Westfield colliery to Kinglassie line status

[Inafinus]

I always look with interest at the Kinglassie line whenever I pass through Fife: https://railscot.co.uk/companies/W/Westfield_to_Kinglassie_Line_North_British_Railway/

For a line that is well and truly out of use, it is surprisingly intact – recent Street View and satellite images show surprisingly little vegetation, particularly towards the western end of the line, and the connection at Thornton appears to be in place. 'Westfield Colliery' is also still listed as a stop on RealTimeTrains.

What is the official status of this line (and how does one go about establishing such a thing)? I expect it's mothballed as it's a useful connection to the Westfield Energy Park – indeed, an "on-site rail halt (subject to modernisation)" is cited on the development's marketing suite: https://westfield-fife.co.uk/

I would add the Leith Docks branch as a similar Scottish line that intrigues me.

 

[simonw]

I always look with interest at the Kinglassie line whenever I pass through Fife: https://railscot.co.uk/companies/W/Westfield_to_Kinglassie_Line_North_British_Railway/

For a line that is well and truly out of use, it is surprisingly intact – recent Street View and satellite images show surprisingly little vegetation, particularly towards the western end of the line, and the connection at Thornton appears to be in place. 'Westfield Colliery' is also still listed as a stop on RealTimeTrains.

What is the official status of this line (and how does one go about establishing such a thing)? I expect it's mothballed as it's a useful connection to the Westfield Energy Park – indeed, an "on-site rail halt (subject to modernisation)" is cited on the development's marketing suite: https://westfield-fife.co.uk/

I would add the Leith Docks branch as a similar Scottish line that intrigues me.

Site of the (dreaded) Lurgi. Over 40 years I paid it a visit.

 

[Razorblades]

IIRC Westfield was the destination of an ICI traffic flow of LPG or liquefied coal gas from South Wales in the late 1960s, a service that brought WR (including named) Class 47s to Fife via the Waverley Route quite regularly. I guess the branch is yet another victim of the disastrous and shortsighted policy of deindustrialisation.

 

[Morayshire]

Branch is marked as out of use with track etc still in situ though.

 

[Adrian Barr]

It seems surprisingly difficult to find out the official status of disused freight branches like these beyond vague terms like "mothballed" or "disused." They get taken out of use and marked as "NOGO" or similar as seen on Tracksy, but after that it's a bit of a mystery.

Some videos that might be of interest (not especially recent but they can be compared to current google maps imagery):

Thornton coal train depot - DJI Flight | Fife-Flying (uploaded 2016)

Exploring Westfield - Part 1: Abandoned Open Cast Mine and Railway | Bogie on Patrol (uploaded 2017)

Exploring Westfield - Part 2: Abandoned Open Cast Mine and Railway | Bogie on Patrol (uploaded 2017)

Historical info and pictures on Railscot:
https://www.railscot.co.uk/locations/W/Westfield_Disposal_Point/

A search for "Thornton Junction" on YouTube brings up some interesting archive footage of the yard & stabling point from the late 80s / early 90s.

Archived flow data in TOPS suggests that the last coal despatched from Westfield was to Ratcliffe and Drax at the end of March 2007.
This is a nice picture from 2006 showing loaded HAAs passing Kinglassie destined for Drax:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/lickeybanker/16784370740/ (Photo: Don Gatehouse)

It seems funny that Westfield itself has since had the small gas-fired Fife power station opened, closed, and demolished - some pictures here on flickr - followed by the opening of the Westfield Energy Recovery Centre.

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I also find Leith Docks a somewhat mysterious location with an interesting railfreight history.

Ajaxnme has some good short videos of coal trains at Leith Docks. There are seven short videos that form a sequence, note that 3 and 7 were posted out of sequence at the bottom of the list of videos shown here:
https://www.youtube.com/@39a9l52a/videos
The date of filming isn't given, but was probably sometime between 2007 and 2013.

This picture shows HAAs still in use in 2005, being propelled into the docks to load for Cockenzie:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/lickeybanker/15903381062/ (Photo: Don Gatehouse)

And this photo shows loaded HTAs leaving the docks in 2009: https://www.flickr.com/photos/194562906@N08/51799678558/ (Photo: dave_hello)
A quick flick through some old copies of Freightmaster indicates regular imported coal traffic through Leith ended in early 2013 when Cockenzie power station closed, although there may have been some movements after that to other destinations.

This thread mentions that the last movements at Leith were in summer 2017 "to shunt some stored wagons that were being scrapped there."
https://www.railforums.co.uk/threads/leith-south-edinburgh.158871/

This interesting picture from 2009 shows both DB and Freightliner coal trains at Leith, with a stored "Eurospine" Piggyback wagon in the foreground:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/steve_b46/21707450700/ (Photo: Steven Brykajlo)
The KDA Eurospine Piggyback wagons were discussed in this thread on piggyback wagons.

The "last gasp" of railfreight traffic at Leith may have been this September 2017 movement of pipes from Hartlepool:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/keithmcgovern1/37740606926/ (Photo: Keith McGovern)

This 2019 video shows the condition of the Leith line at the time, although the claim that no trains have run since 2006 is clearly wrong:

The Abandoned South Leith harbour line in Edinburgh | Echo Delta

Historical info and pictures on Railscot:
https://www.railscot.co.uk/locations/L/Leith_South_Yard/

 

[The exile]

I also find Leith Docks a somewhat mysterious location with an interesting railfreight history.

The Leith stuff is making me feel old. I learned to ride a bike there (good practice for coping with tramlines - so some good future-proofing!) and can remember the occasional encounter with an 08 as far in as the Victoria Dock.