Penicuik Railway

Introduction

This line is closed. The line carried passengers and freight between Penicuik [2nd] and Edinburgh. The line is now a cycle path. The survival of this line for freight after closure to passengers and a local service to Rosewell kept the Peebles Railway open from Eskbank [1st] to Rosewell for a few months after closure of the Peebles route, but it was not a long reprieve.

Why built

The already open Peebles Railway took a course to the south of Penicuik on high ground. Its station, Penicuik [1st], served the town poorly and was very inconvenient for the mills along the River Esk.






Dates

  /  /1865Penicuik Railway
Penicuik Branch rejected.
  /  /1870Mauricewood Pit (Penicuik)
Opened by Shotts Iron Co for ironstone. Gives impetus to the Penicuik Railway.
20/06/1870Penicuik Railway
Act receives Royal assent.
02/07/1872Penicuik Railway
Penicuik Railway opened from Hawthornden Junction (Peebles Railway) to Penicuik [2nd]. Stations opened at: Rosslyn [Penicuik Railway], Auchendinny and Penicuik [2nd].
16/02/1874Penicuik Railway
Rosslyn re-named Rosslyn Castle.
01/07/1874Penicuik Railway
Eskbridge opened.
13/07/1876Penicuik Railway North British Railway
Penicuik Railway absorbed by North British Railway.
01/01/1917Penicuik Railway
Eskbridge closed.
02/06/1919Penicuik Railway
Eskbridge re-opened.
22/09/1930Penicuik Railway
Eskbridge closed.
05/03/1951Penicuik Railway
Auchendinny closed.
10/09/1951Penicuik Railway
Penicuik [2nd] to Rosewell and Hawthornden (Hawthornden Junction) closed to passengers. Rosslyn Castle and Penicuik [2nd] closed.
27/03/1967Penicuik Railway
Hawthornden Junction to Esk Mills paper mill closed to freight.
27/03/1967Peebles Railway
Line closed from Hawthornden Junction to Hardengreen Junction (excluded). The route was latterly used by freight trains for access to the Penicuik Railway.
  /11/2004Penicuik Railway
Midlothian Council proposed restoration of line in the council's transport strategy, in preferance to dualing the A701 roadbetween Straiton and Milton Bridge.

Locations along the line

These locations are along the line.

This was the junction between the Peebles Railway of 1855 and the Penicuik Railway of 1872. The junction was to the south of a level crossing immediately south of Rosewell and Hawthornden station.
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See also
Peebles Railway




This was a single platform station built beside Roslin Lee farm, about a mile to the south of the village of Roslin and over the River North Esk. The platform, with a single storey small station building (akin to the shelter at Drem) was on the north side and there was a goods yard to the west on the north side of the line, accessed from the east.
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Approaching Rosslyn Castle on the Penicuik Branch from the south on a sunny January morning in 2020. The old station platform survives below the road ...
John Furnevel 31/01/2020
Coffee stop al fresco. Platform scene at Rosslyn Castle in January 2020 looking south west in the general direction of Penicuik. The old station saw ...
John Furnevel 31/01/2020
This pipe bridge, just west of Rosslyn Castle's goods yard, carries water from Gladhouse Reservoir to Edinburgh. It was completed for the Edinburgh ...
Ewan Crawford 21/02/2023
Shortly after Leaving Rosslyn Castle station (behind the camera) on the Penicuik branch the line swung south east past the goods yard. Nowadays the ...
John Furnevel 31/01/2020
4 of 22 images. more


The Tin Tunnel, a spark Arresting tube about 744 feet long over the line, was built over a section of the Penicuik Railway to protect the Rosslyn Gunpowder Works, below and to its west, from sparks from locomotives.
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This was the site of the 'tin tunnel', a structure built over the Penicuik railway to prevent sparks above the Roslin Gunpowder Mills. It was about ...
Ewan Crawford 21/02/2023
1 of 1 images.


About to leave Firth Viaduct, on the outskirts of Auchendinny, heading west along the former Penicuik Branch on 20 April 2013. In the middle distance ...
John Furnevel 20/04/2013
Between Auchendinny and Roslin Castle stations the Penicuik Railway crossed the River North Esk on Firth Viaduct, now part of a popular walking ...
John Furnevel 27/09/2017
The 10-arch Firth Viaduct spanning the North Esk on the Penicuik branch, just to the east of Auchendinny. Photographed on 20 April 2013 looking across ...
John Furnevel 20/04/2013
View east across Firth Viaduct, Auchendinny, in October 2001. ...
John Furnevel 22/10/2001
4 of 6 images. more


This is a single track tunnel immediately west of Firth Viaduct and east of the former Dalmore Mill, Auchendinny Tunnel, Auchendinny Viaduct and Auchendinny station.
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Close up showing the south west portal of Old Woodhouselee Tunnel, on the former Penicuik branch, on 20th April 2013. View is in the general direction ...
John Furnevel 20/04/2013
Looking out from the east portal of Old Woodhouselee Tunnel, Auchendinny, on 20 April 2013. View towards Firth Viaduct in the middle distance. ...
John Furnevel 20/04/2013
The eastern approach to Old Woodhouselee Tunnel, Auchendinny, on 20 April 2013, with Firth Viaduct behind the camera see image 2659. The site of ...
John Furnevel 20/04/2013
The approach to Old Woodhouselee Tunnel, Auchendinny, on 27 September 2017. View is east towards Rosslyn Castle station, with Firth Viaduct standing ...
John Furnevel 27/09/2017
4 of 5 images. more


By the time of its closure in 2004, this was the last paper mill in Midlothian. It was located to the south of Auchendinny and Dalmore House on the north bank of one of the bends in the River North Esk. Today it is a housing estate.
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View from the eastern portal of Auchendinny Tunnel on a September morning in 2017, heading for Hawthornden Junction along the route of the former ...
John Furnevel 27/09/2017
A view of the now demolished Dalmore Mill, Auchendinny, in 1999 viewed from the trackbed of the former Penicuik Railway. This mill was rail served and ...
Ewan Crawford //1999
Looking west towards Auchendinny Tunnel in 2017 along the trackbed of the Penicuik Railway. The branch from Hardengreen Junction closed in 1967 and ...
John Furnevel 27/09/2017
Trackbed of the Penicuik branch looking west towards Auchendinny Tunnel in April 2013. On the left lie the remains of the recently demolished Dalmore ...
John Furnevel 20/04/2013
4 of 4 images.


This tunnel is immediately east of Auchendinny Viaduct and the former Auchendinny station. It is immediately west of the site of Dalmore Mill.
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Looking out from Auchendinny Tunnel towards the former station in 1976.
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Bill Roberton //1976
About to leave Auchendinny Tunnel on the Penicuik branch on 8 April 2018, before immediately crossing the bridge over the North Esk. The colourful ...
John Furnevel 08/04/2018
The east portal of Auchendinny Tunnel on the Penicuik branch, seen here on 17 March 2022, now part of a walkway. Near the far end of the tunnel are ...
John Furnevel 17/03/2022
This is the view looking south from the interior of Auchendinny Tunnel towards the former station. ...
Ewan Crawford 21/02/2023
4 of 12 images. more


This is a disused single track single span bowstring viaduct over the River North Esk between the former Auchendinny station and Auchendinny Tunnel. The girder is approximately 100 ft long.
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Auchendinny station, looking back towards Edinburgh. ...
Bill Roberton /12/1976
Looking south over the Auchendinny bridge towards the former station. ...
Ewan Crawford //
The sun catches the rail bridge over the North Esk at Auchendinny, seen here looking along the trackbed towards Penicuik from above the tunnel in ...
John Furnevel 07/04/2004
Standing on the bank of the North Esk at Auchendinny looking east in March 2016, with the surviving station platform beyond the wall on the right see ...
John Furnevel 28/03/2016
4 of 7 images. more


This single platform station was south of Auchendinny itself, at a very much lower level by the River North Esk.
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Part of the long abandoned and heavily overgrown platform of Auchendinny station is picked out by early morning sunshine on 10 April 2022. View is ...
John Furnevel 10/04/2022
Making sense of old railway locations becomes more like archeology with each passing year. Here, at peevish sounding Auchendinny on the Penicuik line, ...
David Panton 09/05/2017
The remains of an old loading dock in the woods at Auchendinny on the Penicuik branch. Photograph taken in March 2006 looking out from the buffer ...
John Furnevel 28/03/2016
Looking north from Auchendinny Station in 2002 towards the bridge over the North Esk and the tunnel beyond. ...
John Furnevel 10/09/2002
4 of 7 images. more


This was a single platform station on a single track line. The platform was located on the west side of the line and built in timber and ash (the southern part entirely in timber as it overhung the river). The station building was in timber. The station was reached by a very short approach running south from the east end of the Esk Bridge.
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The substantial skew bridge carrying a minor road over the trackbed of the Penicuik Railway near the site of Eskbridge station (located some 150m ...
John Furnevel 19/05/2017
I have drawn to Midlothian Council's attention the error that this was not the Peebles railway, on which I travelled many times. It's the Penicuik ...
John Yellowlees 17/06/2017
Substantial retaining wall and overbridge on the Penicuik branch heading south in October 2007. Eskbridge station stood approximately 200 yards beyond ...
John Furnevel 05/10/2007
Looking north at the former Eskbridge station. ...
Ewan Crawford //
4 of 9 images. more


Originally cotton mills on the west bank of the River North Esk by 1820 this paper mill was owned by James Brown and Co. Before the opening of the Penicuik Railway it was apparently served by sidings at Rosslynlee (although Loanstone Sidings were closer and much more likely, probably considered under Rosslynlee's accounts).
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This paper mill was built, with the support of the Clerks of Penicuik, by Agnes Campbell, a very successful printer and bookmaker. The mill expanded to fill the flat land on the north bank of the River North Esk and had a mill lade. The mill was used for French prisoners of war during the Napoleonic Wars and returned to being a paper mill afterwards. It was not only the oldest mill but also ...

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This was a single platform station with a passing loop built in the east of Penicuik itself, unlike Penicuik [1st] to the east.
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Penicuik goods shed in 1976 looking south west. The station building was beyond the goods shed. The signal box looking building on the right was a ...
Bill Roberton //1976
Penicuik, looking past the base of the signal box towards the station. The closed Valleyfield Paper Mill is on the right with the gable end of the ...
Bill Roberton /12/1976
Looking north over the site of the former Penicuik station. ...
Ewan Crawford //
65234 on a railtour at Penicuik in August 1964. See image 23124. District Operating Inspector Kerr stands in the 4 foot on the right, hands behind ...
K A Gray 29/08/1964
4 of 9 images. more


This mill was on the west side of Bridge Street in Penicuik, on the north bank of the River North Esk. It was converted from a very long established corn mill into a paper mill by the owners of the Valleyfield Mill in 1803. It specialised in making paper for banknotes.
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Bridge over the siding into Bank Mill, Penicuik. ...
John Yellowlees 17/05/2017
Beyond the former terminus at Penicuik a line continued south to reach Bank Mill on the other side of the A701 (see image 29992). One of the mills ...
John Furnevel 09/05/2011
2 of 2 images.