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Description

This junction is in the south east of Edinburgh. It controls the junction between the Edinburgh Waverley to Tweedbank line and the goods only line from Slateford and Haymarket. It is a busy location with freight, passenger trains and depot traffic, made difficult by the single track line north to Portobello.

The junction was formed in 1847 between the 1831 Niddrie to South Esk branch of the Edinburgh and Dalkeith Railway and the 1847 North British Railway connection from Portobello East Junction. (Just to the north the Portobello alignment cut the 1831 Fisherrow branch.)

Niddrie [3rd] station was located here. (It is usually shown south of the junction but could possibly be a four platform station at the junction.) A goods station, possibly just an office, survived here after the station closed. This was on the east side of the junction.

Also note the site of Niddry Junction [1st] 's 'Branch House', just to the west on the westbound railway, which survived until expansion of Newcraighall Colliery.

Catch points for breakaways on the climb to the south were on the southbound line, just south of junction. Removed by 1930s - probably when the signal box moved north closer to the Lothian Lines in/for 1913.

The original box was on east side just south of junction and just north of a siding on the east side, approached from the south. This box closed in 1914 with the opening of the Lothian Lines (North British Railway).

The second box was opened for the Lothian Lines (North British Railway) in the 'V' of the junction aligned with the Portobello fork. Just to the south was the severed 1831 Fisherrow alignment. Just to the north a part of the 1884 Edinburgh, Suburban and Southside Junction Railway passed underneath on its way from Niddrie West Junction to Niddrie East Junction.

A little further north the Lothian Lines connection from Brunstane Park Junction, to the north, met the railway on the east side, a single track line which doubled just as it reached the junction.

The signal box was replaced by Millerhill Power Box in 1962. This was with the opening of the Millerhill Marshalling Yard (British Railway) to the south.

The Brunstane Park Junction Lothian Line closed 1967.

The line north to Brunstane and Portobello Junction is now a single track, a major bottleneck for traffic since the re-opening of the line to Tweedbank which starts from Newcraighall North Junction (once the north end of the yard). This has been further compounded with the opening of the Millerhill EGIP Depot. Essentially three routes overlap here: the freight only route, the Borders Railway and the EGIP depot.

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