page_title: Caledonian Railway lines to Edinburgh
section_title: Improving the Edinburgh terminal
hierarchical_section_title: Caledonian Railway lines to Edinburgh / History / Improving the Edinburgh terminal
caption_attribution_description: English: Up empty stock train for Princes Street Station, passing Dalry Road Locomotive Depot. View SW, towards Carstairs etc.; ex-Caledonian Carstairs - Edinburgh Princes Street main line, which was closed on 6/9/65 from Slateford Junction and the trains diverted to Waverley via Haymarket, the Depot being closed on 3/10/65. (Dalry Road station was off to the left, on the Leith North Branch). The train is headed by LMS-type 4MT 2-6-4T No. 42273.
context_page_description: The Caledonian Railway lines to Edinburgh started with the main line that reached Edinburgh in 1848 as part of its route connecting the city with Glasgow and Carlisle. The potential of the docks at Granton and Leith led to branch line extensions, and residential development encouraged branch lines in what became the suburbs of Edinburgh. In 1869 a line was opened from Carfin through Shotts giving the Caledonian a shorter route between Glasgow and Edinburgh.
  In the twentieth century the industrial decline of the areas served resulted in closures. However the main line from Carstairs and the Glasgow route through Shotts have increased their passenger services considerably, and some reopenings of stations have taken place.
context_section_description: The first Edinburgh terminal may have been satisfactory when first designed at Lothian Road, but in practical use it was clearly inadequate for the important city: it had a single platform which served both arrivals and departures, and a two-road goods shed with a single loading platform. During 1865, the Caledonian was considering how to improve it, and the Company considered making arrangements with the North British Railway to use Waverley station. The Burgh Council of Edinburgh was anxious that there should be a single main station in the city. However the North British was hostile in principle, and the idea came to nothing. 
  Major extension was obviously essential, and on 2 May 1870 a new temporary station was opened adjacent to, and to the north of Lothian Road; it was named Princes Street. It was a wooden structure; the Caledonian was short of cash at this time and a more imposing terminal was not affordable. The passenger part of the station now had two platforms.
  During 1890 the wooden terminus building at Princes Street was partly dismantled in preparation for improvement, when on 16 June a fire broke out, substantially destroying much of the buildings. The new, spacious station accommodation was progressively brought into use in 1893 and 1894; it had nine platforms, and had cost over £250,000. Powers were obtained for building an adjacent hotel, but it was not opened, as the Caledonian Hotel, until December 1903.
caption: An empty stock train for Princes Street Station, passing Dalry Road Locomotive Depot in 1962
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