Just watched the vid out the old signal boxes and then came on to this. I don't get home much, but when I do I like to walk the former rail line (now cycle path) from Dunfermline to Clackmannan ( they took to bridges down so you can't go from the now-demolished North Station all the way to Alloa). There is an rotting signal box which always made me feel sad. I think how cool it must have been to be able to go from Dunfermline to, say, Glasgow via Stirling, and I'm sure I did this as a kid. Crazy to think that before cars, there were indeed lines covering short distances like Leith To Edinburgh often with several trains a day.
Omg, saw the first shot of how it looked and was like "wait, that street corner looks familiar..." and then by the end I realised part of the old train office buildings are now my former GP and I lived just down and across the road from the big Tesco. Tbf, I moved to Leith from Canada in 2018 so don't know the full history of the area but slowly finding out more!
We used to play inside it around 1980, we got access to the old line from Pitt St then onto the bridge and then into the station, it was great fun riding our bmx's all around it and maybe a chase from the cops 😂
I was born round the corner from it and always wanted to explore it when I was small….I imagined old trains standing at the platform’s….thanks for the video.
I was brought up on Easter Road, some pals and I got in for a wander, must have been mid-to-late seventies, before the drugs hit Leith. Not a soul inside, eerie and abandoned. You would have had to be pretty desperate to hang out in there...
Many thanks for showing that - I have a memory of looking in that derelict station back in the early eighties - but was never quite sure if I had imagined it - really great to see the history - and just as I remember it (so must have been real….)
I am amazed that I didn't know anything about this station, as I must have passed the site several hundred times when I lived in Edinburgh. It seems difficult to believe these days that it was worth the money and effort building a railway line from Leith Central to Edinburgh Waverley - a distance of about two miles by road although the railway line was slightly longer, as it looped round the eastern side of Easter Road and up to Abbeyhill, where it joined what is now the East Coast Mainline. Outside of the south-east of England, there just hasn't been a culture in the UK to travel such short distances by rail for many decades or maybe even over a century.. Given the number of old, disused railway lines in Edinburgh that have become cycle tracks, I suppose that indicates how many train services there must have been in the city at one time.
there's an abandoned line runs up through the New Town, to the Waverley. You can still see a couple of the old Tunnels, one in the park at the foot of Scotland Street, and the other adjacent to the Tesco at Canonmills. There was a station, of course, at the back of the Caledonian Hotel at the West End, and a big goods yard more or less where the Fountain Park centre is now. Those are just a few examples.
Leith developed as a separate town. Railways went everywhere until the 1960s and when the station was built people didn't have other transport options. Railways were also very important for transporting industrial goods and Leith had more heavy industry than Edinburgh. It was/is also the port for Edinburgh so goods needed to be taken to and from Leith. This is what justified the building of the line into Leith itself.
Is this not the reason trainspotting was the title of Irvin Welsh’s book? Leith had been left to rot since and the closing of this station was testament to that. Begbie meets his drunken father as a kid in the disused station
My parents both grew up in Leith and my mother told me there were day out trips for children from this station to the countryside (I suspect they would be to the Gifford or the Roslin lines) organised by the local churches.
Very interesting. Having walked up and down Leith Walk hundreds of times I never realised there was a train station there at one time. Ironic that a few decades later they built a tram rail service for hundreds of millions of pounds that services Leith.
7my gran stayed in Duke St her house overlooked the back or maybe it was the side of the station every morning at 7am the hooter would go for start of shift, never gave the place much of a thought it was just a building I was just a bairn right enough
@robertdoyle687 not as such, when it became derelict/abandoned it was a pretty grim place which attracted all form of delinquent types, but mostly drug users. Hence why Begbie is heard to say 'my dad is trainspotting' when he finds out that's where he is and what he's doing.
To be fair, this was an early casualty, as the local trains obviously didn't pay. It's hard to know what the trainshed could have been repurposed for, but at least the terminal building survives, even if it is just a supermarket.
Sadly we don't. There has been calls to reopen some of the lost lines but in most cases they are already built on. The Beeching cuts closed thousands of miles of track all over the UK. They should have kept the routes intact so they could be restored. The old routes do make for interesting walks.
I feel ashamed not to have known this history before. Thanks for enlightening me and putting together such a powerful and informative video 😊
What a stunning place! Never knew of it until now. Many thanks.
Just watched the vid out the old signal boxes and then came on to this. I don't get home much, but when I do I like to walk the former rail line (now cycle path) from Dunfermline to Clackmannan ( they took to bridges down so you can't go from the now-demolished North Station all the way to Alloa). There is an rotting signal box which always made me feel sad. I think how cool it must have been to be able to go from Dunfermline to, say, Glasgow via Stirling, and I'm sure I did this as a kid. Crazy to think that before cars, there were indeed lines covering short distances like Leith To Edinburgh often with several trains a day.
Omg, saw the first shot of how it looked and was like "wait, that street corner looks familiar..." and then by the end I realised part of the old train office buildings are now my former GP and I lived just down and across the road from the big Tesco.
Tbf, I moved to Leith from Canada in 2018 so don't know the full history of the area but slowly finding out more!
We used to play inside it around 1980, we got access to the old line from Pitt St then onto the bridge and then into the station, it was great fun riding our bmx's all around it and maybe a chase from the cops 😂
Great video, thank you.
Very nice video ,greetings from Asturias
I grew up on Easter Road and used to play in there as a kid back in the 70s
The station in Irvine Welsh's Trainspotting where Begbie sees and recognises his Jaikey Dad and where he will probably end up.
I was born round the corner from it and always wanted to explore it when I was small….I imagined old trains standing at the platform’s….thanks for the video.
I was brought up on Easter Road, some pals and I got in for a wander, must have been mid-to-late seventies, before the drugs hit Leith. Not a soul inside, eerie and abandoned.
You would have had to be pretty desperate to hang out in there...
Many thanks for showing that - I have a memory of looking in that derelict station back in the early eighties - but was never quite sure if I had imagined it - really great to see the history - and just as I remember it (so must have been real….)
I am amazed that I didn't know anything about this station, as I must have passed the site several hundred times when I lived in Edinburgh. It seems difficult to believe these days that it was worth the money and effort building a railway line from Leith Central to Edinburgh Waverley - a distance of about two miles by road although the railway line was slightly longer, as it looped round the eastern side of Easter Road and up to Abbeyhill, where it joined what is now the East Coast Mainline. Outside of the south-east of England, there just hasn't been a culture in the UK to travel such short distances by rail for many decades or maybe even over a century..
Given the number of old, disused railway lines in Edinburgh that have become cycle tracks, I suppose that indicates how many train services there must have been in the city at one time.
there's an abandoned line runs up through the New Town, to the Waverley. You can still see a couple of the old Tunnels, one in the park at the foot of Scotland Street, and the other adjacent to the Tesco at Canonmills. There was a station, of course, at the back of the Caledonian Hotel at the West End, and a big goods yard more or less where the Fountain Park centre is now. Those are just a few examples.
Look at Glasgow, train stop pretty much every area.
Leith developed as a separate town. Railways went everywhere until the 1960s and when the station was built people didn't have other transport options. Railways were also very important for transporting industrial goods and Leith had more heavy industry than Edinburgh. It was/is also the port for Edinburgh so goods needed to be taken to and from Leith. This is what justified the building of the line into Leith itself.
Is this not the reason trainspotting was the title of Irvin Welsh’s book? Leith had been left to rot since and the closing of this station was testament to that. Begbie meets his drunken father as a kid in the disused station
Very interesting 🤔
The Central bar was part of the station, the waiting room or ticket office.
My parents both grew up in Leith and my mother told me there were day out trips for children from this station to the countryside (I suspect they would be to the Gifford or the Roslin lines) organised by the local churches.
My dad worked there till it closed as an electrician
Very interesting. Having walked up and down Leith Walk hundreds of times I never realised there was a train station there at one time. Ironic that a few decades later they built a tram rail service for hundreds of millions of pounds that services Leith.
Trainspotting at Leith Central
YLT
7my gran stayed in Duke St her house overlooked the back or maybe it was the side of the station every morning at 7am the hooter would go for start of shift, never gave the place much of a thought it was just a building I was just a bairn right enough
The inspiration for the name of the book 'Trainspotting' on which the film was based.
I read that it was used as a meeting place for gangs in the area.
@robertdoyle687 not as such, when it became derelict/abandoned it was a pretty grim place which attracted all form of delinquent types, but mostly drug users. Hence why Begbie is heard to say 'my dad is trainspotting' when he finds out that's where he is and what he's doing.
I always thought the name was due to Renton's bedroom wallpaper. Until now.
So sad.... All that work to build it and passengers used it for just under 50 years closed completely in under 70.....
Demolishing the trainshed was vandalism. It should have been listed and preserved.
Presumably built for the dock traffic.
Really sad to watch
\WE TRYED TO SAVE IT
Would have been better if the music was The Fakes, Production.
Damn right, class song
Pud says as above
PC agrees
Could Weep...
Jeez! Another lost station. Don't you guys save anything?
To be fair, this was an early casualty, as the local trains obviously didn't pay. It's hard to know what the trainshed could have been repurposed for, but at least the terminal building survives, even if it is just a supermarket.
Sadly we don't. There has been calls to reopen some of the lost lines but in most cases they are already built on. The Beeching cuts closed thousands of miles of track all over the UK. They should have kept the routes intact so they could be restored. The old routes do make for interesting walks.
Not in Tory Britain, ££££££££££
No , we are all immigrants now and don't care 👍👍
That's a huge station. A bit of an overkill, seemingly