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Description

This was an island platform station with a narrow platform. The platform has been removed but the seldom used railway remains. The station and line served the HM Rosyth Dockyard.

The location for the base may have been influenced by the nearby supply of coal from the Fife coalfield, eg from Valleyfield Colliery.

A station opened here for the large Rosyth naval base. Construction of this had begun in 1909 and a signal box was opened in 1912 at Naval Base Junction, south of Inverkeithing, for the new single track railway which approached the base from the east. This was originally laid to follow the shoreline but as land reclamation created a new large area for the dockyard and its possible expansion the line was relaid on a more direct course. (Rosyth Castle which had been on an offshore island was now within the base and Du Craig, an offshore rock, became the southern breakwater.) The junction between the original route and new line was Limpetness Junction (box opened 1916).

The station opened in 1915.

The first dry dock at the base opened in 1916. The layout of the base is a large square canting basin at the west end, with dry docks in the north. The basin is accessed through locks. To the east are wet docks, accessed from the south. A long quayside runs east from the docks to south of Rosyth Castle.

The station was at the east end of the dockyard. The signal box, to the east and dating from 1917, survives and is 'B' listed. Lines fanned out at the east end of the station to approach the various quaysides. The railway continued beyond the station to serve further quaysides and docks. The railway was doubled in 1918.

In 1917 Rosyth Halt opened to the north of the dockyard and new housing at Rosyth.

The Dunfermline and District Tramways tramway was extended to Rosyth in 1918, closing in 1937.

The signal box closed in 1923, the site being operated as a yard. The box was re-opened in 1941.

to the east of the dockyard a large tank farm Rosyth Tank Farm and Castlekey Fuel Storage Bunker were laid out to the north of the railway as far east as the former Limpet Ness. the site was railway served from Limpetness Junction
In 1974 the line was singled from Limpetness Junction.

A regular unadvertised passenger service ran to Rosyth Dockyard until 1988.

The box still stands, surrounded by a security fence.

Sidings have been considerably cut back but the line remains in place. A shed has been erected over the line to the west of the box.

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