page_title: Edinburgh and Dalkeith Railway
section_title: Formation
hierarchical_section_title: Edinburgh and Dalkeith Railway / Formation
caption_attribution_description: English: The Edinburgh and Dalkeith Railway network showing presumed statuion locations
context_page_description: The Edinburgh and Dalkeith Railway was an early railway built to convey coal from pits in the vicinity of Dalkeith into the capital. It was a horse-operated line, with a terminus at St Leonards on the south side of Arthur's Seat.
  Opened in stages from 1831, it was Edinburgh's first railway, and used the track gauge of 4 ft 6 in, commonly used for mineral railways in Scotland. The entry into the terminus involved a passage through a tunnel on a rope-worked incline.
  It was not planned for passengers, but a trader operated passenger services and they were surprisingly successful, and the company later operated them itself.
  When intercity railways were being planned, the North British Railway wished to reach Carlisle from Edinburgh, and it purchased the Dalkeith line in 1845 to secure part of the route. The new owners altered the gauge to the standard 4 ft ​8 ¹⁄₂ in and laid stronger track for locomotive operation. Part of its main line became incorporated into the Waverley Route. Only a small section of the network remains open.
context_section_description: The city of Edinburgh had an accelerating demand for coal in the early years of the nineteenth century, rising from 200,000 tons per year in 1800 to 350,000 in 1830.
  Coal in the immediate locality was of poor quality and of limited quantity. Better coal was being brought in from Fife and Tyneside by coastal shipping, and from Monklands by the Union Canal. The Duke of Buccleuch had coal pits in the Dalkeith area with superior coal, but road transport to the capital cost 4 shillings per ton from a final delivery price of 11 to 17 shillings. A report prepared for him by his factor John Grieve proposed a railway from his pits to the city, with a branch to Fisherrow, a fishing harbour near Musselburgh.
  The Edinburgh and Dalkeith Railway Company received its Act of Parliament on 26 May 1826. It was designed as a horse-drawn railway, and its engineer, James Jardine, adopted the track gauge of 4 ft 6 in, which had been used in the West of Scotland. The line linked coal pits in the Dalkeith area to the city of Edinburgh, bringing coal for domestic and industrial use. The Edinburgh terminus was called St Leonards, located to the south of Salisbury Crags, in the area between the present-day St Leonard's Street and St Leonard's Bank.
  The original Act authorised share capital of £70,125; a second Act was obtained on 4 June 1829, authorising further share capital of £8,053, and sanctioning the Leith Branch. The third Act, on 27 June 1834, authorised a further £54,875 to build branches to Fisherrow, and "allowing a certain amount of passenger traffic by horse-drawn railway coaches".
  The line was designed by James Jardine, its engineer from 1826; the company's manager David Rankine also had an engineering role from the mid-1830s.
caption: System map of the Edinburgh and Dalkeith Railway
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