Glenfarg line closure

[jadmor]

Can anyone say how long the Glenfarg line remained in use for potato traffic? I recall being on a bus tour in the summer of either 1970 or1971 and seeing a small shunting engine (like a class 03) near Milnathort.

 

[Gloster]

According to Hurst’s Register, the line north of Milnathort closed completely on 5 January 1970, the same day as the passenger service was withdrawn throughout. The line from Kelty North Junction to Milnathort closed to goods on 4 May 1970.

Probably an 06 as they were the main small type around there; I think that the 05 had already gone.

 

[D6130]

Can anyone say how long the Glenfarg line remained in use for potato traffic? I recall being on a bus tour in the summer of either 1970 or1971 and seeing a small shunting engine (like a class 03) near Milnathort.

It may have been a contractor's locomotive assisting with the dismantling of the line, which was done pretty swiftly to allow construction of the M90 motorway to get underway.

 

[jadmor]

That does seem the likeliest answer.

 

[Razorblades]

While I can buy into the contractor's locomotive angle, if it were me I'd wonder if I was mis-remembering a Class 06 on one of the other 'local' Fife/ Kinross/ Clackmannan branches that were still operational around that time. I'd need to research the lifting of the Perth Direct but it wouldn't surprise me if Haymarket's main line traction and an outstationed 08 weren't 100% responsible for the recovery work.

 

[D6130]

While I can buy into the contractor's locomotive angle, if it were me I'd wonder if I was mis-remembering a Class 06 on one of the other 'local' Fife/ Kinross/ Clackmannan branches that were still operational around that time. I'd need to research the lifting of the Perth Direct but it wouldn't surprise me if Haymarket's main line traction and an outstationed 08 weren't 100% responsible for the recovery work.

I can recall seeing a photo many years ago of a class 26 hauling a train of flat wagons loaded with 60 foot track panels coming off the Perth line at Kelty Junction.

 

[Razorblades]

I can recall seeing a photo many years ago of a class 26 hauling a train of flat wagons loaded with 60 foot track panels coming off the Perth line at Kelty Junction.

Touch Jct, Cowdenbeath I reckon, but I'm being too finnicky!

 

[D6130]

Touch Jct, Cowdenbeath I reckon, but I'm being too finnicky!

Yes, I reckon you're probably right. Touch South?

 

[Razorblades]

Yes, I reckon you're probably right. Touch South?

That's the baby!

 

[cadder toad]

Touch Jct, Cowdenbeath I reckon, but I'm being too finnicky!

Touch South and Touch North were in Dunfermline, forming a triangle with Townhill Junction. The curve from TS to TN allowed trains to go directly from Forth Bridge to Stirling. I can't remember the name of the junction in Cowdenbeath that led to Glenfarg.

 

[Razorblades]

Touch South and Touch North were in Dunfermline, forming a triangle with Townhill Junction. The curve from TS to TN allowed trains to go directly from Forth Bridge to Stirling. I can't remember the name of the junction in Cowdenbeath that led to Glenfarg.

You're absolutely right, I was misremembering Touch Jcts from a W/T/T. They're as you describe, in deepest Dunfermline. The correct junction was Cowdenbeath North Jct.

 

[cadder toad]

You're absolutely right, I was misremembering Touch Jcts from a W/T/T. They're as you describe, in deepest Dunfermline. The correct junction was Cowdenbeath North Jct.

Touch being pronounced, locally at least, as Too-ch. Ch as in loch

 

[MadMac]

Touch South and Touch North were in Dunfermline, forming a triangle with Townhill Junction. The curve from TS to TN allowed trains to go directly from Forth Bridge to Stirling. I can't remember the name of the junction in Cowdenbeath that led to Glenfarg.

It was apparently perfectly possible to get off at Dunfermline Upper, walk to Dunfermline Lower and catch the same train.

 

[jadmor]

It was apparently perfectly possible to get off at Dunfermline Upper, walk to Dunfermline Lower and catch the same train.

There was a DMU service from Waverley in the 60s that ran in 3 portions in the early evening to Dunfermline Lower, then divided. From memory, the first ran to Leven, the second to Perth and the third to Stirling. I don't have the timetable to hand, but I worked out once that it took about 30 or so minutes for the last portion to reach Upper station.

 

[MadMac]

There was a DMU service from Waverley in the 60s that ran in 3 portions in the early evening to Dunfermline Lower, then divided. From memory, the first ran to Leven, the second to Perth and the third to Stirling. I don't have the timetable to hand, but I worked out once that it took about 30 or so minutes for the last portion to reach Upper station.

5:33 PM ex Waverley.

 

[Razorblades]

5:33 PM ex Waverley.

Fabulous document linked there, cheers! What a network the counties of Fife, Kinross, Clackmannan and Perthshire used to have.

 

[Taunton]

My recollection from the 1970s was that after the Glenfarg line had been closed, Edinburgh to Perth/Inverness services were actually sent round via Stirling, a big diversion. The line through Newburgh seemed to go through phases of being used and not used; it did have the advantage of serving on the way the largest town in Fife, Kirkcaldy.

 

[jadmor]

My recollection from the 1970s was that after the Glenfarg line had been closed, Edinburgh to Perth/Inverness services were actually sent round via Stirling, a big diversion. The line through Newburgh seemed to go through phases of being used and not used; it did have the advantage of serving on the way the largest town in Fife, Kirkcaldy.

The Inverness service began running via Newburgh in 1975 (?) But there was no regular Perth service via Kirkcaldy until well into this century. Another post speculated that the line only escaped closure because telecom cables were routed this way.

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 10 Jul 2025 ==

Touch Jct, Cowdenbeath I reckon, but I'm being too finnicky!

Lumphinnans Junction for the new Perth line?

 

[Razorblades]

The Inverness service began running via Newburgh in 1975 (?) But there was no regular Perth service via Kirkcaldy until well into this century. Another post speculated that the line only escaped closure because telecom cables were routed this way.

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 10 Jul 2025 ==


Lumphinnans Junction for the new Perth line?

Cowdenbeath North Jct. I corrected myself some time after that post!!!

 

[MadMac]

The Inverness service began running via Newburgh in 1975 (?) But there was no regular Perth service via Kirkcaldy until well into this century. Another post speculated that the line only escaped closure because telecom cables were routed this way.

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 10 Jul 2025 ==


Lumphinnans Junction for the new Perth line?

It might have been me who posted the Telecomms cable one. Apparently it was cheaper to just keep it open than pay all the wayleaves that would have been needed.

 

[D6130]

Another post speculated that the line only escaped closure because telecom cables were routed this way.

More likely because it served Clatchard Craig quarry which, back in the day, provided most of the railway ballast for the East of Scotland. The quarry is still active in private hands but - although it is right next to the railway - no longer uses rail transport.

 

[Gloster]

The Newburgh line was closed for a year from January 1966 following a landslip between Newburgh and Clatchard Craig Quarry: the former was served by a trip from Perth and the latter from Ladybank. The quarry seems to have remained in rail use until at least 1987.

 

[Razorblades]

Oh the broader subject of the Perth Direct, I am struck by the relative paucity of photographs of the line, especially in its last couple of years. It was picturesque at least in part, and very easy to access. Did photographers and enthusiasts just take it for granted, I wonder?

 

[Gloster]

Oh the broader subject of the Perth Direct, I am struck by the relative paucity of photographs of the line, especially in its last couple of years. It was picturesque at least in part, and very easy to access. Did photographers and enthusiasts just take it for granted, I wonder?

The line was closed less than eighteen months after the end of steam and there seems to have been a general sense of exhaustion by many railway photographers. After a number of years of dashing around photographing steam, when the loco is the thing, there was a lack of interest of in grabbing photos of just another diesel on just another railway, even one that will soon be gone. And in the years before the end of steam trains on it would only be photographed if they were steam, which appears to have been the exception.

(I was too young, but this is how I think it was.)

 

[Razorblades]

The line was closed less than eighteen months after the end of steam and there seems to have been a general sense of exhaustion by many railway photographers. After a number of years of dashing around photographing steam, when the loco is the thing, there was a lack of interest of in grabbing photos of just another diesel on just another railway, even one that will soon be gone. And in the years before the end of steam trains on it would only be photographed if they were steam, which appears to have been the exception.

(I was too young, but this is how I think it was.)

Me too, that about sums it up. Fortunately (for me at least), the Waverley route was far better chronicled, even after its last steam working in November 1967 and the total extermination of BR steam five months before it closed. I would attribute this to the length of the route and its intermediate stops compared to the Cowdenbeath North - Bridge of Earn link too.

 

[Sun Chariot]

Oh the broader subject of the Perth Direct, I am struck by the relative paucity of photographs of the line, especially in its last couple of years. It was picturesque at least in part, and very easy to access. Did photographers and enthusiasts just take it for granted, I wonder?

Bill Verden Anderson and Derek Cross had photos published of 1960s steam trains on the Glenfarg route. Anderson took a lovely colour shot of a steam-wreathed A3 in the snow, on its climb to the summit; published in Scottish Steam.

The photographers' focus, I rather imagine, was on the 3 hour express services twixt Glasgow Buchanan St and Aberdeen. The old Caley Main Line - and the tempting diet of Gresley's and Peppercorn's Pacifics, coupled with a more photogenic vista - made for a richer selection of '60s photos.

 

[Razorblades]

Bill Verden Anderson and Derek Cross had photos published of 1960s steam trains on the Glenfarg route. Anderson took a lovely colour shot of a steam-wreathed A3 in the snow, on its climb to the summit; published in Scottish Steam.

The photographers' focus, I rather imagine, was on the 3 hour express services twixt Glasgow Buchanan St and Aberdeen. The old Caley Main Line - and the tempting diet of Gresley's and Peppercorn's Pacifics, coupled with a more photogenic vista - made for a richer selection of '60s photos.

Natural, I suppose. My interests are far more prosaic, much as I love the final fling of the Strathmore, it's the Class 29s on that route's last day that give me shivers. Same on the Strathspey, Class 24s and 26s in the route's final freight only period are what really get the imagination going.

On the Glenfarg route, Anderson and Cross captured the Kings Cross - Perth car sleeper behind Class 47s, and elsewhere on Flickr is a shot of a Highland 24/1 climbing towards Arngask from Bridge of Earn where the M90 is today. These forgotten twilight eras are simply beyond furtive!

 

[Sun Chariot]

On the Glenfarg route, Anderson and Cross captured the Kings Cross - Perth car sleeper behind Class 47s, and elsewhere on Flickr is a shot of a Highland 24/1 climbing towards Arngask from Bridge of Earn where the M90 is today. These forgotten twilight eras are simply beyond furtive!

Whenever I've driven the M90 where it sits on the old railway route, I am very guilty of making 3-cylinder type sounds with my mouth as I drive. Much to my passengers' disdain!

 

[Razorblades]

Whenever I've driven the M90 where it sits on the old railway route, I am very guilty of making 3-cylinder type sounds with my mouth as I drive. Much to my passengers' disdain!

My advice, make a choice of more discerning passengers!

(Full disclosure, I make Sulzer Type 2 noises on the A6091 Melrose by-pass)

 

[Sun Chariot]

(Full disclosure, I make Sulzer Type 2 noises on the A6091 Melrose by-pass)

With full notch up effects, I hope!