Millerhill - what goes on there?

[ejstubbs]

Apologies for my ignorance about a local facility but can someone provide an up-to-date summary of who is using Millerhill for what these days?

I understand that the down side has largely been decommissioned and a good part of it given over to new tree planting. I believe there's also the incinerator/waste plant/recycling-and-energy-recovery-centre occupying or due to occupy part of that land.

I've read that there is still a permanent way maintenance facility on the site. Also that it's used for stabling of some DMU stock and diesel traction, plus mention of a maintenance facility for the EGIP 385s which supposedly was due to open autumn this year. However, that latter information came from a Wiki page which was last edited in August so it may be out of date by now, if it was ever accurate.

The reason for my sudden interest is that I've seen suggestions that a new 'active travel' (ie cycling) route could be run through that general area, to extend as far as Newcraighall the cycle path shortly due to open on the route of the old Edinburgh, Loanhead & Roslin branch. I'm unsure as to how such a proposal could fit in with current use and future plans for the Millerhill site - unless it was somehow able to make use of Whitehill Road, which passes round the eastern boundary of the site.

Anyone with knowledge of the site able to shed any light, or comment on this idea?

 

[Highlandspring]

Millerhill - although still just a shadow of its former self - has seen a bit of a revival in the last 18 months or so. DB Cargo and Network Rail had all but abandoned the site by late 2014 but thanks to a change of policy in NR the yard is now used as an infrastructure hub stabling, making up and forwarding engineering trains for the whole of Scotland. The land formerly occupied by the engineer's sidings/reclamation yard is now a large stabling point for ScotRail electric multiple units which opened last month. Wikipedia is inaccurate in that there are no locos or units actually allocated to Millerhill and the loco stabling point/fuel road closed a few years ago. I think the DB Cargo wagon shop might just be hanging on by the skin of its teeth though. Bilston Glen, Monktonhall colliery and the electrification depot are long gone. There is indeed an energy-from-waste plant on the down side.

 

[Ginaro]

There's some info on Millerhill EGIP on twitter: https://twitter.com/search?f=tweets&vertical=default&q=millerhill egip&src=typd Also came across this video (and channel) which shows the the route through the depot and the fact there's work going on.

Satellite imagery from Sep 2015 seems to show tracks being lifted from the bit south of Old Craighall road which extends towards the bypass.

As for a cycle route starting at the A6106 roundabout, here's the current route for getting to Newcraighall: https://www.openstreetmap.org/directions?engine=graphhopper_bicycle&route=55.9117,-3.0912;55.9347,-3.0922#map=14/55.9221/-3.0682 - as you can see it's not easy to plan a new route between them.

Whitehill Road to the east is severed at this point here by the loop coming off the ECML. To go in between the Borders Railway and Millerhill they'd have to connect Old Craighall Road to the access road at the energy facility, which then connects to Whitehill Road and under the A1. To the west I suppose it would need to be integrated with the construction of new houses near Shawfair, again not easy to plan a route though it could shadow the Borders Railway.

 

[Photohunter71]

There's still plenty of construction activity going on at Millerhill. The Hitachi facility is under way and as for the old Loanhead branch, isn't that being looked into for provision of passenger services for the southwest of Edinburgh etc to Loanhead/Penicuik?

 

[railjock]

Great video of Millerhill. Apart from the new emu area there’s not much going on there it seems.

I can’t see the loanhead/glencorse line ever bing re-opened.

 

[railjock]

If there were ever issues on the ECML around Musselburgh/Joppa could passenger trains divert ( slowly ) via Millerhill?

 

[Highlandspring]

Only once various hand points have been secured. And then you'd really struggle to get passenger drivers and particularly guards with appropriate route knowledge of thr yard. Sourcing route conductors would be tricky too. Believe it or not it's likely to be far easier to divert via the WCML, Carlisle and Hexham at short notice.

 

[ChiefPlanner]

Basically another Modernisation Scheme "White Elephant" - though maybe not as bad as Thornton Yard.

There was some (needed) rationalisation in the mid 1980's along with a local resignalling scheme - even then when we had Speedlink (and reasonable flows of Edinburgh area freight at Leith Goods) , the place was just a bit underused.

 

[Taunton]

Basically another Modernisation Scheme "White Elephant" - though maybe not as bad as Thornton Yard.

I was in Edinburgh in the 1970s and the place was pretty empty then, I wonder if it was ever used in any meaningful way. I can remember going to check it out one dismal winter weekend in what was probably early 1972 and it only seemed to be used as a dump for long lines of about half the total fleet of the Clayton Type 1 centre-cab locos, which had an equally unproductive short life.

Of course, building it on the Waverley Route, whose closure coincided with completion of the yard, didn't really help.

Bilston Glen colliery, nearby, was given as a user of the yard, but being a modern colliery it was all set up for merry-go-round, which is direct from colliery to power station, the main recipient being the equally modern Cockenzie power station, which is so close that it can be readily seen from the colliery buildings. This didn't stop trains being put through the yard, probably spending longer in there than on the actual journey (notwithstanding that a south-to-east curve was built at the south end of the yard explicitly to avoid this). Monktonhall, the other major colliery, is even closer, but when the branch into it was built the junction with the main line was built facing the wrong way, so everything had to go into Millerhill to reverse, doubling the trip distance. There had actually been an initial proposal for an overland conveyor belt between both Bilston Glen and Monktonhall and the power station, underneath the high voltage transmission lines from the power station that pass just north of Loanhead and the colliery, you would have thought that with rail just winning the work there would have been some effort to run it efficiently.

 

[NotATrainspott]

Only once various hand points have been secured. And then you'd really struggle to get passenger drivers and particularly guards with appropriate route knowledge of thr yard. Sourcing route conductors would be tricky too. Believe it or not it's likely to be far easier to divert via the WCML, Carlisle and Hexham at short notice.

IIRC the Millerhill loop will be part of the South Sub resignalling project, so in future it'll be ready for passenger trains to divert.

 

[GRALISTAIR]

My first time to Millerhill was August 1970. Saw a load of Claytons on there. Class 14 or 15 iirc

 

[Ginaro]

Some info on the EGIP changes: https://www.railengineer.uk/2018/01/18/egips-millerhill-milestone/