North Junction and East of Fife Central Junction as a re-doubled and electrified railway. The portion between the junction and new Levenmouth terminus will make use of a formerly freight route. The site of the original Leven [1st] terminus is not available for reopening. A new station at Cameron Bridge will open (replacing the original Cameron Bridge [1st] to the west).

It is hoped that the Cameronbridge Distillery may be served by rail again.

The line has been mothballed for several years. The last use of the line was for
- loading of opencast coal at the Earlseat Loading Pad (opened 2012, brief use)
- coal slurry Methil Power Station (ceased 1990s)
- traffic to the Cameronbridge Distillery (ceased 1990s)
- woodpulp at Methil Dock No 1 (ceased late 1980s)

Cameron Bridge and Leven [2nd] stations closed in 1969. The portion from East Fife Central Junction to Leven [2nd] closed completely in 1969 and the station site was redeveloped.

The Kingdom of Fife Railway Preservation Society have a depot, the Fife Heritage Railway , at the site of the former Kirkland Yard. The Leven and Methil docks were not part of the original line. Originally single track, it was later doubled and was later reduced to a single track. It formed a part of the Fife Coast Railway.





Dates

  /  /1852Leven Railway
Act receives Royal assent.
17/06/1853Leven Railway
Authorised from Thornton Junction to Leven [1st].
03/07/1854Leven Railway
Line opened from Thornton Junction to Leven [1st].
31/12/1855Railway Clearing House
By this date, Cork and Bandon Railway, Crieff Junction Railway, Dublin and Belfast Junction Railway, Dublin and Drogheda Railway, Forth and Clyde Junction Railway, Furness Railway, Great Southern and Western Railway, Irish South Eastern Railway, Killarney Junction Railway, Leeds, Bradford and Halifax Junction Railway, Leven Railway, London and South Western Railway, London, Tilbury and Southend Railway, Monkland Railways, Monmouthshire Railway and Canal, Newport, Abergavenny and Hereford Railway, Norfolk Railway, North and South Western Junction Railway, Oxford, Worcester and Wolverhampton Railway, Peebles Railway, Perth and Dunkeld Railway, Shrewsbury and Hereford Railway, St Andrews Railway, Ulster and Dundalk Railway, Waterford and Kilkenny Railway and Waterford and Limerick Railway join.
22/07/1861Leven RailwayEast of Fife RailwayLeven and East of Fife Railway
Leven Railway and East of Fife Railway merge to form the Leven and East of Fife Railway.
12/12/1885Leven Railway East of Fife Railway
New Leven [2nd] station opened on the former East of Fife Railway, east of the 1st station. Leven [1st] closes.
14/01/1909Leven Railway
Line doubling begins.
  /  /1965Leven Railway East of Fife Railway
Leven [2nd] becomes a terminus when the line east is closed to passengers.
18/07/1966Leven Railway East of Fife Railway
Leven [2nd] to East of Fife Central Junction (excluded) closed to freight.
06/10/1969Leven Railway East of Fife Railway
Leven [2nd] to Thornton Junction closed to passengers.
06/10/1969Leven Railway East of Fife Railway
Line closed to passengers. Leven [2nd] to East of Fife Central Junction closed completely.
  /12/1972Leven Railway
Thornton Junction to Kirkland Yard singled
06/05/1992Leven Railway
Railtour visits Methil Power Station.
  /  /1998Leven Railway
Last freight to Cameronbridge Distillery at Cameron Bridge.
  /  /2000Leven Railway
Last coal slurry train to Methil Power Station.
28/02/2003Leven Railway
Trial train to Cameronbridge Distillery at Cameron Bridge operated by DRS from Grangemouth.
  /08/2006Leven Railway Aberdeen Railway
A footbridge from Cameron Bridge, on the former Leven Railway, is offered to the Caledonian Railway [Preserved], which operates the Brechin branch of the former Aberdeen Railway.
12/08/2012Leven Railway
New Earlseat Loading Pad opens for opencast coal.
08/08/2019Leven Railway
Announcement of planned re-opening to passengers to Cameron Bridge and Leven.
  /09/2020Leven Railway
Removal of vegetation along the line in preparation for re-opening.
  /05/2021Thornton Marshalling Yard and Rothes Pit (British Railways)
Sleepers stored at Thornton Yard for the reopening of the 'Levenmouth Line' (the Leven Railway).

Portions of line and locations

This line is divided into a number of portions.


Thornton to Leven

Thornton Junction to Leven [1st].

This is a four way junction. To the north the main line runs north to Ladybank and the line branch to Cameron Bridge and Levenmouth, which is being re-doubled and electrified, runs off to the north east.. (This formerly ran to Leven [2nd] and the Fife Coast railway to St Andrews [2nd].) To the south the Dunfermline Branch heads west from the main line which runs south to ...

More details

See also
Edinburgh and Northern Railway
Dunfermline Branch (Edinburgh and Northern Railway)
Wemyss and Buckhaven Railway
Freightliner 66536 leads the empty ballast wagons from the Levenmouth branch drop past Thornton North Junction on 22 August 2022. 66532 was dead on ...
Bill Roberton 22/08/2022
LNER Azuma 800104 climbs away from Thornton North Junction with the 10.00 from Kings Cross to Aberdeen on 26 October 2022.
...
Bill Roberton 26/10/2022
Grab shot from a passing train of the relaid Levenmouth branch. The single track extends for about a mile. ...
Bill Roberton 15/07/2023
09.52 Aberdeen to Kings Cross, Azuma 800103, passing Thornton North Junction on 1 June 2021. On the right is the slumbering Levenmouth branch.
...
Bill Roberton 01/06/2021
4 of 17 images. more


This signal box was on the northern approaches to Thornton North Junction.
...

More details

See also
Edinburgh and Northern Railway




'You shall not pass'. Looking east from Double Dykes level crossing. 19 July. ...
Bill Roberton 19/07/2023
Looking east from the threatened Double Dykes level crossing on the Levenmouth branch on 3 August 2022. There is no sign yet of the expected turnout ...
Bill Roberton 03/08/2022
March 2023 view of a double track section on the new Levenmouth line. ...
Network Rail /03/2023
I had little evident progress to report on the Levenmouth branch apart from this road railer that was tidying the lineside on 3rd August, as seen in ...
Bill Roberton 03/08/2022
4 of 5 images. more


Embankments are being reprofiled and upgraded to support double tracking of Levenmouth Rail link. Shown here are benches being cut into into banking. ...
Network Rail /08/2022
Some embankment sections need to be reprofiled to enable double tracking of the Levenmouth Rail link. [The line was singled in 1972 having been ...
Network Rail /08/2022
The level crossing at Tullybreck, about a kilometre east of Double Dykes crossing, seen in August 2021. Amazingly the up line remained in place. It ...
Bill Roberton 31/08/2021
3 of 3 images.


This loading pad opened in 2012 for loading of opencast coal which was extracted, by opencast, at the site of the former Earlseat Colliery, to the south. A loop was laid on the south side of the former Leven Railway railway 2/3 of a mile north east of Thornton North Junction. The site was just south of the former Balgonie Colliery Julian Pit bing.
...

More details
The westernmost section of the former Methil, future Levenmouth, line is still in good order thanks to use from 2012 to around 2015 by coal trains ...
Bill Roberton 31/08/2021
Looking east from the Double Dykes level crossing towards the site of the Earlseat coal loading pad in August 2021. This was in use between 2012 and ...
Bill Roberton 31/08/2021
New rails for the Levenmouth branch, deposited at Earlseat in the early hours of 10 October 2021. The coal loading pad siding branched off to the ...
Bill Roberton 13/10/2021
For the re-opening of the line to Leven a compound has been laid out at the site of the Earlseat Loading Pad. This aerial view looks to the north ...
Network Rail 04/03/2022
4 of 8 images. more






This grain distillery opened in 1824. It was rail served, the Leven Railway having reached Cameron Bridge [1st] in 1854.
...

More details

See also
Rail Served Distilleries


This was an island platform station surrounded by the Cameronbridge Distillery, for which there were many sidings.
...

More details
Patrick Harvie, Minister for Zero Carbon Buildings, Active Travel and Tenants Rights, visits the cleared site of the original Cameron Bridge station. ...
Network Rail 26/08/2022
20211 and 20179 engage in shunting at Cameron Bridge in 1990. In the background is the distillery's English Electric 0-6-0 DH shunter.
...
Bill Roberton 10/10/1990
Debris being cleared following the demolition of the island platform at Cameron Bridge. ...
Network Rail 26/08/2022
Looking west over the new ballast through the former Cameron Bridge [1st] station and yard on 19 May 2023.
...
Bill Roberton 19/05/2023
4 of 107 images. more


This new two platform station will be located east of the original Cameron Bridge [1st] station (closed 1969) and the former junction for the Muiredge Goods branch. It will be located on the former Leven Railway which will be re-doubled and electrified.
...

More details
A view of the first train to call at the new Cameron Bridge station.
...
Network Rail /01/2024
Network Rail has installed the footbridge at Cameron Bridge station as part of the new £116m Levenmouth Rail Link development.
...
Network Rail /09/2023
A section of the core path P368/02 at Dunniface near Cameron Bridge will close to the public from Monday November 20 until the end of May 2024. ...
Network Rail /11/2023
Network Rail has secured planning permission for the construction of the new Cameron Bridge station as part of the Levenmouth Rail Link project.
...
Network Rail /05/2023
4 of 34 images. more




Kirkland Dam level crossing looking west to Cameron Bridge 2nd where the machines are working. ...
Bill Roberton 18/07/2023
Kirkland Dam level crossing looking east with the Up line awaiting rails. ...
Bill Roberton 18/07/2023
Laying the Up line rails, seen from Kirkland Dam foot crossing looking west. ...
Bill Roberton 19/07/2023
New ballast over a footpath leading from the former East Fife Central Railway (Lochty branch) to Methilhill, a little to the west of East Fife Central ...
Bill Roberton 21/06/2023
4 of 6 images. more




Ken Whyte, Chair of the Shed at Bayview, said: 'One of the skills we were hoping to develop was forest craft. When we heard that Network Rail were ...
Network Rail /12/2020
Looking south along the trackbed of the East Fife Central Railway on 1st December 2020, at the point where it passed under the A915 to the east of ...
Bill Roberton 01/12/2020
View west to the former East Fife Central Junction showing clearance works. ...
Network Rail /12/2020
A view of the Methil branch at Kirkland Yard in July 2020. This section of track was cleared of vegetation earlier in the year in preparation for the ...
Bill Roberton 20/07/2020
4 of 6 images. more


DRS 66122 stops at Mountfleurie crossing with sleepers being deposited for the Up line. ...
Bill Roberton 21/07/2023
Mount Flurie foot crossing looking east. In the centre of the frame can be seen a diesel shunter in the Fife Heritage Railway compound. ...
Bill Roberton 18/07/2023
Fife Heritage Railway volunteers are altering the west end of their running line. It has been moved away from the Levenmouth branch formation and a ...
Bill Roberton 18/07/2023
Mountfleurie (not Flurie as spelled by Network Rail) crossing with sleepers being set out. In the right foreground is the Fife Heritage Railway's ...
Bill Roberton 19/07/2023
4 of 5 images. more






This level crossing was west of Leven [1st]. Initially it crossed the west end of that station's loop, and the Kirkland siding on its south side which gave access to Leven Dock.
...

More details


This was the original terminus of the Leven Railway. It was just west of Leven [2nd] which replaced it when the line was extended east by the East of Fife Railway to Kilconquhar.
...

More details

See also
East of Fife Railway
Leven Dock Railway
The view east to the site of the first Leven station, later the goods yard, in 2008. On the right was the reversing spur used to reach Leven Dock and ...
Ewan Crawford 04/01/2008
View west along the course of the Leven branch in July 2013, now the access road to the KFRPS's Methil site. ...
Bill Roberton 06/07/2013
2 of 2 images.





Muiredge Branch

Cameron Bridge to Muiredge Goods.

This was an island platform station surrounded by the Cameronbridge Distillery, for which there were many sidings.
...

More details
Patrick Harvie, Minister for Zero Carbon Buildings, Active Travel and Tenants Rights, visits the cleared site of the original Cameron Bridge station. ...
Network Rail 26/08/2022
20211 and 20179 engage in shunting at Cameron Bridge in 1990. In the background is the distillery's English Electric 0-6-0 DH shunter.
...
Bill Roberton 10/10/1990
Debris being cleared following the demolition of the island platform at Cameron Bridge. ...
Network Rail 26/08/2022
Looking west over the new ballast through the former Cameron Bridge [1st] station and yard on 19 May 2023.
...
Bill Roberton 19/05/2023
4 of 107 images. more


This was the terminus of a short goods and mineral branch from Cameron Bridge [1st] built by the Leven and East of Fife Railway. The location has a complex history going through a number of different layouts.
...

More details

See also
Leven Colliery Branch (Fife Coal Company)