Location type

Station

Names and dates

Leuchars Junction [2nd] (1878-1970)
Leuchars (1970-)

Note: text in square brackets is added for clarity and was not part of the location's name.

Station code: LEU National Rail ScotRail
Where: Fife, Scotland
Opened on the Edinburgh and Northern Railway.
Opened on the Tay Bridge and Associated Lines (North British Railway).
Opened on the St Andrews Railway.
Open on the Edinburgh to Dundee.

Description

This is an island platform station which today is the closest to St Andrews. There is a car park on the east side of the station.

The station opened with the Tay Bridge replacing Leuchars (Old) just to the north but not on the new line to the bridge being on the older approach to Tayport.

The station had a bay at each end, the southern one being for the St Andrews Railway branch. Both bays have been filled in. There were signal boxes for the junction at either end too, both on the east side.

There were sidings on the west side of the station. North of the station as far as Leuchars (Old) the line was quadruple track.

The station building is a replacement for the original which burned down in 1913 (30 June). The fire was attributed by many to radical Suffragettes as tins of accelerant were found nearby, similar to those used previously at the Gatty Marine Laboratory in St Andrews (21 June). Unlike the earlier fire, no placards were left at Leuchars.

The north box was replaced in 1920 when a siding was laid into RAF Leuchars which is just to the east of the north end of the station. In addition further sidings were laid between the junction and Leuchars (Old) on the west side of the line, approached from the south. The sidings on the west side of the station were also altered and the headshunt provided with a loop.

The line to Leuchars (Old) was singled in 1959 and closed in 1967, however the siding into RAF Leuchars remained open. With the closure of Leuchars South box in 1970, the year after the St Andrews [2nd] line closed in 1969, the box was renamed simply 'Leuchars'.

Link to St Andrews

A regular bus service links the station to St Andrews with a 10 minutes journey time.

Passenger traffic to Leuchars station has more than doubled since 2000.

Much of the former railway route remains today. Exceptions are the dismantled bridge over the River Eden at Guard Bridge and occupation of the trackbed at Guard Bridge and on construction around the sites of the former St Andrews [1st] and St Andrews [2nd] stations.

Local

RAF Leuchars was to the east of the station.

It is perhaps revealing that even the North British Railway's guide to the East Coast Main Line described the station and village minimally

From Leuchars, a place halfway between Cupar and the south end of the Tay Bridge, and the possessor of an interesting old Norman church, one most readily reaches St Andrews [2nd].

Leuchars remains a village, hugely overshadowed by RAF Leuchars. The Norman church is still in Leuchars, St Athernase Church, built in the late 1100s.

Tags

Station
10/11/2022

Nearby stations Leuchars (Old) Guard Bridge Dairsie St Fort St Andrews [1st] Kilmany St Andrews [2nd] Newport-on-Tay West Wormit Newport-on-Tay East Mount Melville Tayport Rathillet Siding Cupar Broughty Pier	Milton Junction [Leuchars] Guardbridge Paper Mill Guard Bridge Viaduct Eden Brick Works Seggie Brick and Tile Works Seafield Brick and Tile Works St Fort South Junction St Fort West Junction Linkswood Oil Depot Strathtyrum House Morton Siding St Andrews Shed Newton Ballast Hill Tourist/other RAF Leuchars St Athernase Church
Location names in dark blue are on the same original line.