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.
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.
/ /1865 | Penicuik Railway Penicuik Branch rejected. |
/ /1870 | Mauricewood Pit (Penicuik) Opened by Shotts Iron Co for ironstone. Gives impetus to the Penicuik Railway. |
20/06/1870 | Penicuik Railway Act receives Royal assent. |
02/07/1872 | Penicuik Railway Penicuik Railway opened from Hawthornden Junction (Peebles Railway) to Penicuik [2nd]. Stations opened at: Rosslyn [Penicuik Railway], Auchendinny and Penicuik [2nd]. |
16/02/1874 | Penicuik Railway Rosslyn re-named Rosslyn Castle. |
01/07/1874 | Penicuik Railway Eskbridge opened. |
13/07/1876 | Penicuik Railway
North British Railway Penicuik Railway absorbed by North British Railway. |
01/01/1917 | Penicuik Railway Eskbridge closed. |
02/06/1919 | Penicuik Railway Eskbridge re-opened. |
22/09/1930 | Penicuik Railway Eskbridge closed. |
05/03/1951 | Penicuik Railway Auchendinny closed. |
10/09/1951 | Penicuik Railway Penicuik [2nd] to Rosewell and Hawthornden (Hawthornden Junction) closed to passengers. Rosslyn Castle and Penicuik [2nd] closed. |
27/03/1967 | Penicuik Railway Hawthornden Junction to Esk Mills paper mill closed to freight. |
27/03/1967 | Peebles Railway Line closed from Hawthornden Junction to Hardengreen Junction (excluded). The route was latterly used by freight trains for access to the Penicuik Railway. |
/11/2004 | Penicuik Railway Midlothian Council proposed restoration of line in the council's transport strategy, in preferance to dualing the A701 roadbetween Straiton and Milton Bridge. |
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.
...
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.
...
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.
...
Array
More detailsThis is a single track tunnel immediately west of Firth Viaduct and east of the former Dalmore Mill, Auchendinny Tunnel, Auchendinny Viaduct and Auchendinny station.
...
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.
...
This tunnel is immediately east of Auchendinny Viaduct and the former Auchendinny station. It is immediately west of the site of Dalmore Mill.
...
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.
...
This single platform station was south of Auchendinny itself, at a very much lower level by the River North Esk.
...
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.
...
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).
...
...
More detailsThis 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 ...
More detailsThis was a single platform station with a passing loop built in the east of Penicuik itself, unlike Penicuik [1st] to the east.
...
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.
...