Leith South, Edinburgh

[rosscbrown]

I very occasionally hear (and once saw) a freight train going into Leith Docks. Realtime Trains give me the yard name as 'Leith South' - any idea how I can find out, in advance, of trains starting/terminating here?

It's an odd looking line, almost completely disused/overgrown and has a manual level crossing.

Would love to see it in action but trains, these days, seem to be a rarity!

 

[InOban]

Until a couple of years ago it was quite busy because coal for Cockenzie power station came in through Leith. No idea what might be using it now.

 

[Highlandspring]

There's no commercial traffic at all booked into Leith Docks now. The last few movements were in summer 2017 to shunt some stored wagons that were being scrapped there.

 

[route101]

Shame as the Powderhall line is disused now i think as well .

 

[Chrism20]

I live opposite the docks and used to see locos coming and going on a fairly regular basis. Nothing these days unfortunately.

 

[leightonbd]

Shame as the Powderhall line is disused now i think as well .

What has happened to the waste trains?

 

[takno]

What has happened to the waste trains?

The waste handling plant broke. The plan was to close it and transfer the operation to Millerhill in a year or so anyway with the new incinerator opening there, so I think they opted to just close it early.

 

[InOban]

The Powderhall track is still there, and didn't look noticeably rusty when I saw it from the top of a bus on Leith walk today.

 

[47271]

As I understand it the Powderhall site is scheduled for permanent closure at the end of this year and will be redeveloped for housing. I'm not sure if the plant, or the branch, is presently in use.

Interestingly one of the original EGIP options (and I'm going back ten or more years now) was for Powderhall to become a turnback for some Waverley terminators and get a passenger service. Nothing came of it of course, and to be honest I'm not sure that it would've been worthwhile.

 

[InOban]

This should be in the Infrastructure thread.

The EGIP proposal was to reinstate the North curve at abbeyhill to use to stable units between the peaks, I think. After that formation passes under London Road it split three ways - a west curve leading towards Powderhall, straight ahead which led down to Leith Central (a formation greatly breached, unfortunately) , and an East curve which joins the route from Powderhall to where it joins the ECML at Jock's Lodge.

 

[Highlandspring]

The Powderhall track is still there, and didn't look noticeably rusty when I saw it from the top of a bus on Leith walk today.

Powderhall waste terminal is closed - the last train ran in January 2017 and the branch was Network Changed out of use in October 2017.

 

[och aye]

There's no commercial traffic at all booked into Leith Docks now. The last few movements were in summer 2017 to shunt some stored wagons that were being scrapped there.

If the line is effectively out of use, I wonder if this could raise the possibility of the line being reused by (dare I say it) the trams as a fast link to Portobello and Musselburgh.