Oakley (Fife)

Location type

Station

Names and dates

Oakley (1854-1925)
Oakley (Fife) (1925-1968)

Opened on the Stirling and Dunfermline Railway.
Opened on the Kinnedar Branch (North British Railway).
Opened on the Forth Ironworks Railway.

Description

This was a two platform station. It was built over station road, south of Oakley. There was a goods yard to the west, on the south side of the line and served from the west. The main station building was on the westbound platform, just to the west of the bridge.

To the west of the station was a junction, originally for the private line to Forth Iron Works which curved from east to north. This later became the North British Railway's Kinnedar Branch and ultimately served Comrie Colliery.

To the west one of the iron work's private lines crossed over the line to serve mines and there was a second curve from west to north which passed under this. After closure of the works both of these lines were closed.

Most of Oakley developed to serve the iron works and various connected mines, although the works period housing is gone. The village is the biggest reminder of the former works.

As part of the BR modernisation of the 1950s a new yard was put in west of Oakley on the main line, on the eastbound side, and new exchange sidings laid in on the Kinnedar branch. A turntable was supplied. A new bridge over station road was put in north of the station, a head shunt for the two yards - this was an extension of a much shorter and older head shunt for the branch. Because of these works a new signal box was installed in 1954.

The station closed in 1968. East to Dunfermline Upper was singled in 1972. West to Kincardine Junction, Alloa, was singled in 1973. The box closed in 1980 when the line west of Bogside, to the west, closed. The line west closed in 1982. With the closure of Comrie Colliery the line closed completely and in 1986 was lifted back to near Townhead Junction, Dunfermline.

Tags

Station

External links

Canmore site record
NLS Collection OS map of 1892-1914
NLS Collection OS map of 1944-67
NLS Map
NLS Map
NLS Map
NLS Map
NLS Map


Chronology Dates

  /  /1849Stirling and Dunfermline Railway
Opened from Dunfermline to Oakley to goods and minerals. A connection to the Forth Iron Works Railway was made at Oakley.
28/08/1850Stirling and Dunfermline Railway
Forth Iron Works Railway
Opened from Oakley to Alloa. Opened from Dunfermline to Alloa for passengers. A branch to Alloa Harbour station from Alloa was used for passengers travelling on to Stirling by boats along the River Forth.
09/03/1925Stirling and Dunfermline Railway
Oakley renamed Oakley (Fife).
25/07/1935Fife Coal Company
First sod of the Comrie Colliery cut for this modern coal mine. 2 pits sunk. An aerial ropeway carried waste away to a bing and the mine was served by a branch from the Stirling and Dunfermline Railway which had formerly served the Kinnedar Pit. There was a level crossing and signal box in Comrie LC [Fife] and new handling sidings installed at Oakley.
18/06/1972Stirling and Dunfermline Railway
Blairhall signal box closed, replaced by a ground frame now released from Oakley.
  /  /1982Stirling and Dunfermline Railway
Bogside to Oakley (excluded) closed.
  /  /1984Stirling and Dunfermline Railway
Dunfermline Branch (Edinburgh and Northern Railway)
Comrie Colliery to Oakley to Dunfermline Upper closed. Dunfermline Upper to Townhill Junction closed.

Books


A Century of Dunfermline and West Fife

A Regional History of the Railways of Great Britain: The North of Scotland v. 15 (Regional railway history series)

Fife, the Mining Kingdom

Fife's Last Days of Colliery Steam