Location type

Name and dates

Note: text in square brackets is added for clarity and was not part of the location's name.

Description

This was a double track junction east of Slateford station (and the present Slateford Junction). It was the connection between the 1848 Caledonian Railway and the abortive Edinburgh Station and Branches (Caledonian Railway) of 1859 which was intended to allow the Caledonian access to Haymarket to Edinburgh Waverley.

The Edinburgh and Glasgow Railway and Caledonian could not come to terms and the junction at the far end of the connecting line was not laid in, the line terminating in a bay.

The branch gained a purpose with the opening of the Granton Branch (Caledonian Railway) in 1861, which commenced from Granton Junction on the 1859 line. This was extended to Leith in 1864, then modified and opened to passengers in 1879.

A signal box opened in 1879. The box was replaced in 1888. This box was on the south side of the junction. In 1890 a temporary Exhibition [CR] was opened on a loop built on the south side of the line to Princes Street. The west end was at Slateford Junction [1st] and east at Exhibition Junction [CR]. Slateford Yard was laid out to the south of Slateford Junction [1st], a series of single ended sidings.

The box was replaced again in 1960 for the opening in 1961 of a new curve Slateford to Craiglockhart Curve (British Railways). Slateford Yard was cut back and relaid on a smaller site, the west end of the new curve cutting through the site of the west sidings of the original yard to reach the new Slateford Junction.

In 1965 Princes Street closed to passengers. For this the failed route to Haymarket was brought into use with the 'Duff Street Spur' completing the route. Slateford Junction [1st] ceased to be a junction in 1966 when the original main line east closed to goods.

The new Slateford Junction box closed in 1981, replaced by the Edinburgh Signalling Centre.

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