page_title: Mineral railways of Dunfermline
section_title: West of Fife Mineral Railway
hierarchical_section_title: Mineral railways of Dunfermline / West of Fife Mineral Railway
caption_attribution_description: English: System map of the West of Fife Mineral Railway, Scotland, in 1866
context_page_description: Several mineral railways were constructed around Dunfermline in western Fife, Scotland, in the eighteenth century and later. Their purpose was to convey minerals to market from the outcropping coal deposits that had encouraged industrial activity in the area from an early date.
  Several waggonways were built: the Fordell Railway, the Elgin Railway, the Halbeath Railway and others, with the objective of connecting collieries and quarries with harbours on the Firth of Forth. The Elgin Railway carried passengers from 1833 and formed the core of the Charlestown Railway and Harbour company, and finally in 1856 the West of Fife Mineral Railway was founded to build new lines. The Charleston and West of Fife companies combined to form the West of Fife Railway and Harbour.
  All the lines have ceased to exist, except that a short section of the Charlestown line forms part of the Inverkeithing to Dunfermline line.
context_section_description: As the extractive industries of West Fife developed, increasing numbers of pits needed a railway connection, and on 14 July 1856 the West of Fife Mineral Railway was authorised, to build a line between Dunfermline and Killairnie, on the way to Saline. Good quality blackband ironstone and limestone were known to be available as well as coal. The Dunfermline starting point was to be at or near the Elgin Railway Junction (which became Whitemyre Junction), and the termination was to be "at a Point in a Field or Enclosure on the Estate of Killairnie, adjoining the Junction of the Turnpike Road from Redcraigs to Saline, with the New Road leading there from to North Steelend". There was to be a branch to Kingseat. Authorised capital was £45,000, and passenger operation had been mentioned in the prospectus and was authorised in the Act, although passengers were never actually carried. It opened as far as Steelend on 25 June 1858. The opening of the West of Fife, which was a railway of standard gauge using modern wagons, offering direct transit onward to the main line network, changed the nature of the mineral lines in the area, and the old waggonway lines suffered.
  By a further Act of 27 July 1859 the West of Fife was authorised to extend to Roscobie, and finally an Act of 23 July 1860 to extend the Kingseat branch to Beath.
  Construction of the line to Loch Fittie (the Kingseat branch) was delayed owing to a dispute over mineral rights. Additional powers, the West of Fife Mineral Railway (Kingseat Extension) Act of 23 July 1860, were needed for the line when it was finally built; it was completed after the end of the independent existence of the company. It served new workings south of Loch Fitty; development of these deep pits allowed the life expired Halbeath pits to be abandoned. The terminal point of the Kingseat branch was close to the end of the Kinross-shire Railway, and the lines were connected by the Kinross-shire Railway when the West of Fife line was built. The Kingseat branch became the West of Fife main line with a greater volume of traffic than the Steelend line, where collieries were much slower to develop.
  The West of Fife wanted to get access to the harbour at Charlestown:
  The West of Fife Railway Company have just completed an arrangement, about which there has been of late considerable negotiation, whereby they acquire, at a cost we believe of £62,000, the Charlestown Railway from the Right Hon. the Earl of Elgin. The Charlestown Railway embraces the line from Dunfermline to Charlestown Harbour... There will, we understand, be considerable alterations effected by the new proprietors on the gradients of the Charlestown line, so as to make the railway more available than hitherto for passengers as well as for mineral traffic.
  On 1 August 1861 the West of Fife company merged with the Charlestown Railway and Harbour Company, and also the Elgin Railways, to form the West of Fife Railway and Harbour Company. Formal absorption was discussed in October 1858 and was formalised from 1 October 1861.
caption: The West of Fife Mineral Railway system
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