Location type

Name and dates

Description

This is a two platform station with a car park on the west side. The original station building, by architect David Bell, sill stands, a three storey building with the top two floors at road level and ground floor at platform level. There were timber waiting rooms at platform level. A large retaining wall runs down the east side of the station.

To the south was the junction for the Leslie Railway. This was controlled by 'Markinch Junction' signal box, at the south end of the station and on the east side of the main line. The goods yard was reached by reversal from the branch. It was at the south end of the station on the west side. South of the junction were exchange sidings in the 'V' of the junction. (There was a temporary Markinch South signal box in 1914, probably for Markinch Viaduct repairs.)

There were bays on either side of the station, approached from the south.

A short distance down the Leslie branch were Haig's Sidings.

North of the station, also on the west side, was the Markinch Co-op Siding.

The Leslie line closed to passengers in 1967.

The new town of Glenrothes has developed to the west of the station.

Markinch goods shed was home to LNER Class A4 4488 Union of South Africa from the late 1970s until 1994. The shed burned down in 2003.

The signal box closed in 1980, taken over by Edinburgh Signalling Centre.

The stub of the Leslie Railway to Auchmuty Paper Mill continued in use until 1992 and was lifted not long afterwards. The trackbed is now a footpath.

A new rail and bus interchange opened in 2007 along with a new station building, just south of the original. With the junction and goods yard removed further car parks were able to be laid out on the west side of the station. Access to the platforms was improved and there is now a bus interchange. The station is a railhead for Glenrothes, Methil and Leven.

Tags

Facilities