Portobello [2nd]
Location type
StationName and dates
Portobello [2nd] (1846-1890)Note: text in square brackets is added for clarity and was not part of the location's name.
Opened on the North British Railway.Description
There have been three station at Portobello and presently (2018) none. The second station, opened by the North British Railway, was a two platform station with a building on each platform. To the immediate east was the original Portobello Junction (later relocated further east).
To the south west was Portobello [1st] on the Edinburgh and Dalkeith Railway.
The Ordnance Survey Name Book described it thus
A house erected by the North British Railway Company and kept by them as an office where passengers and goods are booked for any part to the United Kingdom.
A new curve from Portobello West Junction to the South Leith line opened in 1860. The existing Portobello Junction becoming Portobello East Junction.
Portobello Yard opened to the east of the station site, the station itself being closed and replaced by Portobello [3rd] on a new deviation to the south which curved round the yard, laid out on either side of the original main line.
Portobello was a very important location for the North British Railway. This was a nexus of lines before the Edinburgh, Southside and Suburban Junction Railway with lines radiating to Edinburgh (and thus Glasgow) and east to Berwick-upon-Tweed (and the south), and south to Galashiels [1st], Peebles, Carlisle and Hexham.
The former eastbound platform station building survived as a bothy at the west end of the yard. It had another important use after the opening of the Lothian Lines (North British Railway) becoming a central control for train movements.
Tags
StationExternal links
NLS Collection OS map of 1892-1914NLS Collection OS map of 1944-67
NLS Map
NLS Map
02/06/2019
