Edinburgh Princes Street

[crewmeal]

In 1960 as a 10 year old I remember taking a sleeper train from Edinburgh Princes Street to Birmingham via the West Coast main line. If anyone is still alive do you remember the route the train would have taken from Edinburgh via Carlisle? Maybe the Waverly Line? I'm pretty sure the train had portions to Liverpool and Manchester tagged on the rear of it as well.

I can't even remember when Princes Street closed.

 

[yorksrob]

As far as I'm aware, it was basically the WCML terminus.

I remember going for an excellent weekend to Edinburgh for a friends 30th. At the end of the evening, we went back to my friends hotel for a whisky to round off the evening, so imagine my excitement when I turned up to find that my friend was staying in the hotel that was part of Princes Street station! Needless to say, my friends were perplexed at my excitement !

 

[DaveNewcastle]

What do you mean "if anyone is still alive" ? ! ! !

Yes, the line out of Princes Street (the Caledonian Hotel) followed what is now the West Approach Road (one of the few examples of a modern 4-lane road being built on a railway formation) and then the footpath to Gorgie leading to Slateford and on to the Mid Calder line to Carstairs.

 

[edwin_m]

Princes Street station wasn't quite on Princes Street, it was a little way down Lothian Road beyond the Caledonian Hotel as mentioned. Looking on aerial mapping you can see disused lines going west (now a road), south-west and north. The south-west one joins the line towards Carstairs just where it passes over the Suburban line north-east of Slateford station. The train to the south would have taken this route, then the current route via Carstairs, Carlisle, probably WCML to Stafford and Wolverhampton.

The connection now used from Slateford to Haymarket was (if I recall) originally a branch to serve the brewery, which was also connected to the ex-North British network near Haymarket and it was possible for trains to shunt through the brewery's sidings to get from ex-Caledonian to ex-NB tracks. When the decision was made to close Princes Street station, all the other routes out of it either linked to the NB network or were closed as well, and it was simply necessary to make a more useable connection to Haymarket so that trains to/from the south could use Waverley instead.

 

[mister-sparky]

After Slateford, the route would've been the current normal route to Carlisle, then down the WCML.

 

[PaulLothian]

The original station was indeed a little way up Lothian Road. Another temporary station was built fairly much on the existing site (right into the corner of Princes Street), and this was rebuilt into its 'modern' form in the 1890s.

The orignal Western Approach Road (which I think met Lothian Road further south than now) was built in the beginning of the 70s, and was surrounded by interesting remains of the goods station and yard, roughly on the site of the original station. Unfortunately the traffic flow was efficient enough to make it hard to enjoy the detail as I sped past on my way to work!

 

[Millisle]

The date of closure was 4 September 1965, according to The Register Of Scottish Signal Boxes, my favourite Scottish railway book. The lack of Waverley's through lines made the choice inevitable. Interestingly, when I was a child I invariably heard Princes Street referred to in conversation as the Caledonian or Caley, but Waverley was never referred to as the North British despite possessing an even more prominent hotel of the same name.

Edited for typography.

 

[Mugby]

Surely there must be one or two sites with some archive photos somewhere?

 

[flymo]

According to the online LM timetable from 1962/1963 available on Timetable World the train with sleeping car accommodation from Edinburgh Princes St to Birmingham left at 23:30 and joined with a portion from Glasgow (dep 23:15) at Carstairs. From Carlisle it called at Crewe, Wolverhampton and arr Birmingham New St at around 06:43

Love old timetables..

If the link does not load then go to the home page and navigate from there..

 

[Millisle]

There is an excellent selection of photographs on the Railscot site: www.railbrit.co.uk